Chocolate Haupia Pie…Chocolate Haupia Pie…Chocolate Haupia Pie! You just caught me in a typical daydream. See this pie is one of my favorite desserts in the world, and it’s one of the foods that takes me back to Hawaii. In fact, my last day living in Hawaii I bought a chocolate haupia pie by Ted’s Bakery and took it to watch the sun set at (where else?) Sunset Beach! I ate the entire pie, right out of the pan. Needless to say I did not need my airline meal on the flight that night!

This was one of the first Hawaii foods I craved after moving to Washington, and so for almost three years now I’ve been perfecting the recipe. I bring it to potlucks, serve it for dessert when friends are over for dinner, and gladly take any opportunity to work on it. Sometimes I’m lazy and make it in a pre-made graham cracker or shortbread crust. Sometimes I use milk chocolate, sometimes a frozen pie crust. But after much experimentation, I’ve come up with the perfect recipe!

The crust is crunchy and rich with Macadamia Nuts and Quaker Oats. The chocolate haupia layer is absolutely decadent made with quality dark chocolate. Oh, what is haupia you ask? Here’s part of the wikipedia definition:

Haupia is a traditional coconut milk-based Hawaiian dessert often found at luaus in Hawaiʻi and other local gatherings. Since World War II, it has become popular as a topping for white cake, especially at weddings. Although technically considered a pudding, the consistency of haupia closely approximates gelatin dessert and is usually served in blocks like gelatin.

Me, I just say haupia is a dreamy creamy coconut dessert that goes great with chocolate. So if you like chocolate and coconut, you will LOVE this! One very important thing with this crust is to make sure you butter the pie pan, otherwise it’s a pain to try and get the pieces out. If you get a chance to try this, let me know what you think!

Macadamia Nut Crusted Dark Chocolate Haupia Pie
serves 8
Ingredients

crust:
3/4 cup flour
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/8 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 stick cold butter (6 TBS)
1/2 cup uncooked Quaker Oats
1/4 cup chopped Macadamia Nuts

filling:
6 ounces good quality dark chocolate
1 13.5 oz can coconut milk (or a little over 1.5 cups)
1 cup 2% milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup water

whipped cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch pie pan. Mix flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar in medium bowl; cut in butter with a fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in oats and nuts. Press the mixture into bottom and sides of prepared pie pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

While crust is baking, make haupia by whisking coconut milk, milk and sugar together in a saucepan. While bringing coconut mixture to a boil, whisk cornstarch and water together in a separate bowl. Reduce coconut mixture to a simmer and pour in cornstarch mixture. Continue whisking until mixture is thick.

Remove crust from oven when done and put in fridge to cool slightly.

In a medium microwave safe bowl, microwave for 1- 1 1/2 minutes and stir with a fork to melt. Pour half of haupia into the chocolate and mix well. Pour chocolate haupia into pie crust. Pour remaining white haupia in a layer on top of chocolate haupia. Place pie in refrigerator to cool at least 1 hour.

Whip heavy cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spread onto pie and top with shaved chocolate. Cool another hour in fridge.

Update: I’ve entered this in 1 Family Friendly Food’s Cake Collection!

In Hawaii, teriyaki is everywhere. I was pleasantly surprised to find that was the case here in Washington too. Unfortunately it’s not quite the same. In Hawaii it’s just a typical part of the local restaurants, here there are specific teriyaki joints, but they’re often so goopy and sweet and covered in way too much sauce.

I never really made teriyaki for myself in Hawaii because it was everywhere and cheap. It was at every party or potluck, friends would make huge batches and drop some by, I probably had it at least once a week. But the past two years I’ve only had it maybe five times and was disappointed each time.

I’ve made it with friends in Hawaii before, so had a basic idea of how to make it. I was also excited to realize I had something else to do with those chicken thighs I’m not crazy about. I forgot that teriyaki chicken is a great recipe for thighs. But I was looking at one of my favorite Asian cooking blogs and found this post by guest blogger My Cooking Hut. The ingredients sounded right from what I remembered, the method definitely sounded right. Hooray! Only thing was, I don’t have any sake, so I decided to sub some rice vinegar.

It came out perfect and I really loved it. The funny thing was, after Eric finished it, he said it was okay but he’s never really liked teriyaki. But then he took the two servings of leftovers to work the next day for lunch, and ate them all! He came home singing the praises of my teriyaki and saying it was so much better the next day. Since he finished it, I didn’t get to try it to see if it was actually different the second day, guess I’ll have to make it again!

I served it with some sticky rice and romaine lettuce with a tangy pseudo asian dressing (I say pseudo because I don’t usually associate mayo with real asian recipes, but other than that it has the same flavors). Thanks Rasa Malaysia and My Cooking Hut!

Teriyaki Chicken
serves 4

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 tbsp rice vinegar
4 tbsp aloha shoyu
4 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sugar
olive oil

Instructions

Defrost your thighs in the fridge overnight. Mix rice vinegar, shoyu, mirin and sugar well in a bowl or tupperware. Marinate the thighs in it for 15 minutes.

Heat a tablespoon or two of oil in a pan on medium high, brown both sides of the chicken thighs and leave until cooked. About 5 minutes each side. Pour the teriyaki sauce that was used to marinate the chicken into the pan and continue to cook until the chicken is glazed (another few minutes).

Remove from heat and serve chicken over rice. Drizzle with leftover sauce from the pan.

Somewhat Asian Salad Dressing
serves 2

Ingredients

2 tsp light mayonnaise
1 TBS honey
few drops sesame oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 TBS white vinegar

Instructions

Mix everything in a small bowl with a whisk or fork. Drizzle over lettuce or cabbage.

Somen salad is one of my favorite midnight snacks. I almost always have the ingredients around, and it makes me think of Hawaii. The first time Eric tried it, he said “Wow, that’s very Asian!” (that was a compiment in case you were wondering) Instead of lettuce being the base for the salad, it’s noodles! The dressing is also made with soy sauce and rice vinegar, and it includes SPAM. Not your typical American salad. But I can eat a ton of it!

Out of curiousity, I searched for some somen salad recipes, and found each one to be different. But this is the one I found easiest to make with things you’re likely to have around the house. For instance, it’s called somen salad because you typically use somen noodles. But I buy the Sam’s Club box of Ramen noodles and so use a package of those. Also, it often has fish cake and char siu pork, but those aren’t ingredients I use often, so I go with SPAM. Usually the sesame seeds are mixed in the dressing, but if you’re storing it for a while, they get all bloated and gross, so I add them to the salad.

If you’re not afraid of SPAM, or even if you are, give this recipe a try. It’s a nice blend of flavors, textures and temperatures. I’d suggest preparing the dressing in advance so it can be refrigerated beforehand, but it’s not necessary. The dressing recipe is enough for several salads, the salad recipe serves one or two depending on how hungry you are!

SOMEN SALAD:
Two slices of SPAM cut into cubes
2 eggs
2 inch section of cucumber cut into chunks
2 large handfuls of chopped romaine lettuce
1 package ramen noodles
1/4 tsp sesame seeds

DRESSING:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/8 cup sugar
3 TBS sesame oil

For the dressing, mix all ingredients in a dressing bottle or jar. (I use a bottled water bottle) Mix until sugar dissolves and then refrigerate. Shake well before using.

For the salad, cook noodles according to package directions, do not use flavoring package.

While they’re cooking, scramble the eggs and cook in frying pan. Set aside. In the same pan, fry SPAM until slightly browned.

When noodles are done, drain, and place in bottom of bowl. Top with lettuce, SPAM, eggs and cucumber. Pour dressing over salad and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

And by home, I mean Hawaii. Of course my home is wherever Eric is and wherever God sends us, but I definitely miss Hawaii. Today at work, I saw a travel show that went to Hawaii, they went to some of my favorite restaurants and had heaping piles of my favorite foods. I knew I had to make something from home for lunch! Unfortunately, I’m still trying to work out how I can make ahi poke out here, so the simplest solution was SPAM, eggs, and rice.

The easiest way to do it is, make a pot of rice, scramble some eggs, fry a few slices of SPAM in a skillet, and you’re done! I like to kick my SPAM up a notch though.

I fried it until each slice was a little crispy, then soaked it in my SPAM sauce for a few minutes before putting it in a foil lined dish in the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes to keep it hot.

SPAM sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce (sounds, and smells, gross but makes a great flavor)
1 tsp sesame oil
2 T honey

Mix well!

The only hard thing about making this dish, is timing. Make sure you start you rice in advance enough that your eggs and SPAM don’t get cold waiting for it.