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Red Rice

Posted on February 8, 2014 by AnniesChamorroKitchen 104 comments

Red Rice is a must-have for any Chamorro Fiesta menu. Without red rice, it just won’t seem much like a fiesta.

You don’t need to go to a party or fiesta to enjoy this Chamorro staple. My family loves red rice served with fried chicken, or pan-fried Spam. 🙂

Some people add peas to their red rice, but I like mine without it.

Serve some Chamorro Red Rice at your next gathering for that extra special touch.

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

Red Rice

Ingredients:

3 cups rice (medium or long grain)
1 tablespoon Dashida seasoning
1 tablespoon bacon fat (or substitute with olive or vegetable oil)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
4 stalks green onions, sliced
1 packet achote powder (see note below)
3 1/2 cups hot water (see note below)

To make 10 cups of red rice (enough for a small BBQ), use the following measurements:

10 cups rice
3 tablespoons Dashida
3 tablespoons bacon fat
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
8 stalks green onions, sliced
3 packets achote powder
11 1/2 cups hot water

Note:

You can use achote water made with achote seeds instead of using powdered achote. Scrub about 1/4 cup of achote seeds in 3 1/2 cups warm water. Add the achote water (make sure to strain out the seeds and add just the achote water) to the pot where the directions call for adding water and achote powder.

Directions:

1. Place the rice into your rice cooker pot. Rinse the rice as required, draining out any excess water.

2. Into the pot, add the Dashida, bacon fat, black pepper, garlic, and achote powder. If you don’t have any saved bacon fat, substitute with olive or vegetable oil. 3. Add the green onions to the pot. 4. Carefully pour the hot water into the pot. Stir to combine all the ingredients and to dissolve the achote powder and Dashida. The bacon fat will start to melt; don’t worry if it doesn’t completely melt at this time.

Turn the rice cooker to the “cook” setting. The only thing left to do is to stir the rice a couple more times. Wait a couple of minutes then stir to ensure even mixing after the bacon fat melted. Wait another 5 minutes or so and stir once more to ensure the rice at the bottom of the pot is evenly coated with achote coloring.

After stirring the rice for a second time, leave the rice to cook/steam until done.

5. Serve with your favorite meat dish (Chamorro BBQ, fried chicken, or pan-fried Spam goes fantastic with red rice!) and ENJOY! 😀

Posted in Åggon (Starch), CHAMORRO DISHES, Christmas, Easter, SIDES, Thanksgiving

Buñelos Dågu

Posted on October 26, 2013 by AnniesChamorroKitchen 23 comments

If you had to list your favorite Christmas food, what would they be? I’d have too many to list since I have quite a few favorites, but up near the top would be Buñelos Dågu.

A delicious treat, these fried yam donuts, or Buñelos Dågu in Chamorro, are synonymous with Christmas. This is perhaps because the yams are harvested during the Christmas season.

There are several varieties of yams that you can use to make these donuts. If you live on Guam or the other Mariana Islands, you can use Dågu, Nika, or Gadu’. There are also both White and Red varieties of Dågu (called Dågun Å’paka’ or Dågun Agaga’, respectively).

Donuts made with dågu tend to be brownish in color after frying. Nika donuts are much lighter, a golden brown on the outside and creamy white in color on the inside. While I like both types, I prefer Nika donuts.

Living in the states, I found a great substitute for the white yams we know on Guam as Nika. It’s called Nahme (pronounced nah-may) Root in some Asian Stores. I’ve even seen it called Namee or Nami. If your local Asian market doesn’t have it, check the Hispanic stores, or ask the store manager to order some for you.

This is what Nahme looks like.

If you’re lucky, you can find some dågu as well. They are quite large, and look like monstrous hands with lots of “fingers”. Here’s a photo of dågu.

Aside from making donuts with the yams, you can cook them as you would potatoes. Yams are delicious cooked in a chicken stew or kådu with coconut milk.

You don’t have to wait for Christmas to have these delicious donuts. Visit your local Asian or Hispanic store and buy some yams then give my recipe a try. I think you’ll like it. 🙂

Buñelos Dågu

Ingredients:

2 pounds yam (Namee, dagu, etc.)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
Oil for frying

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a frying pan; the oil should come to about 1 inch in depth.

2. Peel skin off the yam. Using the fine part of a box or handheld grater, grate the yam into a mixing bowl.

When grating the yam, your skin might be mildly irritated. The scientific explanation for this is that most yams contain oxalate crystals which can irritate the skin, mouth and sometimes tongue. I get around this by wearing plastic gloves when I grate the yams.

3. Mix in the flour, sugar, and baking powder.

4. Drop batter by heaping tablespoonful into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, turning frequently to ensure even browning on all sides.

Modern conveniences make it so easy to drop the batter into the oil. Back home on Guam, we’d scoop up a handful of batter then squeeze out dollops between our thumb and pointer. It sounds difficult, but it’s actually quite easy to squeeze it out from between your fingers. It just takes practice. If you can’t get the hang of forming them this way, use a small ice cream scoop (the 1-tablespoon sized scoop). Dip the scoop in water then scoop out some batter; the batter will slide right out and not stick to the scoop.

Bunelos dagu 1

5. Serve with maple syrup or a simple syrup.

To make a simple syrup: in a microwave safe cup or bowl, mix together 1 cup of sugar with 1/4 cup water. Microwave on high until the sugar is melted. Stir thoroughly. Let the syrup cool slightly before using.

ENJOY!

Posted in Christmas, DESSERTS, Donuts, Fina' Mames (Chamorro Desserts)

Shrimp Patties

Posted on August 18, 2013 by AnniesChamorroKitchen 65 comments

Hi everyone! This is Hannah, Annie’s daughter.

I made some delicious shrimp patties for lunch one day. My version is somewhat different from the “regular” recipe most people have.

What’s different about my version? I don’t use any eggs. It started out as a mistake one time when I was making shrimp patties and forgot to put eggs in the batter. However, I liked how it turned out. The inside was nice and fluffy, and my shrimp patties were nice and round (my neighbor called them “shrimp balls”) and not flat.

Give my recipe a try. Let me know how you like them. My family loves them; I hope you do too!

SHRIMP PATTIES

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup thinly sliced fresh green beans
2 cups peas
1 cup chopped onions (about 1/2 a medium onion)
3 cups corn kernels (I love lots of corn in my shrimp patties)
4 cups shrimp, chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 cans evaporated milk
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
5 tablespoons Dashida seasoning (the seafood flavored kind)
1 teaspoon Accent
1 teaspoon black pepper
Oil, for frying

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Do you know how to tell if the oil is hot enough and ready? My mom taught me a great trick. Use the tip of a wooden spoon (I used a wooden chopstick) and dip it into the oil. If little bubbles start to form around the wood, then the oil is hot and ready. Make sure the wood is clean and dry first; you don’t want hot oil to splatter and burn you.

Here is a short video clip. You can see all of the little bubbles form around the tip of the wooden chopstick. This tells you that the oil is hot and ready for frying.

2. While you’re waiting for the oil to heat up, mix all of the ingredients (except for the oil, of course) in a large bowl.

3. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Note: I used a small ice cream scoop that holds 1 1/2 tablespoons. This is also what makes the shrimp patties nice and round like doughnuts. (Maybe that’s why my neighbor calls them shrimp balls, LOL.)

I added a lot of photos below to show you the process.

Enjoy, and I hope you like them!

~ Hannah

Place the shrimp and vegetables in a large mixing bowl.

Place the flour and other dry ingredients in a smaller bowl.

Add all of the dry ingredients to the bowl of shrimp and veggies.

Pour the evaporated milk into the mixing bowl.

Mix, mix, mix! 🙂

Check to see if the oil is hot. Scroll up and watch my video that shows what to look for.

When the oil is ready, use a small cookie scoop to drop the batter into the oil. This makes the shrimp patties nice and round.

Don’t put too much into the oil. You want to leave enough room to allow the shrimp patties to cook evenly, plus overcrowding might make them stick together when you drop the batter into the oil.

The shrimp patties usually turn on their own, but if they don’t, turn them occasionally to ensure even browning.

Fry until nicely browned.

Place in a colander or strainer to drain the excess oil.

The small cookie scoop I use makes shrimp patties that are a little bit bigger than the size of a ping pong ball. I think it’s the perfect size — not too big, not too small.

The inside is nice and fluffy.

Pile on the goodness! 🙂

Posted in APPETIZERS, CHAMORRO DISHES, Chamorro Sides, Christmas, Easter, Hannah's Recipes, SEAFOOD, SIDES, Thanksgiving

Chicken Kelaguen & Flour Titiyas

Posted on July 29, 2013 by AnniesChamorroKitchen 89 comments

Kelaguen and Titiyas ~ both staples on a Chamorro fiesta table. But you don’t have to be invited to a fiesta in order to enjoy these tasty dishes — they are so easy to make that you can have it anytime you get the craving!

My two daughters (ages 11 and 15) prepared the dishes pictured in the photos below; if THEY can do it, so can you!

Give my super easy recipes a try. I think you’ll like them! 🙂

Annie’s Chicken Kelaguen

Ingredients:

1 small rotisserie chicken
6 stalks green onions
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon powder plus 3 tablespoons water (or use the juice of 1 large lemon)
2 teaspoons salt (more or less, to taste)
Hot pepper, optional
Freshly grated coconut (unsweetened), optional

Directions:

1. Debone the chicken; shred or cut into small pieces (I used a food processor to roughly chop the chicken).

2. Thinly slice the green onions then add it to the chicken.

3. Add the lemon powder, water, salt and pepper to the bowl of chicken; mix to combine. Taste; adjust seasoning if required.

4. Stir in the grated coconut (optional).

5. Serve with my super easy sweet flour titiyas (see recipe below) and enjoy!

Annie’s Sweet Flour Titiyas

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup coconut milk (see note below)
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 to 1/2 cup cream of coconut (the sweet one, used for mixed drinks)
(see note below)

NOTE: If you don’t find or have any cream of coconut, just increase the coconut milk to 1 cup, and add 1/2 cup white granulated sugar. Follow the rest of the instructions below.

This is what the can of cream of coconut looks like. This is incredibly sweet so you do not need to add more sugar. Cream of Coconut is NOT the same as coconut cream (thick coconut milk).

Directions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add the coconut milk, melted butter, and cream of coconut (start out with 1/4 cup; increase to a total of 1/2 cup, depending on how humid your day is–more humid means less liquid). Mix together until a dough forms; knead gently to form a smooth ball of dough.

2. Break off golf-ball sized pieces. Flour your rolling surface and rolling pin. Roll out the piece of dough into a flat disc (about 1/8-inch thick). Place the titiyas on a dry skillet; prick all over with a fork to prevent bubbling during the cooking process.

3. Pan-fry on a dry skillet over medium-low heat for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until the bottom begins to turn a golden brown; flip over and cook the other side until it turns a nice golden brown. For thicker titiyas, cook over low heat for 4-5 minutes on each side; the titiyas is done when you gently press down on the center and it feels somewhat firm to the touch.

4. Place cooked titiyas on a plate covered with a clean kitchen towel to keep warm. Serve with my delicious chicken kelaguen. Enjoy!

Posted in Åggon (Starch), CHAMORRO DISHES, Chicken, Christmas, Easter, Flat Breads, Kelaguen, SIDES, Thanksgiving tagged with Kelaguen

Lumpia

Posted on July 28, 2013 by AnniesChamorroKitchen 36 comments

Lumpia is a staple at most Chamorro gatherings. There are fried and fresh versions, both of which are extremely popular.

There are so many variations to the types of filling you can use. I’ve used ground beef with vegetables, ground pork with vegetables, added noodles and diced potatoes to the mix, used shrimp (especially when making fresh lumpia), and for dessert, banana-brown sugar lumpia (or Turon).

Lumpia is delicious eaten as-is, without some type of dipping sauce. But while I’m on the subject, let’s talk about some of my favorite lumpia dipping sauces: garlic-vinegar, garlic-lime-sugar-fish sauce (don’t knock this one until you try it), sweet and sour, and the ultimate Chamorro favorite–fina’denne’.

No matter what your filling or dipping sauce, this is sure to be a crowd-pleaser at your next gathering.

Click on the photos below for my recipe and step-by-step instructions for making Fried Meat-and-Vegetable Lumpia.

Posted in APPETIZERS, CHAMORRO DISHES, Chamorro Sides, Christmas, Easter, Filipino, SIDES, Thanksgiving

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