Tomorrow is my birthday. In past years, that would mean a Tiki party – either this weekend or last. An over the top celebration of camp tropical food and drinks in the dark of mid-winter. In the past, friends traveled in by train, plane, or a walk up the street. We decorated the house with flowers and garlands, fishing nets and glass floats, palm trees (some real, most not), and bamboo mats. We played surf guitar and cheesy lounge records from the 1960s, wore Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts (over sweats – this is January.) Amongst my friend it just became “The Tiki.” One old friend even made a wooden sign that says “WELCOME TO THE TIKI 20XX” in colorful letters with interchangeable years. It’s in the basement.
For the last three years, life has gotten in the way.
My dad died in early 2020, and I just didn’t have it in me to throw a big party. A few friends joined us for a night out at a local Tiki bar. It was a few weeks before the pandemic really set in and couple friends flew in. We had fun. The drinks were good. One was on fire. There were older women hula dancing.
It wasn’t the same.
In 2021, with the Corona pandemic raging, I set up an elaborate set to take pictures and spent the week making all the things I might have made if we’d done a full-scale party. It was just Kate and me and a pile of plants and bottled and tiki mugs on the table.
I shared those recipes and those pictures in this newsletter.
This year, with the pandemic still burning along, we decided a large party was still a bad idea. And I didn’t set up an elaborate photo set. I didn’t really have it in me. Not in the same way. But tomorrow is still my birthday, and I miss The Tiki.
So, this is it. That’s this week’s menu. A wink and a nod and a sigh at a tradition. It’s enough. Really. It scratches the itch and reminds me of good times and bad.
It’s a very tiny Tiki.
Note: There will (probably) be no Weekly Menu next week – I plan on taking the week off, but who knows, maybe I’ll get anxious creative nudgy and do one anyway.
The Everytiki
I call this the every tiki because it’s sort of … everything mashed into one drink. I could have added passionfruit and grapefruit and really made it that, but I was looking for something that was a bit of a play on one of my favorites – the Jungle Bird. A proper jungle bird is made with dark almost bitter blackstrap rum, brilliantly bittersweet Campari, and a lot of pineapple juice.
I might have simply made a jungle bird – but to be completely honest, I haven’t been able to get pineapple juice. Our local stores just don’t have it right now. So … I made – let’s call it an homage – to the real thing. It’s all over the place and yet – it works.
Sort of like my writing today.
Well, I’ll let you decide if that’s working.
1.5 oz dark Jamaican rum
1 oz amber rhum agricole
.5 oz Aperol
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
1 oz fresh pineapple juice
.5 oz lime juice
1 egg white
Absinth rinse
Rinse a stemmed glass with absinth, returning the extra to the bottle (or discard … for some reason)
Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin filled with ice.
Shake until well chilled.
Strain into a second shaker tin and dry shake for 15 seconds.
Strain into rinsed glass.
Garnish with fancy tiki sort of things.
Pork and Shrimp Dumplings
Sure, you could just stroll down the freezer aisle of your local market and pick up a bag of Asian style dumplings – variously labeled as pot stickers, gyoza, dumplings – etc. But why would you do that if you can turn your kitchen table into a cluttered, flour strewn, sticky filling covered, only two-person assembly line for making your own?
It’s a fun project for a snowy weekend afternoon – and it’s even more fun if there are more than two people or if any of them really know how to do it properly. I don’t. I am an expert at making misshapen poorly formed dumplings. The good thing is that they’re still delicious.
Because dumplings are delicious. Even the ugly ones.
Dumpling wrappers (store bought or recipe below)
½ lb. pork shoulder meat
6 medium shrimp
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
2 green onions
½ tsp ground white pepper
½ tsp ground Szechuan peppercorn
1 tsp kosher salt
Trim and finely chop the green onions.
Cut the pork into ½ inch to ¼ inch pieces – cutting away and discarding any sinew etc.
Add the shrimp, pork, onions, ginger, garlic, spices, and salt to the container of a food processor and pulse until a fine, smooth grind.
Transfer the filling to a covered container or a zip top bag and refrigerate at least one hour before filling.
To fill, wet the edge of a wrapper with a littler water.
Add a 1-2 inch ball of filling to the center of the dough disc, and fold in half.
Pinch the edge to seal, working to push out as much air as possible.
Please the edges by folding in and pinching the dough – this is optional.
To cook, steam for 10 minutes
-or-
For pot stickers: add the raw dumplings to a large lidded frying pan over medium heat with 2 tsp of oil, and ¼ cup of water. Cover, and cook until the water evaporates/is absorbed. Remove the lid, raise the heat, and cook until the bottoms of the dumplings are crisp and brown.
Dumpling Wrappers
2 cups AP flour
2/3 cup cold water
½ tsp kosher salt
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.
Process until a smooth dough has formed.
Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before using.
Roll the dough into an approximately 1 inch thick “snake”
Use scissors or a bench knife to cut off 1-inch-long pieces.
Working on a well-floured surface, roll these pieces out into thin disks approximately 4 inches across.
Dust well with flour or cornstarch and keep wrapped/covered until ready to use.
Ginger Mango Habanero Ribs
The best finger foods come with the stick built in. this is why chicken wings and ribs are superior to most if not all other finger foods and why boneless “ribs” and boneless “wings” are an abomination – except perhaps on sandwiches and salads and … ok, maybe abomination is too strong a word. They’re fine in their place – but as a finger food, those with bones in them still reign supreme. And in my very unhumble (when it comes to snack foods) opinion, ribs and wings should be spicy. Why? Because even when they’re really very spicy they’re not that spicy because … well, there’s not really that much to them. Finger food. Small. Bite sized bites of spicy.
Now, unlike wings, I also thing that ribs should generally-to-always also be sticky sweet. There are great spicy sticky sweet wings – Korean Fried Chicken is all those things and wonderful – but I’m comfortable making it a general rule for ribs.
These ribs are spicy sticky sweet. They’re not smokey. While you could certainly prepare them on a smoker, they’re meant as indoor, middle of winter, slightly tropical reminders that there are warm places in the world.
1 rack back ribs
2 whole habanero peppers
1 large mango
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp ketchup
½ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
juice of two limes
Preheat your oven to 325°F. Trim your ribs and cut into 4 rip sections.
Salt the ribs generously and sprinkle with the juice of one lime and the five spice powder.
Arrange the ribs on a sheet pan lined with a rack, and roast until tender and nearly falling from the bone – about 90 minutes. If they begin to look dry, cover or losely wrap In foil.
While the ribs are cooking, prepare the sauce.
Peel the mango and cut the flesh away form the seed.
Cut ¾ of the mango into large chunks.
Cut the remaining ¼ mango into 1/8th in dice and set aside.
Wearing gloves, remove the stems and seeds from the habanero peppers – if you want very spicy sauce leave the seeds but discard the stems.
Place ½ cup of water, the large mango chunks, habaneros, garlic, ginger, ketchup, vinegar, and sugar in the container of a high speed blender and process until smooth.
Transfer to a thick bottomed pot and simmer over medium low heat until thickened.
Add the finely diced mango and cook for five minutes.
Remove the ribs form the oven and brush generously with the sauce.
Raise the oven temperature to 400°F and return he ribs to the oven to caramelize the sauce.
Serve hot.
Pineapple Fried Rice in a Pineapple
I can’t tell you why I think that pineapple fried rice served in a pineapple is fancy. It’s not, really. But it’s fun. I mean, pineapples in general are fun. They’re delicious and exotic and they look like they’re wearing a festive little green hat.
This recipe calls for two unusual ingredients – one is just leftover rice. If you don’t have leftover rice, you can make rice and let it dry out – uncovered – in the refrigerator for a few hours. Old, slightly dried out rice is key to making fried rice – otherwise you’re gonna get rice mush.
The other is Chinese sausage. Specifically, the sweet, dry sort that you’ll fine in shrink wrapped packages at Asian markets. If you can’t get your hands on it or don’t want to bother, substitute bacon (cut into strops and cooked) or diced cubes of ham.
1 pineapple
12 medium shrimp
2 pieces Chinese sausage
2 cups cooked day old rice
2 green onions
1 medium yellow onion
1 medium red bell pepper
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp neutral oil.
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
Remove most of the elaves from the pineapple.
Cut the pineapple in half through the stem.
Use a large metal spoon to scoop out the pineapple flesh.
Cut the removed pineapple into 1 inch chunks, discarding the tough core pieces.
Trim, and thinly slice the green onion.
Peel, trim, and dice the onion.
Trim, seed, and dice the red pepper
Peel, devein, and remove the tails from the shrimp.
Cut the shrimp into 1-inch pieces.
Slice the Chinese sausage into thin slices.
Lightly beat the egg.
Add neutral oil to a large non-stick frying pan or wok over high heat.
Add the green onions, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry for 1 minute.
Add the pineapple, onion, pepper, and Chinese sausage and cook for 2 minutes.
Push the vegetables and sausage to the side of the pan and add the egg – stirring to scramble it – then when cooked, mix it back into the rest of the ingredients.
Add the shrimp and stir fry until the shrimp is just pink.
Add the rice and raise the heat.
Cook until the rice is warm.
Mix the soy sauce and sesame oil and drizzle over the rice – stirring and tossing to mix well.
Mound the mixture into the pineapple shell and (optionally) drizzle with hoisin and sriracha.
My grands love pineapple. This fried rice is fabulous!!
love everything for my chinese new years party (of three)