Oven Roasted Brocolli

Have you ever had a big stalk of Broccoli and thought to yourself, meh, not so much.  My husband really likes Broccoli, me, I could take it or leave it.  I was trying to think up another way to prepare this veggie so that I would enjoy them too.

Now, I oven roast Potatoes, so why not Broccoli too?  Let’s try this …

This may sound very elementary, but I’d never thought to do this before, really!

I lined a half sheet pan with Tin Foil, broke that huge bunch of Broccoli down into manageable pieces, tossed it all with good Olive Oil and Miners Mix Steak & Veggie Seasoning & Rub and a bit of Black Pepper.  I had already pre-heated the oven to 400°, so in it went for about 20 minutes, give or take … check for doneness by piercing the stalk with a sharp knife.

Can you see those nice bits of brown goodness, that equals flavor?!

YUM!

Embrace your vegetables, try cooking them in a different way, maybe, just maybe you’ll enjoy them more.

Hawaiian-Style Guava Chicken and Fried Rice

I haven’t made Guava Chicken in for-ever !!

Mostly because, I couldn’t get the frozen Guava Juice Concentrate any longer.

WELL!

On our last trip through Las Vegas I found the International Market, YAY!!

So let’s go!

 

Wow, I had to think about this one.  I did not know that there was such a thing as Hawaiian-Style Fried Rice and  I have yet to find Guava Chicken anywhere but Hawaii.

I don’t have a recipe, really, I just MAKE IT.

Guava Chicken is something I learned from my SIL (DH’s sister). Every time that we all went to the beach for the day, she would bring Guava Chicken and Fried Rice. My BIL would grill the meat on his little hibachi and there’d be other goodies to nibble on after Body Surfing for the afternoon (I shouldn’t go there, it makes me homesick). To me, that’s Beach Food.

So years later, here we are In The Middle Of The Desert and I NEED  to have little pieces of home every so often.

Hawaiian-Style Guava Chicken

1 12oz. can Guava Nectar Concentrate

(if you can find the brands from Hawaii, that’s best, but Goya will do)

1 Garlic clove, crushed

1/2 C. Oyster Sauce

1/2 C. lightly packed Brown Sugar

1/2 C. Soy Sauce (I prefer low sodium Aloha Brand)

1/2 C. Ketchup

1/4 tsp. Chinese Five Spice

5 lbs. Chicken thighs (we buy boneless-skinless)

Combine all ingredients and allow to marinade for at least 24 hours, the longer the better. Grill (or bake or broil, I like the charred bits, it’s more like going to the beach) until the meat is completely done, an internal temperature of 165º on an insta-read thermometer

Hawaiian-Style Fried Rice

this ain’t rocket science! it’s all just leftovers…

start off with steamed White Rice that’s leftover for maybe 2-3 days in the `fridge to dry out

add whatever ‘Goodies’  you like:

scrambled Eggs or that Omelet you didn’t finish

Breakfast Meat (we use Linguica or Portuguese sausage), chopped**

Spam, yup, that’s right Hawaii’s favorite meat!**

Green onions

White onions

IF you must, frozen Peas and Carrots

Soy Sauce (we prefer Aloha Brand)

Sesame Oil

Toasted Sesame Seeds to make it all pretty at the end

 

Preheat a large fry pan, or Wok if you have it, with some neutral oil like canola.

Once you see wisps of smoke coming off the pan, you gotta move fast

Throw in the rice, stir it around until it’s hot

Add in your Goodies, stir again

Pour in enough Soy Sauce to just color the rice, barely

Stir; cover and cook for a few minutes

Dish it up with a drizzle of Sesame Oil and some Sesame Seeds, maybe some more

chopped Green Onions too

**Tip – the Spam and the Linguica really make it, or some Teriyaki Chicken, SIL uses Turkey Hotdogs and Bacon**

ALOHA

 

STOP! Wait, Please Watch The Maiden Voyage Of My New Weber Rotisserie

[This is from my You Tube Channel, please enjoy]

Oh my gravy all over my two scoop rice (that’s OMG! in my world if you haven’t been here before).

I finally took the plunge and got myself a Weber Rotisserie for my ‘big girl’ grill.  I’ve wanted one of these for the longest time, really!

I racked my brain for a while as to what I would make for my maiden voyage on the spit… WELL!  It just had to be a Hawaiian Style Huli Huli Chicken, of course.  Huli, means to turn in Hawaiian, thus making Huli Chicken seemed the natural choice on my new electric rotisserie.

I had a bottle of Hawaii’s Famous Huli Huli Sauce in the pantry; I went out and bought a fresh, whole yardbird (unbrined, that sauce is soy based and could be salty) … so we’re good to go!

I should probably point out here that Huli Chicken as we call it back home, can be found on most weekends in just about any neighborhood as fundraisers, or just because.  Let your nose be the guide, you’ll know when you’ve found it … the smell is like no other.  Keawe Wood (which is in the same family as Mesquite) smoke is in the air and cars are flocking around a particular parking lot.  Large rectangular open grills are set-up with the coolest home-rigged rotisseries you’ve ever seen.  You pull your car up to ‘the lady’ who asks you how many Huli Chickens you would like, quarter, halves or a whole one and hands it off to you in a brown paper bag, piping hot of the grill, MMM!!

Let’s grill some bird.

I marinaded the chicken for 24 hours in the sauce and then trussed and skewered that birdie for the grill.

As the grill was preheating, I trussed the chicken and attached it to the main rotisserie rod and impaled the two forks through the flesh.  My grill was all ready, as instructed on the “how to” video seen on Weber.com.  I was a bit anxious, but I got through it.

The smells that came wafting along were so heady, I sat outside with an adult beverage, even though it’s still Winter and freezing cold and windy out, just to enjoy that smell of HOME!

An hour and fifteen minutes later, it was all over with…

MAN!

Earlier in the day, I had made Zippy’s Macaroni Salad, Quick Cucumber Kim Chee and a fresh pot of steamed White Rice … or as we would say in Hawaii, we had one Huli Chicken Plate with one scoop mac and one scoop rice (vegetables are always optional 😉 ).

This chicken was so moist and flavorful.  The soy sauce in the marinade acts as your salt, no need to add anything else, I’m not kidding, just remember to keep turning it while in the `fridge.

MMM!

I’m very happy.

*Cook’s note: Also, please take a peck at my You Tube channel 😀

Hawaiian Guava Chicken and Fried Rice

Wow, I had to think about this one.  I did not know that there was such a thing as Hawaiian Fried Rice and  I have yet to find Guava Chicken elsewhere but Hawaii.

I don’t have a recipe, really, I just MAKE IT.

Guava chicken is something I learned from my SIL (DH’s sister). Every time that we all went to the beach for the day, she would bring Guava Chicken and Fried Rice. My BIL would grill the meat on his little hibachi and there’d be other goodies to nibble on after body surfing for the afternoon (I shouldn’t go there, it makes me homesick). To me, that’s beach food.

So years later, here we are in the middle of the desert and I NEED to have little pieces of home every so often. We’ve got plenty of sand here…

Hawaiian Guava Chicken

1 12oz. can Guava Nectar Concentrate

(if you can find the brands from Hawaii, that’s best, but Goya will do)

1 Garlic clove, crushed

1/2 C. Oyster Sauce

1/2 C. lightly packed Brown Sugar

1/2 C. Soy Sauce (I prefer low sodium Aloha Brand)

1/2 C. Ketchup

1/4 tsp. Chinese Five Spice

5 lbs. Chicken thighs (we buy boneless-skinless)

Combine all ingredients and allow to marinade for at least 24 hours, the longer the better. Grill (or bake or broil, it like the char, it’s more like going to the beach) until the meat is completely done, an internal temperature of 165º on an insta-read thermometer

Hawaiian Fried Rice

this ain’t rocket science! it’s all just leftovers…

start off with steamed white rice (we use Calrose medium grain rice)

add whatever ‘goodies’ you like:

scrambled eggs or that omelet you didn’t finish

breakfast sausage (we use Linguica or Portuguese sausage)**

Spam, yup, that’s right Hawaii’s favorite meat!**

Green onions

White onions

if you must, frozen peas and carrots

Soy Sauce

Sesame Oil

Toasted Sesame Seeds to make it all pretty at the end

Preheat a large fry pan, or Wok if you have it, with some neutral oil like canola. Once you see wisps of smoke coming off the pan, let’s move fast

Throw in the rice, stir it around until it’s hot

Add in your goodies, stir again

Pour over enough soy sauce to just color the rice, barely

Stir; cover and cook for a few minutes

Dish it up with a drizzle of sesame oil and seeds, maybe some more chopped green onions

**Tip – the Spam and the Linguica really make it, or some Teriyaki Chicken, SIL uses Turkey hotdogs and Bacon**

ALOHA

 

Pork Chops and Apple Sauce, In My Best Peter Brady

When we first moved here to the middle of the desert, we took a class excursion out to an orchard, that’s right, they farm profusely here in Arizona. I am not a fan of tomatoes, but so my mother tells me, they grow some pretty tasty ones in Willcox. On this field trip we went for Apples, yum.

that’s my Mom leading the way

did I say there was a pumpkin patch too?

Apple Annie’s Orchard is a blast, they have all types of activities and they sell anything and everything apple that you could think of. My mother was crazy for this place, she must have spent a fortune.

One thing that she bought for me to try was apple butter syrup, never heard of that. We had it on waffles and, meh. So here I have this practically full bottle of syrup, what to do? I have a couple of chef-y friends, so I posed the question to them. Here’s what I dreamed up …

If you’re old enough or you watch late night TV, you remember The Brady Bunch and Peter Brady saying, Pork Chops and Apple Sauce. As I was making this dish, he would not get out of my head, ARGH! I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing though.

Pork Chops & Apple Butter Syrup Sauce

1 Apple, cored and sliced thick (we had golden delicious)

2-4 Pork Chops (I like to find the ole’tyme cuts with good marbling)

1/4 C. Apple Butter Syrup

1/8 tsp. ground Chipotle Pepper

1/4 tsp. fresh Lemon Juice (just a little bit goes a long way)

Season the Pork chops with S&P

Grill the chops to medium rare and the apple slices to a crisp-tender

Tent the chops on a plate with tin foil; let the meat rest for at least 10 minutes, this makes for juicer meat

In the mean time chop the apples into cubes

In a small saucepan heat the syrup; add the chipotle pepper and stir until fragrant

Add the apples and syrup mixture to a bowl and combine

Slice the pork and spoon your apple sauce over

Serve with rice pilaf and a veggie of your choice (I steamed some green beans)

Pork Chops and Apple Sauce, dang you Peter Brady!