Da Kine Mac Salad

My fiance and I love all things Hawaiian, including food and drink, but also history and culture. We watched a great documentary the other night on the last Queen of Hawai`i, Lili'ukolani, and perhaps that was the reason he was craving some mac salad. In Hawai`i, the plate lunch has been a staple of mid-day dining since the sugar plantation days, when immigrants from Asia were brought to the islands to work the fields. At lunch, they would share their food, and in doing so share their culture. A Japanese worker might share his teriyaki or katsu, while a Korean worker might offer up some of his kalbi or ribs. Filipino workers brought their adobo, the Chinese contributed noodle dishes, and the Hawaiian workers shared their Kalau pig. In doing so, everyone's lunch became a series of small portions of many items. The concept became ingrained in Hawaiian culture, and now the plate lunch can be found anywhere you go. A classic plate lunch consists of 2 scoops of white 'sticky' rice, 1 scoop of macaroni salad, and at least one (usually more) different pan-Asian entree items.

Some mac salad can be very complex, with everything but the kitchen sink included. But in a plate lunch, I like it to be simple, so it doesn't compete with the flavors of the main dishes. So we stuck with a simple recipe adapted from AlohaWorld.com:

Da Kine Mac Salad
1 Bag macaroni
2 Scoops mayo
1 Med red onion (peeled)
1 Carrot (peeled)
Salt & pepper to taste

First of all go boil da water for da macaroni. While boiling, throw in da macaroni with some salt. Ok, while this is cooking over there, start chopping your onion and carrot, for the carrot I just grate um , more fast and more easy but I chop da onion. Small kine cryin going on. Then strain da macaroni with hot water I use hot water so da macaroni no be all wet and make the salad watery. Then throw everything in one big bambutcha bowl. Mix it all up. The mayo varies on how ~mushy~ you like it ! Serve cold.

(adapted from AlohaWorld.com

Shrimp with Coconut Curry Sauce

This recipe is deceptively easy and fast to make, but the results are a dish with a good complex mix of flavors. The ease of the dish was revealed when I came home from work with lower back pain, and my fiance stepped in to make dinner. He worried it would be difficult, but I joined him in the kitchen (in a chair) and dinner came together really quickly. The hardest thing was probably getting the cans of coconut milk open, since he still hasn't mastered the SafetyCan.

Shrimp with Coconut Curry Sauce
1/4 pound butter
1 large white onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, cut in 1/2 inch chunks
1/2 cup flour
2 Tbspn curry powder
1 cup milk
1 lemon grass
2 cans unsweetened coconut milk
3 cups shelled, deveined, cooked shrimp
Salt & Pepper to taste
chopped green onions
Hot cooked rice

Melt butter in large skillet on medium heat. Add onion and red bell pepper and cook until onion is transluscent. Stir in flour slowly. Add curry powder. Slowly add plain milk, blending into a roux. Add lemon grass whole. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture becomes very thick (which is almost immediate). Add coconut milk, stirring until consistency of thick cream sauce. Remove lemon grass. Add shrimp and salt & pepper to taste. Continue cooking until shrimp are heated through. Serve over hot rice. Sprinkle with green onion.

(adapted from 'Best of the Best from Hawaii Cookbook')

Veggie Sausage Hoagie

We've made vegetarian meatball subs in the past, and intended to do the same again, but we ended up getting the wrong kind of sausage. We've recently switched to doing most of our shopping from Safeway.com, but it has it's risks. Sometimes, their site content isn't very complete (no images, bad descriptions), and when we order those items it's a bit of a gamble. This time, we didn't get what we expected, but went ahead and made the sandwiches anyway, which were still very tasty.

Vegetarian Sausage Italian Hoagie
Field Roast Vegetarian Sausage
Fresh Mozzarella
Marinara
Red Onion
Red Bell Pepper
French Bread

Julienne onion and pepper and throw in a skillet on medium heat. Cook until softened. Heat marinara in microwave (why dirty another pot?). Heat sausage through under broiler. Cut french bread in half lengthwise, then slick halfway through to create bun (we didn't have rolls but had a loaf of bread). Cut mozzarella into 6 thin slices. Put hot sausage in bun, cover with onion & peppers, smother in hot marinara, and top each with 3 slices of mozzarella. Put back under broiler untl cheese is melting and bread is toasted.

Oscar Dinner

My wonderful fiance is a huge film buff, so every February he usually tries to see as many Oscar nominated films and shorts as he can prior to the Academy Awards. This year, he didn't see as many as usual, but we still stuck with his tradition of watching the awards with his parents and sisters. Last year, we did a hawaiian theme dinner, but this year we went with Italian cuisine. Red wine was flowing, we had lots of hors d'oeuvres and lasagne, and we finished the night with some cannolis from our local Italian bakery, Borracchini's.

Caprese Salad
Roma Tomatoes sliced
Yellow Heirloom Tomatoes sliced
Buffalo Mozzarella sliced
Fresh Basil
Drizzle of Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Olive Tapenade
1 cup pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup pimento olives
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 Tbspn olive oil

Thow all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped but not blended smooth. Serve with crackers.

Lazy Girl's Lasagna
1 32 oz jar pasta sauce
1 cup red wine
3 cups ricotta
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbspn mix of dried oregano, basil, and parsley
1 large egg, beaten
1 tspn salt
1 tspn pepper
1 tspn freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 bag of frozen chopped spinach
1 lb dried precooked lasagna noodles
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded parmesan


Preheat oven to 375. Heat spinach in a covered pan over medium heat. In a pitcher (to make pouring easy later), combine spaghetti sauce with wine. In a medium mixing bowl, combine ricotta, garlic, dried herbs, egg, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. In a 13 x 9 baking pan, pour in enough sauce to make 1/2 inch layer. Follow with a layer of slightly overlapping noodles. Next, add a layer of the ricotta mixture, a layer of spinach, a layer of sauce, and another layer of noodles, another of ricotta, and so forth, alternating until about a 1/2 inch from the top of the pan. Top off with the remaining sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is slightly browned and bubbling. Remove the lasagna from the oven and allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving, to ensure nice clean slices.

(tapenade and lasagna adapted from Cheap & Easy: A Cookbook for Girls on the Go