Guam Fiesta Plate: Red Rice, BBQ Chicken & Finadene
Happy
Liberation Day, Everyone! Yes, today is a territorial holiday in my
hometown — marking the day in 1944 when Marine troops stormed the shores
of Asan beach and began the liberation of Guam from Japanese occupiers
during World War II. It’s a day of parades and, of course, barbecues
everywhere — and I don’t just mean on Guam. The Guam disapora has
spread these flavors all over the world. At one point, the largest
community of Guamanians outside of Guam was in Germany — no kidding!
(Check out the coverage of this year’s festivities here from Guam’s own Pacific Daily News.)
And
barbecues on Guam feature some uniquely prepared foods — most notably
Red Rice, lemon-shoyu BBQ Chicken (short ribs and pork spare ribs too if
you’re feeding a gang), and a condiment called Finadene (fin-ah-DEN-ee).
A typical fiesta barbecue plate is shown here with a eggplant salad in coconut milk (in bowl)
and pickled cucmbers.
Guam’s
red rice is truly unique. Whereas other red-colored rice dishes will
get their color and flavor from tomatoes (fresh or paste), or even
beets, this red rice is flavored and colored with achiote seeds (also
called annatto or atsute). The seeds are soaked in water, and the
strained soaking liquid is used to cook the rice. Many people will add a
tiny bit of salt and oil, as well, but after that everyone will have
their own variations of what else, if anything, will be included —
onions, peas, bacon or broth are some of the most common additions.
I’ve
never seen any other cuisine use achiote water to cook rice — it lends
a unique and ineffable flavor. Yestereday T and I tried to think of a
way to describe the flavor of achiote-flavored rice to someone who was
unfamiliar with achiote. “Earthy” “Smoky” “Meaty” “LIke beans that have
been pureed” was the closest we could come, but none really hits the
mark (that last one was T’s — pretty creative description, I thought).
One thing I can tell you, I’ve never met a person who tried it and
didn’t like it. Usually when you tell someone you’re from Guam, if
they’ve known someone from Guam before, they will either ask you for
your finadene, red rice and/or chicken recipe. That’s how these recipes
are — you try them once and they stick with you and make you crave your
next taste of it.
The recipes below are for what might be
considered the holy trinity — the absolute basics — of a Guam barbecue
(aka fiesta) plate. You’ll want to make all three if you’re going to
make one. Trust me, these flavors were born to go together. The
chicken marinade seems ridiculously simple, and it is — you just can’t
believe how good this basic recipe is until you smell it on the grill.
Charcoal is best, but even a gas grill will work (that’s what we
have.... *she ducks as coconuts are thrown from Guam*).
And the
best thing is that there are no especially hard-to-find ingredients. The
achiote seeds may not be part of your pantry staples, but on Oahu, you
can find seeds in the Asian (Filipino) or Hispanic section of most
supermarkets. Elsewhere in the U.S. and the world, look in Hispanic
markets and Asian groceries for the whole seeds.
At a real Guam
fiesta, you will see many, many, many, MANY more dishes than these
three, but these are your building blocks. And no, you don’t have to
wait for the next Liberation Day festivities to try this. You can bring
the flavors of Latitude 13 North to where you live any time (that’s
where the island is, Folks, it’s not in the south Pacific)! For
another take on these recipes, check out the Betty Shimabukuro’s full-page spread on Guam cuisine in last week’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
If you know Red Rice, how would you describe its flavor to someone who had never tried it??
RED RICE
for 4 persons
1/2 cup achiote seeds
2 cups water
Soak achiote seeds in water for 2 hours.
Wash
hands well, then use hands to rub seeds together to release more color
from the seeds. Water will be a dark red, muddy color. So will your
hand. Achiote is used as a dye and food coloring agent (guess what
colors your Cheddar cheese?) so it stains easily and deeply. I’ve taken
to using a latex glove when rubbing achiote seeds for this dish — wash
your hands WITH the glove on to rid the glove of its powder coating
before handling seeds.
Strain
water to catch all the seeds (the seeds don’t dissolve when cooked...
ha ha... inside joke) into a measuring cup. Top up with water, if
necessary, to measure 2 cups. Set aside until needed.
1 medium onion, diced
3 TBL. olive oil
Cook onions in oil over low heat, until translucent and sweet, about 10-12 minutes.
2 cups medium-grain Calrose rice, washed and rinsed until water is clear
1 tsp. salt
Place
washed rice in rice cooker. Add salt, and cooked onions, including
oil. Add achiote water, and gently stir through. Allow to sit for 10
minutes.
Turn on rice cooker. When cooker turns itself off, do not open lid for at least 15 minutes.
Using
a rice paddle or wooden spoon, turn rice over to distribute the cooked
contents evenly. Bring paddle down to the bottom of the pot, and turn
the contents over so the rice on the bottom (it will be darker colored
than the rest) is on top. Gently break up this chunk of rice, releasing
steam. (The motion is similar to folding egg whites into a batter —
cut, turn and gently distribute.) Continue this motion all around the
pot until the everything is evenly mixed through and the steam
realeased.
GUAM-STYLE BBQ CHICKEN
for 4 persons
1 large whole chicken, cut into quarters
2 whole lemons
1 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 medium onions, sliced (optional)
Place
chicken, skin-side down in large non-reactive bowl. Combine other
ingredients and pour over chicken. Marinate overnight in fridge.
Prepare
your grill or charcoal barbecue. An hour before it goes on the grill,
remove chicken from fridge and allow to come to room temperature.
Place
chicken skin-side down on grill. After 20 minutes, turn over and cook
another 20-30 minutes, depending on the cut — breast pieces will take
longer. Test by cutting near the joint to make certain the juices run
clear. Cut into serving pieces and serve with red rice and finadene.
FINADENE
Everyone
will have their preferred proportions of lemon juice to soy sauce — we
like a really strong lemon flavor over soy. We didn’t have cherry
tomatoes this time, but usually we put those in our finadene too.
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 medium onion, sliced thin
3 stalks of green onion, sliced (optional)
6-10 cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sea salt, or to taste (you’ll need less if you use more soy sauce than we do)
1-5 donne peppers, aka Thai bird chiles, sliced or left whole depending on your heat tolerance
Combine
all ingredients, and let stand at least 2 hours before serving. Use on
all kinds of meats and grilled vegetables. This is not for barbecues
only — finadene is a staple condiment that will spice up any meal.
Soo ist zwar alles auf English aber da es die meisten hier verstehen und ich unbeding was spezielles aus Guam haben wollte habe ich es gepostet!!!
hoffe es schmeckt trotzdem 
und für mich gibts dazu...
