National Macadamia Nut Day (and a Side of Spam, Please)

Hello to everyone reading this, and a huge thank you, to my new followers! 

There were many routes I could have taken to write on today’s food holiday; I could have been factual and told you that Macadamia nuts are native to Australia, they are named for John Macadam, and most of the world's macadamia nuts are grown on the island of Hawaii.  However, that stuff was boring to me.

Recipes will always pop up on any search and I kept coming across various iterations of Macadamia White Chocolate Chip cookies.  These are delicious and I considered taking the easy out on this food holiday with an easy-bake way-to-a-man’s heart thing. But ....nah – still not ‘it.’

Next, I considered writing up the ‘trivia’ angle of the holiday when I ran across these little tidbits:

• Macadamia nuts are often fed to Hyacinth Macaws in captivity. These large parrots are one of the few animals, aside from humans, capable of cracking and shelling the nut.
• Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs. Ingestion may result in macadamia nut toxicosis, which is marked by weakness with the inability to stand within 12 hours of ingestion. Recovery is usually within 48 hours.
• Macadamia nuts are often used by law enforcement to simulate crack cocaine in drug stings. When chopped, the nuts resemble crack cocaine in color.
• When Carol Brady meets Dr. Whitehead (played by John Hillerman)in the 1996 movie, A Very Brady Sequel, he offers her a Macadamia nut. Hillerman once was the spokesman for Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts.

I suppose I could have worked with that but still, I wanted some pizzazz (if there is such a thing where macadamia nuts are concerned). I kept drilling down into various links within links and finally found just the punch I needed.  Spam.  No, not of the e-mail kind but the e-ting kind!  Doesn't this picture whet your appetite for macadamia nuts? 

No?  Well, read on and delight in the wacky ingredients in this recipe.  This is pizzazz of e-eeeeuuuuuuuwwwwww kind!

“On [a] trip to Hawaii, Barack Obama grabbed a couple of Spam Musubi at a snack bar on the golf course, sending journalists from all over the world rushing madly to Wikipedia to learn just what the heck he was eating.

“…Hawaiians have long enjoyed this tasty, if somewhat improbable, snack food. It consists of sliced Spam (usually pan-fried; sometimes broiled or grilled), cooked rice (plain or dressed with sushi vinegar), and sushi nori.

“Other ingredients can include furikake, tamago, or oyster sauce.

“Shapes can vary, too. Most often, it resembles a giant piece of nigiri sushi, with a full slice of fried Spam on top of an outsized oval of rice, held together with a strip of nori. Maki-style Spam rolls are a common variation, but there are many creative possibilities.

“Here, the basic ingredients are joined by other Hawaiian flavors in a whimsical take on a multi-layered musubi ‘terrine’ that you can serve as an appetizer or snack.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups medium-grain white rice
3-1/2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 can Spam, cut into 8 slices
2 Tbsp teriyaki sauce (or 1-1/2 Tbsp soy sauce mixed with 1 tsp sugar)
1/3 cup sushi vinegar (or 1/3 cup rice vinegar with 1 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt)
2 sheets sushi nori
1/4 cup minced scallion (green parts) or chives
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
2 Tbsp finely crushed macadamia nuts (mixed with the sesame for easier sprinkling)
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
PREPARATION:
Thoroughly rinse the rice and place in a saucepan with the water and the salt. Bring to a boil, stir, cover, reduce heat to very low and cook for 15 - 17 minutes or until water is absorbed.

While the rice is cooking, brush the spam slices with the teriyaki or soy sauce and broil until lightly colored.

When the rice is done, fluff with a fork or wooden spoon to release the steam. Spread on a platter and drizzle the sushi vinegar on the rice a tablespoon at a time, gently mixing it in.

Line a 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, leaving plenty of overlap on the sides. Take one sheet of the nori and lay it evenly across the bottom and up the two long sides of the loaf pan.

Divide the rice into fourths, and spread one-fourth in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the scallions, sesame seeds, and crushed macadamias onto the rice; spread another one-fourth of the rice on top. Create additional layers in the following order: 4 slices of Spam; rice; pineapple; Spam; rice. Press down evenly with a spatula to level.

Fold any extra nori from the sides of the pan onto the rice. Trim the remaining nori sheet to fit into the pan. Fold the extra plastic wrap over the nori and press down evenly with another loaf pan, block of wood, etc. to firm up the layers.

Allow to rest for 15 - 20 minutes before unmolding. Unwrap and slice using a wet knife. You can serve slices whole (like a terrine) or insert four evenly-spaced decorative toothpicks into the top of a slice and cut down between them, making four appetizer/snack portions out of each slice. “

This original recipe belongs to Doug DuCap who is the co-author of the Knack Fish & Seafood Cookbook: Delicious Recipes For All Seasons

A President, Spam and macadamia nuts – does it get any better than this? 

Until Tomorrow…..

Diet Coke with lemon – didn’t that used to be called Pledge? ~ Jay Leno