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)
Author: Annie @ Annie's Chamorro Kitchen
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- Add the miso paste; stir to combine. Mash the mixture slightly with the back of your cooking spoon.
- Add the pepper paste to the pan then turn off the heat (ensure your cooking area is well-ventilated when you add the pepper).
- Add lemon powder, to taste (optional).
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