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| These were amazing. Hands down, they were the best part of the meal. |
But today is the day I’m making food from Vanuatu. The first recipe I made today is Banana and Peanut Butter Biscuits. Once I really thought about it, I figured they were probably talking about British biscuits (which are cookies in US English) rather than US biscuits (which are not sweet). It makes sense in this definition since the British were there for so long. So, the first thing I did was mix together 1 ¼ c flour, ½ tsp baking powder, ¾ tsp baking soda, and ¼ tsp salt. In a different bowl, I mixed together one stick of softened butter, ½ c of peanut butter, and 1c sugar until it was smooth, and then I added in two bananas and smashed until it was all smooth. I left my bananas a little chunky. Then I added my flour mix to the peanut butter-banana mix and stirred until it was all blended well. Then I spoon-dropped them onto a baking sheet that I lined with parchment paper. There was no oven temperature listed, so I just assumed 375ºF and left it in there until I could smell them, so about 20 minutes or so. They were really soft cookies and spread quite a bit, and even after letting them sit up for 10 minutes or so, they did firm up a bit but still fell apart pretty easily. If I were to do this again, I might think about raising the temperature to 400ºF and see if that helps with the shape any. But they were really tasty, and I think it’s safe to say that everyone liked them.
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| I really liked the subtlety of the flavors with the fish. I will probably make this again. |
The main course is Citrus Baked Fish in Coconut Cream. I used tilapia filets for this, and my recipe was kind of sketchy and lacked details. I lined a baking sheet with foil and laid out my filets on it, dusting with a little salt. Then I thinly sliced a lemon and an orange and laid them out over the fish. After sprinkling a bit of pepper on top of that, I poured over a little coconut cream on top of the fish (basically just using about a half can). Normally, these would be wrapped in banana leaves, but it’s not usually a thing found in regular grocery stores. I took another piece of foil and covered everything, folding both pieces of foil so all the juices will hopefully stay inside. I put this in the oven at about 375ºF (I’m guessing that’s ok for a “moderate oven”) and baked it for about 45 minutes. I actually liked this. It had a nice faint citrus taste to it, and the combination of orange and lemon was something I had not had before (typically, I’ve just had lemon on fish). The cream added a slight sweetness to go with the sourness of the citrus. If I were to do this one again, I’d add more pepper to it to offset both of those flavors. I really liked this, and I think my husband liked it, but the kids were kind of skeptical.
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| I actually liked the mango with the vegetables. Too bad no one else did. |
To go with this, I made Sweet and Sour Vegetables. I cut the amounts way down for this one. First I fried some onion in a large skillet for a couple of minutes. Then I added in my chopped vegetables: you can choose what you want, but I picked green beans, red bell pepper, carrots, and snow peas along with some water and coconut cream. I just added in enough vegetables that I think would be enough for four people. And I just used the other half can of the coconut cream from earlier. I let them fry for about 5-6 minutes until they were half cooked. Then I added in some diced mango to the vegetables, seasoning it with salt and pepper. I covered it with a lid and let it cook down until most of the water and cream were gone. Honestly, I liked this. I thought it was fantastic. But the others were extremely wary about fruit and vegetables cooked together. And my husband thought the mango was squash and already started retching inside.
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| If my opinion counts more than everyone else's, then this was a great meal! |
My husband and I were in a discussion after I read him my menu a few days ago. I told him about the biscuits, asking him his opinion on whether he thought they meant cookies rather than what we call biscuits here. He agreed, based on the ingredients, but then said I should really aim to find purely authentic recipes, not ones colonial powers introduced. I disagreed. Sometimes I just can’t find a lot of available recipes from countries, especially now that I’m trying to find something I haven’t cooked before. But if a recipe was introduced in the early-1800s, then it’s been a thing in that country for 200 years. So, isn’t it kind of theirs now? Most recipes we have in the US were influenced from somewhere else. I don’t know. What I do know is that I could use another cookie. Or biscuit. Or whatever.
Up next: Venezuela
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