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.

_________________________________________________________________

Meatloaf

I have made many meatloaves using different recipes and what can I say, at the end of the day, it's another meatloaf. So this time I thought I'd add an extra guest in addition to the usual suspects. Marsala wine. I started with a combination of ground pork and beef about a pound of each. I incorporated the two meats and seasoned with kosher salt and pepper along with the chopped onions. I also used a combination of Italian style bread crumbs and Panko flakes. I don't like to cube bread from sandwich loaves, which I used before, because they tend to get mushy and they don't really add any real flavor. I chopped about a tablespoon of dried rosemary and a pinch of chopped parsley. I then added the wet ingredients after beating the eggs with a wisk and half and half. After forming the loaf, to top it off, I spooned some tomatoe sauce, sprinkled shredded Asiago and slices of Canadian bacon.


I made a brown gravy from the drippings and added onions, Shitake mushrooms and a little Marsala wine to top it off. Served with mashed golden yukons, with garlic and parsely. I did a quick pan roast of zucchini, yellow squash, onions and diced tomoatoes.

As it turned out, the loaf was juicy and quite tasty. Not bad for a easy to make dish.


1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 Garic cloves chopped
1/4 cup Marsala wine
1/4 cup Half and Half
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
1/2 cup onions finely chopped
3 slices canadian bacon
3 tablespoons shredded Asiago
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of coarse black pepper

________________________________________________________