Mussels with Garlic Tomato Sauce

This is a very simple recipe that my daughter, Hannah, created for dinner one evening. (Have I mentioned that she’s a natural in the kitchen? Proud mama moment.) 😀

Hannah did not measure her ingredients as she just threw everything together.  Luckily, you can “taste your way through this one.” 🙂

You’ll need a box of frozen mussels (thawed out), two large cans of tomato sauce, garlic (as much as you like), and some Dashida seasoning (or use salt), to taste.

Place the tomato sauce and garlic in a large pot over medium heat.  Season the sauce with Dashida (or salt).  Once the sauce is seasoned to your liking, add the thawed mussels.  Cook for a few minutes until the mussels are no longer raw.

Serve as-is or over a bed of cooked spaghetti noodles.

ENJOY!

tomato mussels

Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn’t love a good chocolate cookie?  Not only are these scrumptious cookies made with good quality cocoa powder, it’s doubly delicious with the addition of chunks of good quality bittersweet chocolate.  You can use semi-sweet chocolate chunks instead of bittersweet, but bittersweet chocolate gives you a very intense chocolate flavor that can’t be beat. cookies1
These delicious cookies are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. cookies2

Enjoy them with a tall glass of cold milk.  My kids sure did! 🙂

cookies3  cookies4

Make ice cream sandwiches IF you have any leftovers!

Give my recipe a try.  I think you’ll like it. 🙂

Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup granulated sugar (for dough)
  • ½ cup granulated sugar (for coating the cookie)
  • 1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup dark corn syrup
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1½ sticks unsalted butter
  • ⅓ cup packed light brown sugar
  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate pieces (may substitute with semi-sweet chocolate)
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place ½ cup sugar in a shallow dish.
  2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the remaining ⅓ cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and butter.
  3. Mix together the egg white, corn syrup, and vanilla extract. Add to the butter-sugar mixture.
  4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Add to the butter-sugar mixture.
  5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then slowly mix in the chocolate pieces.
  6. Using a small cookie scoop (one that holds about 1 tablespoon of dough), drop scoops into the dish containing the ½ cup sugar to be used for coating. Roll the cookie dough in the sugar until it's entirely coated in sugar. Place balls of sugar-coated dough 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.
  7. Bake for 10-11 minutes (do not bake any longer!). Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then remove them to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
Enjoy!

 

Spicy Crackers

This is a quick and easy snack to make.  My kids love to munch on these after school or while watching their favorite television show.  You can use any size crackers, but I like using either miniature saltines or oyster crackers since they’re small enough to pop a handful into your mouth.

Give my recipe a try.  I think you’ll like it.

spicy crackers

 

spicy crackers 2

Chicken Chalakiles

Chicken Chalakiles is one of my favorite Chamorro comfort foods.  It’s a soup made with chicken, onions and garlic, thickened with toasted ground rice, and made even more rich with the addition of coconut milk.

Chalakiles can be served as your main dish or as a soup served before your entrée.

I make my Chalakiles the way my mom taught me — with freshly toasted and ground rice.  A quick and easy substitute is to use Cream of Rice instead. Toasting rice is easy.  Place the rice in a skillet over medium heat.  Cook until the rice turns golden brown, stirring constantly to prevent any rice from over-browning (and burning).

Let the rice cool for a few minutes then place in a food processor (I have a mini food chopper/grinder that works well).

Grind the rice into a mixture that looks like cornmeal.  A few large pieces of rice is okay; it will add texture to your Chalakiles once cooked.  Set the ground rice aside.

Place your chicken into a large soup pot.  You can cut the chicken to your desired size.  I diced them small here so that we could have more of a soup. My mom would use chicken drummettes or leave the chicken pieces whole if we served this as a meal.  She’d make it more on the soupy side as well so that we could also serve this with some steamed rice. Cook the chicken with onions, garlic, coconut oil and black pepper.

Once the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink, add chicken broth (or water and chicken seasoning), achote powder, and the ground toasted rice.

Bring the mixture to a boil; cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes (keep the pot uncovered).  Stirring occasionally to prevent the rice from settling and sticking to the bottom of the pot.

This is what the Chalakiles looks like after the rice is done.  The mixture is quite thick at this point, but will thin down once you stir in the coconut milk.

Stir in the coconut milk.  Cook for another couple of minutes, just long enough to heat up the mixture after adding the milk.  Remove from the heat.

If you want a thinner soup, either add more water or another can of coconut milk.  Taste and adjust the seasonings to your liking.

My recipe makes enough for a family of four plus enough leftover for lunch the next day. Serve and ENJOY!

 

Chicken Chalakiles
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
A savory soup made with chicken and ground toasted rice.
Author:
Serves: 8 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 cups uncooked rice
  • 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
  • 3 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
  • 1 med onion, diced
  • 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons chicken seasoning*
  • 10 cups water*
  • 1 packet achote powder
  • 1 can (14-oz) coconut milk
  • Red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)


  • *Note: You can use chicken broth instead of water; omit the water AND chicken seasoning if using chicken broth.
Instructions
  1. Place the uncooked rice in a skillet over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes until the rice is evenly browned, stirring occasionally to ensure even browning. Let the toasted rice cool then grind in a food processor until you get the consistency of cornmeal. Set aside.
  2. Place the chicken, onion, garlic, coconut oil and black pepper into a large soup pot. Cook over medium heat until the chicken is no longer pink.
  3. Add the chicken seasoning, water, achote powder and ground rice to the pot. Stir to combine the ingredients then bring the mixture to a boil. Cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Stir in the coconut milk; cook for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat.
Serve and ENJOY!

 

Miso Donne’ Dinanche (Miso Pepper Sauce)

Donne’ Dinanche, or a hot pepper paste, has many variations.  It can be made with just peppers and no other seasoning, or you can add other ingredients such as onions, garlic, coconut milk, vegetables, crab paste and lemon juice.

One variation that is quite popular — tasty too — adds miso paste to the mixture.

The resulting sauce — it’s more like a thick paste — is a spicy, salty, savory mixture that goes perfectly with grilled meat (or any meat dish, really) and hot steamed white rice.

Give my easy recipe a try.  If you like spicy condiments, you’ll like this one. 🙂

These are some of the ingredients I used — a Japanese long purple eggplant (although any eggplant will do), yellow onions, fresh green beans, garlic (not pictured), lemon powder (not pictured) and ready-made Tinian donne’ dinanche.

You can make your own donne’ dinanche if you don’t have any of the pre-packaged kind.  Use a blender you’re willing to dedicate solely for grinding peppers; using the blender for after you use it to grind peppers will most likely add a spice to the other food.  I don’t know about you but spicy smoothies don’t taste all that good to me.  Blend about 3 cups of hot chili peppers, adding a few spoonfuls of some sort of liquid–coconut oil, lemon juice or water–if the blender is not grinding the peppers into a smooth consistency.

If you’d rather not use your blender to grind peppers, mince the fresh peppers as finely as you can.  You could also substitute the fresh pepper mixture with dried pepper flakes that you can buy in an Asian store.  Ask the store clerk for the dried pepper flakes commonly used to make kimchi.

Add the eggplant, onions, garlic, and coconut oil to a large frying pan.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the vegetables from sticking to the bottom of the pan and to prevent burning.

Cook for 5-7 minutes or until the onions and eggplant soften.  Press the mixture with the back of your cooking spoon to start to mash the mixture — you don’t want to mash it completely, but the final consistency should be a spreadable, paste-like mixture.

Add the beans to the pan.  Cook for a few minutes until the beans soften.

Add the miso to the pan.

Stir the mixture to combine all the ingredients together.  Cook for a few more minutes, pressing down with your cooking spoon to mash any large pieces.

Turn the heat off then mix in the donne’ dinanche (mashed hot peppers).  Be careful — ensure your cooking area is well-ventilated.  The fumes from cooking pepper are quite potent!

Taste the mixture.  Add lemon powder or freshly squeezed lemon juice if you want to cut back on the saltiness.

Serve with BBQ meat (or your favorite meat dish), hot steamed rice and ENJOY!

Miso Donne' Dinanche (Miso Pepper Sauce)
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
A spicy concoction with hot chili peppers, garlic, and the saltiness of miso paste ~ it's perfect with any meat dish.
Author:
Serves: 2½ cups
Ingredients
  • 1 large Japanese purple eggplant (or 2 medium)
  • 1 small onion, finely diced
  • 4 tablespoons chopped garlic
  • 4 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 1 cup fresh green beans, thinly sliced
  • 1½ cups Japanese miso paste
  • 3 tablespoons donne' dinanche (mashed hot chili peppers)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon powder, optional
Instructions
  1. Dice the eggplant into small pieces; place in a large frying pan. Add the onion, garlic and coconut oil to the pan. Sauté over medium-high heat until the onions are translucent and the eggplant softens, about 5-7 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the bottom from sticking to the pan and burning.
  2. Add the beans to the pan; stir to combine. Cook another 5 minutes to soften the beans. Add an additional tablespoon of coconut oil if the mixture appears too dry and is sticking to the pan.
  3. Add the miso paste; stir to combine. Mash the mixture slightly with the back of your cooking spoon.
  4. Add the pepper paste to the pan then turn off the heat (ensure your cooking area is well-ventilated when you add the pepper).
  5. Add lemon powder, to taste (optional).
« Older Entries Recent Entries »