Easy to Prepare Hawaiian Seaweed Recipes

Hawaiian seaweed recipes are simple but tasty. Hawaiians sure know how to create yummy dishes! I've enjoyed family dinners when Pat, my Hawaiian brother-in-law, whips up his island dishes for all of us to enjoy. Here are three of my favorites:

Ahi Poke is an easy-to-prepare Hawaiian seaweed recipe you can try at home. I borrowed it from our Hawaiian guy in the family, Pat. Since Pat hasn't had the time to put the recipe on video, I've taken the liberty of including the recipe video from Ty Mahler of Roy's Restaurant. If you love sashimi, you'll surely love the way Hawaiians prepare their fresh tuna!

8 ounces fresh ahi fillet, diced 3/4 inch

1/2 cup Maui onion or red onion, chopped

1/2 cup ogo (red/brown seaweed)

2 stalks green onion, sliced

1 tsp. Sesame oil

2 tsp. Soy sauce

3/4 tsp. Hawaiian rock salt (coarse sea salt)

What to do

Mix all the ingredients together and refrigerate overnight. The next day, serve on a bed of greens and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. You can also serve this immediately after mixing.

Mochiko chicken is another delicious Hawaiian dish. I've never been to Hawaii but after trying out some Hawaiian recipes prepared by Pat, it comes to a surprise that Hawaiians sure know how to mix in their flavors! If you want to try out a new chicken recipe, try out something different - fried chicken with a twist! The plates will be empty in two hula shakes! Aloha!

By the way, the secret to its wonderful flavor is the Mochiko flour. If you do not have it, I suggest you not substitute with some other flour. It just won't taste the same.

What you need

2 lb Chicken thighs (or your favorite part)4T Cornstarch

4T Mochiko flour (sweet rice flour)

4T Sugar

5T Shoyu (soy sauce)

2 Eggs

1/2t Salt

1c water

2 Cloves garlic

1/4c Green onion

Nori Sheets (seaweed)

1 tsp Ginger (optional)

One thing good about this recipe is the chicken can be served hot or cold! It makes a great picnic snack.

Do not reuse the marinade. Discard immediately.

Spam Musubi isn't in the healthy category since the main ingredient is Spam but we've included it anyway because it has nori seaweed. It is a yummmmmy Hawaiian treat. In fact, it is so yummy, that Hawaiians consume about four million cans of Spam per year. Now that's a lot of Spam Musubis!

Since not all of us have the chance to go to Hawaii, here's Hawaii on a plate. There are lots of variations of this Spam delicacy :-) but the one we have below is pretty basic.

What you need

3 cups uncooked short-grain (or medium-grain) white rice

4 cups water

6 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 (12 ounce) container fully cooked Spam (don't throw the can!)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup mirin

1/4 cup white sugar

5 sheets sushi nori (dry seaweed)

handy to have a Spam Musubi Press

What to do

Wash the rice and place in a saucepan with water, soaking it for thirty minutes. Drain and rinse. Easiest is to cook it in a rice cooker but If you do not have one, place rice and water into a large enough saucepan and cook over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil then put to low fire. Simmer, covered for about 15 minutes. (If you want to add rice vinegar, stir in before you turn off the heat.) Turn off the heat and just leave the pan covered for another fifteen minutes.

While waiting for the rice to cool, we work on the spam!

Cut Spam to about 1/4 inch thick slices. Fry over medium heat until brown and slightly crispy (yum). No need to add oil before frying since Spam contains some oil. When you're done, it is best to put the Spam slices on paper towels to get the excess oils away.

In a small saucepan, add soy sauce, rice wine and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil using high heat. When done, place the Spam slices in the marinade.

Put a piece of nori on a plate. Then position the Spam Musubi Press at the center of the nori. No Musubi press? Use the empty Spam can (I asked you not to throw it away) by opening both sides - voila! a makeshift musubi mold!

Spread cooked rice across the bottom of the musubi press and, well, press the rice down to make it compact. The thickness of rice is up to you. Place Spam on top of the rice and add rice on top of the Spam, if you want. Remove the Musubi from the press by lifting the mould up and over the stamp-like press.

You've got the rice and Spam stack in front of you. Now it's time to wrap things up, literally, with the nori sheet. Don't forget to wet one end of the nori to make it neatly stick into place.

How about being creative? Create round spam musubi! :-)

Let's go Hawaiian! Get that Hawaiian shirt out of the closet, play the theme of Hawaii Five-O and hula your way to the kitchen - Aloha!