Hawaii Food and Recipe Blog

When you go to Hawaii, you’re going to find Macadamia nut recipes everywhere. I even got the chance to visit a Macadamia nut farm (yum!) where they had seasoned mac nuts, mac nut bread, and of course mac nut chocolate chip cookies! These are just as easy to make as traditional chocolate chip, but much MUCH tastier

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
• 12 oz white chocolate chips (about 1 bag)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F 
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and then gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets (I use parchment paper and my cookies come out perfectly!)
   
3. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Let them cool, then enjoy with a tall cold glass of milk!

If you go to Hawaii and somehow manage to avoid having a Mai Tai, I’m going to be seriously impressed. Every restaurant,nightclub and venue has it’s own “special” Mai Tai recipe and believe me, they are amazing. I liked some better than others, but no matter what recipe Mai Tai you taste they are super sweet and will knock you on your butt faster than you can say “luau”.

The basic components of any Mai Tai are rum, lime or pineapple juice (or both), and triple sec. But there’s a lot of room for variation, like these two recipes. Be sure you pop a slice of fresh pineapple in yours and a paper unbrella, and you’ll feel like you’re on the beach at Waikiki!

Pineapple Variation Mai Tai
(My personal favorite)

• 4 oz orange juice
• 4 oz pineapple juice
• 1 oz Rose’s lime juice
• 1 oz dark rum
• 1 oz light rum
• 1 oz triple sec
• 1/2 oz grenadine

The “Trader Vic” Mai Tai

• 1 oz gold rum
• 1 oz dark rum
• 1 oz triple sec
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz Orgeat syrup

No matter which recipe you choose, shake all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass over crushed ice. Garnish with fruits and mint, and serve with a straw and that paper unbrella!

One dish I absolutely LOVED while I was in Hawaii was the Lomi Lomi salmon. In Hawaiian, lomi means “to massage” or “to rub” so when you see this recipe, you’ll understand the name. It’s one of those really simple dishes that just tastes fabulous and can also be dressed up in lots of different ways. Enjoy!

• 1 lb salted salmon filet
• 3 fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 medium Maui or Vidalia onion also, diced (you can substitute 3-4 thinly sliced green onions)
• juice of one lime

Ideally you have a salted salmon filet available at your store. But if you don’t then pick up some kosher salt, massage it into the filet and refrigerate overnight. You really REALLY need the saltiness, so don’t even think about just mixing the ingredients and throwing in a pinch of salt at the end - it won’t be enough and you will wonder why this dish gets so many raves!

Once you have (or have made) a salted salmon filet, dice it the same size as your tomato. The idea here is that they should look almost identical in color and size. Mix the salmon, onion, tomato and lime juice and you’re done. Chill until ready to eat (at least one hour, more is better but don’t go crazy and overdo it) - delicious!