Coconuts!
07 June 2012
Last weekend we bought a small basket, (12) coconuts from a roadside vendor in Nuku'alofa. They make a basket using a palm frond then the partially husked coconuts are displayed and sold in it. There is a photo of Brad and his helpers bringing them to the dinghy in our photo gallery.
Back at the boat we cracked one open and enjoyed our immediate fill of fresh coconut. OK, now there are 11 left. Let's make coconut cream! Out with the grater and a piece of cheesecloth. We peeled, then grated up 1 1/2 nuts in the cheesecloth, then Brad squeezed the meat until he could squeeze no more. 1/2 cup of the best coconut cream you can imagine but ... there's a reson they sell it in cans.
We made two great meals with taro leaves, carrots, cucumber, onion and peppers using the cream and peanut sauce. Served over rice it was quite delicious, but about those Taro leaves.
In the islands they boil them much like Spinach so I followed suit. The woman we bought them from said 30 minutes so I went for 20. Less mushey, right? Well, roughly a minute after the frst bite I had the sudden recall of an article I read a few years ago about cooking Taro. It seems that both the leaves and root contain oxcalic acid crystals, which unless cooked to the extreme, cause a rather annoying irritation (itching) in one's mouth. At least it doesn't kill you, so we enjoyed? what was left of the meal. In the interest of propane consumption (cooking time) we've decided to forego taro in the future and will look for the local bele (spinach) on our next trip to the market.