Coconut Mousse

Coconut is a staple ingredient in Nauru, it is one of the few ingredients that you can find fresh. Coconut Mousse is one of the common desserts you can find in these islands, using coconut as main ingredient.

Ingredients (For 4-6 people):

- 500 ml coconut milk.
- 65 g sugar.
- 125 g grated coconut.
- 6 sheets of gelatin or 1 sachet de gelatin powder.
- 200 ml whipping cream
- 50 g sugar for the cream.
- 4 dessert spoon vanilla sugar.
- 2 egg whites.

Method:

1- Mix coconut milk with sugar and grated coconut, stir well and heat. Be careful, it must not reach the boiling point.

2- Before it reaches the boilling point, turn off the heat and add the gelatin, stir until the mixture gets cold.

3- whip the cream , once it is whipped add vanilla sugar  and stir gently to mix it well.

4- Whip the egg whites until you get a meringue, it is , you put the bowl upside down and it doesn't fall.

5- Add the whipped cream to the coconut milk bowl, mix with encircling movements.

6- Add the whipped whites , mix using encircling movements.

7- Put the mixture in the glasses you are going to use to serve the Mousse, put it in the fridge at least for 4 hours.

8- You can sprinkle some grated coconut on  top.

Receta en Español

You can also see this recipe on Youtube::

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Nauru

Coconut Pudding (Angola)

                                                                                                                      Receta en Español

Coconut desserts are typical in Angola. 'Cocada amarela' is the most popular, but today I present another dessert worldwide known made with coconut: Coconut Pudding.

We are going to cook it using microwave, an easy and fast recipe!.

Ingredients:

• 250g condensed milk.
• 4 eggs.
• 125 g grated coconut.
• 500 ml whole milk.
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch.
• 100 g sugar.

Method:

Put 100 grams sugar and 50 ml water in a saucepan, heat over medium heat. Stirr until sugar is well disolved. Once it happens, stop stirring to prevent it to crystallize.  
The moment the caramel begins to turn light brown, turn the heat off. 
The remaining heat in the saucepan will be enough to finish the cooking of the caramel.

Pour caramel at the bottom and sides of a microwave safe pudding baking mold.

In a blender combine eggs, milk, condensed milk , grated coconut and cornstarch, blend and pour over the caramelized sugar.

Cook in microwave at maximum power for 10 minutes.

Let cool for several hours, It is better to place it into the fridge during 12 hours and then unmold and taste it!.



Comments to the Recipe

It is delicious, condensed milk provides softness and sweetness . It is very easy and fast.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Angola

Sopaipillas from Potosí (Bolivia)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Sopaipillas are a typical treat from Potosí, a Bolivian city.

In all festivals and fairs of this city you can see street stalls selling this sweets, together with chambergos and tawa-tawas, all of them made of flour and sweetend with honey or syrup. 
Today I present the recipe of Sopaipillas, not only typical in Bolivia, but also in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, U.S.A and Spain where they are called Sopaipas.

The origin of this treat is Spain, it was taken to America by the spanish settlers. The repice has changed a Little. This way, every place has its own recipe of Sopaipillas. 

Here you have the way they make them in Potosí, Bolivia:


Ingredients (70 simple sopaipilla):

-  200 grams margarine or butter.
-  230 grams ground panela (or Brown sugar).
-  4 eggs.
-  800 grams flour.
-  1 sachet yeast.
-  1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder.
-  Cane syrup.
-  Powdered sugar or grated coconut to sprinkle over the sopaipillas.

Method:

1- Put in a bowl butter at room temperatura together with Brown sugar or panela, use a mixer to mix well. If you use ground panela the mixer will be good to grind it thinner.

2- Add eggs, mix well:

3- Add vanilla and flour, mix all the ingredients with encircling movements with the help of a spatula:

4- Add yeast and keep on mixing. Kneat the dough until you get an homogeneous mixture. Let stand for half an hour.

5- Sprinkle some flour over a Surface, spread dough with the help of a rolling pin, dough must be 1 cm thick.

6- Take a round mold ,about 6 cm of diameter and cut the dough.

7- Put baking paper over a baking tray and place the cut dough on it.
Preheat oven at 170ºC, then cook sopaipillas for 10 minutes at the same temperature, heat up and down.

8- Once sopaipillas are cooled , it is time to bath them in Cane syrup. Take a brush and paint with the syrup just one face of the half of the 'cookie', to form sopaipilla join two 'cookies' placing the cane syrup in the middle.

9- Then paint the top surface and borders. Sopaipilla can be formed by two 'cookies' or just one, always leaving the lower part without cane syrup. 

10- Sprinkle powdered sugar or grated coconut over the sopaipilla. And that is!.

My comments to the Recipe

It has a natural and wonderful taste , grated cocunut goes very well with panela and cane syrup, it is soft an delicate.
I made the recipe with margarine , I suppose with butter it is even tastier ,but it could be heavier.

Where to by the ingredients

Panela and cane syrup can be bought at latin food stores. I bought it at  Hermanos Machado 24 , Calle Collados. Metro quintana.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

                                                                  By Caleb Moore (xrmap flag collection) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Coconut rice Pacific way

                                                                               Receta en Español

It has been a real challenge trying to find recipes , or at least the name of typical dishes, of Kiribati.

Luckily I came across this website :(http://www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki/) where they explain what is life like in Kiribati and offers travel guides where you can find a short description of main dishes consumed in these islands.

Rice doesn't grow in these islands, but it has become a common ingredient in normal meals in Kiribati.

The dish I present today is rice cooked in coconut milk, where they take advantage of the great amount of coconuts of the islands.

This is an easy and delicious recipe.

I already cooked coconut rice for Belize : http://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2015/09/coconut-rice-belizean-style.html

Todays' recipe is very similar, adding toasted coconut which turns the rice even more delicious.

Ingredients:

•   1 clove of garlic.
•   1 cup rice .
•   1 cup coconut milk.
•   1 ½ cups of water.
•   50 grams of grated coconut.
•   Salt.

Method:

1-   We pour oil in a pot and fry the garlic for a minute over medium heat.

2-  Add the rice and fry it with the garlic a minute over medium heat.

3-  Pour into the pot a cup of coconut milk, 1 ½ cups of water and salt , put the pot over high heat until it boils, at this momento, low the heat to minimum and cook for 20 minutes.

The minutes of cooking are an approximation, it depends on the hardness of the rice, you should take care and look if it is done before those 20 minutes.
Once it is done, turn off the heat and let it rest for a few minutes covering the pot with a cloth.

4- Let rice stand, meanwhile toast grated coconut.
Put grated coconut in a saucepan whithout oil, (coconut has its own oil).
 Put the saucepan at low heat , stirr with a wooden spoon. The moment we see that coconut starts to change its color to a light golden brown , we put away from heat and continue stirring.
It will keep on toasting with the remaining heat in the saucepan.
When it reaches the desired color, put the coconut in a dish.

This is the way it should look like:

Sprinkle a little toasted coconut over the rice:

Coconut rice is used to accompany other dishes, but it also is eaten alone. I ate it as a side dish of the fish I will present you next week.

My coments to the recipe

Coconut adds a special softness and taste to the rice, besides grated coconut on top of the rice turns it even tastier, it is easy to cook and a delicious dish.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Kiribati