The first time my Mexican husband Chris tried fina'dene he called it "Islander Salsa". My Islander side of the family makes a version of salsa with Kikkoman Soy Sauce. My Papa calls it "the sauce" or "da sauce". The smell of finadene will make your mouth water and eventually pucker when you taste it - it has the right touch of POW! Just like everyone has their own version of salsa - finadene is made different too. Most of the recipes call for calamansi juice (or lemon juice) with white onions and sometimes cherry tomatoes. My version is super simple, fresh and HOT. Enjoy!
Fina'dene Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Kikkoman Soy Sauce
- 1 cup White Vinegar
- 2 Roma Tomatoes
- 4 Green Onions
- 4-6 Asian Chili Peppers
Fina'dene Directions
- Mix Kikkoman Soy Sauce and white vinegar, set aside
- Chop or crush chili peppers (Crushing the chili peppers will make it really hot)
- Add chili peppers to soy sauce and vinegar mix, let it sit for 30 minutes
- Chop tomatoes and green onions - Add to mix just before serving
It is perfect on tacos, bbq meat, chicken, fish, rice, etc. You can even use it as a base for ceviche.
The "Asian chili pepper" that is supposed to be used in finadene is called donne' or Guam boonie pepper. It has an unofficial Scoville rating of 140,000 placing it in one of the top five hottest pepper categories (more than 20x hotter than a jalapeno pepper). A few years ago, our neighbor had a donne' tree - I would sneak over to pick a few. The tree eventually died so I started looking everywhere from ethnic markets to farmers markets. I now get a small bag of Asian chili peppers (aka Japones or Thai chili peppers - they are tiny and red) from 99 Ranch Market.
Disclosure: This is a compensated post in collaboration with Kikkoman and Latina Bloggers Connect. All opinions are my own.
That made my mouth water. My husband would probably love this recipe, I'll have too show him, thanks.
ReplyDeleteOMG!!! When I was a little girl, we had finadene all the time!
ReplyDeleteMy aunt's husband was from Guam, and they always had it at all of our big family meals. My dad loved it, (I get my love of spicy food from him) but I was always too chicken to try it because it just smelled spicy and as a kid I didn't like spice.
Now that I'm older I've always thought about it and wanted to make some, but my aunt's husband was the one that always made it and he passed away. So none of us had the recipe!
I can't wait to try it! Yay!
I'm not big on spicy but the hubs definitely is. I think I should try this out for him. It sounds very interesting and I know he likes to try new things. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThese photos are beautiful and it looks so delicious! I can't wait to try it!
ReplyDeleteI have never had this. But just reading about it made my mouth water. Holy cow, where have i been. This sound delicious! I have all the ingredients. I am so making this. Thanks Xenia!
ReplyDeleteThat is something different that I can actually said I haven't heard of! Looks interesting! A must try. :)
ReplyDeleteThat looks so amazing! I might have to try something new in our casa!
ReplyDeleteOh my and Oh yeah. Those pics look amazing!! Gotta try it. BB2U
ReplyDeleteLooks great!! I bet that tastes fantastic. Very creative. :)
ReplyDeleteLooks Delish!
ReplyDeleteTracy @ Ascending Butterfly