I love finger food, especially during hot summer periods when you don’t want to overeat on heavy food. Sometimes I only prepare a few finger food choices for dinner at home, and we feel very good eating that way. This recipe is a delicious meaty appetizer full of Asian flavors. The creamy, meaty, sour, crunchy, salty, and spicy ingredients all on one small spoon create a wonderful taste experience. If you like it more spicy, like us, you can experiment and add more chilis.
Have you ever heard of salicornia? Salicornia is a nutritious sea vegetable, also called sea beans or sea asparagus. It is a plant that grows in salty soil in shallow water along the shore. Its taste is crisp and crunchy with an intensely salty flavor. It’s high in protein and also a good source of vitamin A, calcium, and iron. You can eat it raw in a salad, steamed, or stir fried, like in my recipe. Make sure to not add extra salt when cooking with salicornia as it’s salty enough. Here I used coconut aminos instead of soy sauce to avoid making it too salty.
I’m addicted to spicy food. In fact, when starting with a savory breakfast in the morning, some spicy chili peppers have to be on my plate already. The following recipe is my version of an Asian chili garlic paste that is free of refined sugar or artificial additives. I use this paste in my Asian-influenced dishes. Since I try to leave out sugar and artificial additives, I now work on preparing my own pastes and sauces. Because of the added coconut oil and vinegar, you can easily store the paste in your fridge for up to two weeks or freeze it in small ice cube portions.
With Chili Con Carne you can never go wrong. It’s great as a midnight dish if you’re having a big party e.g. for New Year’s eve, and it’s also one of my kid’s favorite foods. All three of them like it very much, which does not happen often these days. I cook it almost every other week because it’s a good source of nutrition for their weekday meals and very easy and quick to prepare. I love to add cumin and cinnamon because it creates a very nice flavor.
