SOLOMON ISLANDS: THE FOOD

It's been a whirlwind weekend to wind down my kids' fall break. The weather is finally acting like fall, and I'm grateful we're in the final weeks before Election Day. Those ads are getting super annoying at this point. We finally finished putting together Halloween costumes, and the last year of my 30s begins in less than a week. The trees are finally starting to turn colors slightly, but I think they're about a week behind since we had such a warm start to fall -- which is good for me because traditionally, the peak season for central Indiana might FINALLY fall on my birthday instead of the week before.

I hate wasting food, but this one just couldn't be salvaged. You can't win them all. 

Even thought it's crisp outside now, I'm expanding summer a bit by making food from Solomon Islands. The first thing I made was Cassava Pudding. Unfortunately, this one goes into the same category as the wine venison for not turning out good at all. First of all, it was hard to find a bread recipe specifically from Solomon Island. So, I found this recipe, and instead of 2 lbs of cassava roots and grating it myself, I used tapioca flour, which is similar to cassava. I put in 4 c of tapioca flour, 2 c of brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder, and 2 c of coconut milk into a bowl and mixed well. Then I stirred in 2 eggs and 6 Tbsp of melted butter and stirred again until it was smooth. While stirring, I poured in a cup of hot water and stirred until everything was incorporated. I poured this batter into a glass baking dish that I had sprayed down with cooking spray and put it in a 350F oven for 45 minutes. It didn't seem like it was really set up, so I left it in a little longer and took it out to set. It smelled good because of the cinnamon and brown sugar, but the texture was very... gelatinous. The texture reminded me of Japanese mochi. My daughter tried one bite, and she put it back. I just think this is just not a texture we're used to. I know it's something found in many Asian cuisines; American cuisine only uses this texture in fruity sweet desserts. So maybe that's it. And maybe using the tapioca flour wasn't the best ingredient. It got a huge zero from us.

I had this for my lunch today. Still good after two days.

However, the main dish was Devilled Chicken, and it was much better. I boiled a bunch of chicken thighs and then removed them from the water. Coating them with some flour, I then lightly fried them, and set them off to the side. After I got done with the chicken, I lightly fried some minced garlic and vegetables: I used half a bag of frozen mirepoix mix and half a bag of frozen three-pepper blend (green, red, yellow bell peppers). I put my chicken in my large pot, added in my vegetables, 2 small cans of tomato sauce, 100mL of soy sauce, a vegetable stock cube (I didn't have any chicken stock cubes), a tsp of sugar, and a cup of the chicken broth I reserved from boiling the chicken (you can also use water, but why waste this wonder broth?). I served this with white rice. I really liked this, albeit, maybe I would've added a bit of salt to the sauce or something. There were essentially no spices. I'm not sure what spices are readily available in the Solomon Islands, but I assume they at least have some salt. This dish went over pretty well with most of the family, I'd say.

Green beans are a favorite in my family, so I'll probably reuse this recipe again.

To go with this, I made Bean Curry. I started with the best of starters: sautéing garlic and onions together. Then I added in my own concoction of "curry powder": cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and turmeric. (I thought I had some curry powder left, but I must've used it all.) Once I stirred all the spices in with the garlic and onions, I added in a pound of green beans, stirring to coat. I put the lid on my skillet and let it cook down for about 7 or 8 minutes. Once it was done, I took it off the heat and sprinkled a little lemon juice on top. I thought this was really good, except I think some of my onions got slightly burnt, so I gave the entire dish a slight burnt flavor. But overall, I think most everyone liked them.

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

I had a recipe I pulled for a fruit punch drink, but I remembered at the last minute that my blender had burnt up. And on top of that, I didn't have time to chase down a couple of the fruits the recipe called for: a pawpaw (which I had not had before) and a starfruit (which I have). So, I ended up making a fruit salad out of the fruits I bought: banana, watermelon, mango, pineapple, and lime (to squeeze over it so my bananas wouldn't turn brown). I even added some coconut flakes on it to really make it "tropical." It was good, but it was another lesson in learning to adapt. So many times, I pick way more recipes than I have time to cook, or the energy or funds to go looking for odd ingredients, or realize that I don’t even have the necessary equipment to make it. But I hate wasting food, so I will usually find some use for the little bits of ends left over. Food is getting more expensive, and the lessons of frugality our grandparents perfected are certainly coming in handy.

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