coconut 'breaded' fish

Nauru is a tiny country, a little island with no space to grow vegetables or have cattle ,so the meat they eat comes from a can and the vegetables are frozen. The only fresh ingredients are coconuts and fish. 

The marinated fish is breaded using coconut instead of bread. The mixture of fish and coconut is ideal. This recipe is easy and tasty.

Ingredients:

- 2 white fish steaks.
- 1 lime.
- 60 g grated coconut.
- Salt.
- Peppper.
- Flour.
- 1 egg.
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil.

Method:

1- Put the fish in a dish, sprinkle salt and pepper both sides. Besides,  sprinkle half a lime juice, let stand for 5 or 10 minutes.

2- Put flour in one dish, beaten egg in other dish and grated coconut in a third dish.
Put the fish on the flour dish ,put the flour on both sides of the fish, then put the fish on the dish with the eggs, bath the fish both sides, then put the fish in the coconut dish and put coconut on both sides of the fish.

3- Put some coconut oil in a frying pan, fry the fish on a low heat until it gets golden.

Receta en Español
Here you have a video of the recipe:

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

Nauru

Crab Salad from Micronesia

                                                                                Receta en Español

Seafood is essential in Micronesia, besides crabs are very abundant and tasty. 

Today we are going to try a typical salad in these islands, as they do in Kosrae, I saw the recipe at this link: http: //www.realfoodtraveler.com/2013/09/mangrove-crab-salad-recipe/ 

We will use crabs and a mayonnaise sauce with mustard and lime as dressing.

Ingredients (2 - 4 people):

-  2 Crabs.
-  Some lettuce leaves.
-  2 eggs.
-  1 cucumber.
-  2 tablespoons chopped red onion.
- a splash of lime juice.
- 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard seeds.
- salt.
- white pepper.
- oil.
- a pinch of dill leaves.

Method:

1- Once the crabs are cooked, (I bought them already cooked). The first thing to do is to remove the meat from the crabs, from the body and from the legs. This takes a lot of time, so be patient.

2- Boil one egg, cut cucumber into slices.

Place some lettuce leaves on the base, add cucumber on top of the leaves, then some onion and the crab meat.

3- Now is time to cook the sauce. Grind some mustard seeds.

4- Make a mayonnaise with the egg, sunflower oil, a dash of lime juice ,a pinch of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of ground mustard seeds. Add some dill.

My comments ti the Recipe

This is a very easy recipe, the sauce with a touch of lime and mustard seeds combine perfectly with the crabs.

It is very fast to do, except obtaining meat from the crabs.

Where to find the ingredients

Mustard seeds can be bought at a lot of grocery shops located near 'Lavapiés' metro station.

I bought in a shop where you can find all kind of indian products:  desi gourmet   (Ricardo Ortiz 24, Madrid).

Federated States of Micronesia

Rice Solomon Islands style

                                                                               Receta en Español

It is difficult to find recipes from The Solomon islands, I came up with this dish watching pictures from people that have lived there  and post pictures of what they eat on the internet.
I have observed that this dish is the most popular, Rice in soya sauce with vegetables accompanied by fish.

To cook in Europe with similar fish from the kind of fishes they consume, we can use red bream or red snapper.

This recipe shows the influence of the european and asian gastronomies in the Solomon islands.
It is a juicy rice thanks to de soya and vegetables.





Ingredients:

•   1 green pepper.
•   1 spring onion.
•   1/2 eggplant.
•   1 tomato.
•   Soya sauce.
•   Salt.
•   1 cup of rice.
•   2 cups of water.
•   1 lime.

   

Method:

1-   Cut pepper and onion into stripes.

2-   Sautée  onion and pepper in a casserole with some oil for 3 minutes on a high heat.

3-   Cut tomato and eggplant.

4-   Add eggplant and tomato to the casserole, cook for 10 minutes.

5-   Pour some soya sauce, rice and water. Put on a high heat until it reaches boiling point, then turn it to a low heat and cook for 20 minutes.

6-   After the 20 minutes , turn off the heat and let it stand covered with a cloth.

7- Now it is time to cook the fish, salt both sides of the fish, put some oil in a recipient for oven. Put the fish into this recipient. Make 3 cuts on the fish and place 3 lime slices into each of them.

8- Preheat oven at 175 ºC, cook in oven at the same temperature for 30 minutes.

9- Serve a piece of fish accompanied by rice.



Solomon Islands

Pumpkin,coconut and lime Soup (Solomon islands)

                                                                              Receta en Español

There is not a lot of information about the gastronomy at Solomon islands, I found this recipe in this site dedicated to the soups of the world:
http://soupsofourplanet.com/2014/11/10/solomon-islands-curried-coconut-and-lime-gourd-soup/
They use the typical ingredients of these islands; pumpkin,coconut and lime.

Ingredients:

•   2 tablespoons oil.
•   4 chalotes.
•   2 tablespoons ground ginger.
•   2 cloves of garlic.
•   800 grams of pumpkin.
•   4 cups of broth. (1 liter aprox).
•   2 cups of water. (480 ml).
•   3 tablespoons of ground curry.
•   1 cup of coconut milk (240 ml).
•    lime juice.
•    Salt.

For Broth:

•  Some leaves of spring onions.
•  Some leek leaves.
•  1 clove of garlic.
•  1 chunk of onion.
•  1 chunk of pepper.
•   Salt.
•   Parsley.

   

Method:

1-  We prepare a broth putting the ingredients in a casserole with water.  Put fire on a high heat and bring it to a boil. Once it reaches boiling point, turn fire on a low heat ,then cook for 30 minutes.

2-  Cut the chalotes in little pieces, sauté them in a casserole with oil for 3 minutes until they are golden.

3-  Add garlic cut into slices together with ginger, sauté 1 more minute.

4-  Peel and cut pumpkin into little pieces, Add it to the casserole. Add the cup of broth and cup of water.

Put on a high heat until it reaches boiling point, then turn to a low heat and cook covered for 30 minutes until pumpkin is soft.

Don't forget to add salt.

5-  Make a purée with the help of a blender.

6-  Add curry, coconut milk and lime juice.

7-  Stir well and serve with some basil on the top:



Solomon islands

Pudding and Souse

                                                                               Receta en Español

Pudding and Souse is a traditional dish in Barbados,it is usual to take it on saturdays.

'Souse' is mainly pork and cucumber marinated in lime juice. This is a dish for brave people because one of its ingredients is the hottest pepper in the world Pimiento Scotch bonnet, it is much more spicy than a 'jalapeño'.

The parts of the pig usually in this dish are ears,hands and snout,but you can also use pork loin as I did :-).

The pudding that accompanies the 'Souse' is made of sweet potato, years ago they were used to add pig blood to give a darker color to the pudding, nowadays they use food colouring or leave it with the natural color of the sweet potato.

This dish has a good taste and it lasts a lot of days, given that it is marinated.

Take into account that we must prepare it at least 6 hours before lunch or better the day before.

Ingredients for Souse:

• 700 grams of pork loin.
• 1 onion.
• 2 o 3 cucumber.
• Pepper Scotch bonnet (or other type of chilli).
• Juice of 3 limes.
• Chopped parseley.
• 2 bay leaves.
• Some peppercorns.
• Salt.

Ingredients for the Pudding:

•   600 grams of sweet potato.
•   1/2 teaspoon of thyme.
•   1/2 teaspoon marjoram.
•   1 teaspoon of chive.
•   Pepper Scotch bonnet (or other type of chilli).
•   A pinch of sugar.
•   A pinch of salt.
•   60 grams of butter.

Method for the Souse:

1-  Salt pork loin both sides, besides, sprinkle some lime juice over both sides too, let stand for 30 minutes.

You can see at the pictures the differences after 30 minutes. 

2-  Wash the meat and put it in a pot with some boiling water , bay leaves and peppercorns. Let it cook for 1 hour at medium - low heat.

3- Place the meat under cold water to let it get cool fast , then cut it into stripes 1 centimeter dick. Cut cucumber into slices , cut onions in little pieces. Place everything in a crystal bowl.

4- Add salt, lime juice and some water until all the ingredients are covered. Let stand at least for 6 hours (at room temperature).  If you let it stand more time it will be better. It must be served at room temperature accompanied by the sweet potato pudding.



Method for the Pudding:

5-  Peel and grate the sweet potatos.

6-  Instead of grating the sweet potato you can also use a food processor to crush them.

7-  Put the sweet potato in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients for the pudding (thyme, marjoram, sugar, salt, chive,Pepper Scotch bonnet) , mix well.

  

8-  butter  an oven proof recipient , then put the pudding inside and pour the rest of the butter over the pudding.





 9-  Preheat oven at 350 º C for 10 minutes, then cook for 30 minutes at the same temperature.

My comments to the Recipe

The lime sour mixed with the pudding sweet is a great mixture, besides the spicy is a very refreshing combination. Because of the lime the chilli itching vanish little by little after some days.





Barbados