Hawaiian Fish Dishes

If you've ever been to a real Hawaiian Luau, you know that the food is King, along with the music and entertainment and fanfare of the event. One of the classic dishes served at Luau's is Lomi Lomi Salmon, with it beautiful color and wonderful taste it is also one of the stand-out dishes of any luau. The words lomi lomi means to rub or massage in Hawaiian, and in context to this dish, it describes how the dish is prepared. I am not sure why and often wondered how salmon came to be the fish of choice in this dish as I am pretty sure salmon is NOT an indigenous fish of Hawaii. Oddly enough, tomatoes another key ingredient in Lomi Salmon, while grown there, are also not indigenous to Hawaii leading me to believe that this dish is a concoction developed well after Captain Cook arrived, and is essentially a modern dish. I suspect whalers coming from the Pacific Northwest introduced the fish as late as early the 1800's.

Any way, a significant part of the process involves salting the salmon, using traditional Hawaiian sea salt, the fish is rubbed and the salt massaged into the fish. Let the salted salmon sit overnight and rinse thoroughly with cold water. All the lomi lomi salmon I've ever had were pretty salty, so you can adjust it to moderate, especially if you're trying to reduce salt intake and a healthier heart.

It'd be great to add a couple of nice juicy Maui tomatoes and a sweet onion, but any nice tomatoe and sweet onion will do. dice all to around the same size bits and mix it all together with your hands, remember, massage...gently. You could add a little pepper and some scallions chopped fine. This dish is traditionally served cold or chilled, taste better that way.

For a twist, you could add some sweet yellow and red bell peppers or even a papaya, diced.

In the dish show here, I've also included a Poke - Aku type fish dish, pronounced Poe-kee or Poe-key my way because I do not have access to Limu, a type of Hawaiian seaweed. Aku is tuna in Hawaiian, and this particular variety is yellowfin.

I also made a more traditional seafood salad with crab meat and shrimp, with thinly sliced cucumbers, parsley and a splash of white wine vinegar and spoon full of light mayonaise.

The combination of the three dishes were a delight to my palette and I enjoyed it very much.

_________________________________________________________________