Mumu and lamingtons
Most of my posts recently have been about history or my studies, and not so much about any baking and cooking I've been doing. That doesn't mean I haven't been trying new things, so I thought I'd share a few.
Last week I baked a packet mix - not something I do very often, but I wanted a cake fairly quickly and without wanting to spend much time mixing it. So I decided, since it was a vanilla sponge cake, to turn at least some of it into lamingtons, something I had never done before. So I cut it into squares, and mixed chocolate icing, and filled a bowl with coconut. What really surprised me was how much icing it used! I made three batches, and still it only made eleven lamingtons! Although, when I stopped to think about it, coating six sides of a cake cube means using at least four times the icing it would take to cover the top of a cake.
They tasted great, though! Some of my friends helped me eat them while we watched a movie the next evening, Red.
A friend who left the country recently left a recipe book with me, and I've been trying a new recipe from it every weekend. This week's effort involved tuna and coconut milk. Last week's effort, Texas Hash, was a bit spicy for my taste! Apparently Australian chilli powder ir much spicier than American chilli powder (according to a friend in the US)! It did mean I got more creative with the leftovers: added mashed potato to make it a bit like a shepherd's pie (without pastry) one night, then treated it like nachos another night (adding corn chips, sour cream and cheese). Other efforts have included Spanish rice (very yummy!) and a casserole (very easy!) and a Nepalese Curry (very spicy!).
A few weeks ago we had a dinner at our place for all the staff and students of the course, as two students who had been here for an intensive were leaving. Everyone brought a dish to share. And I had a go at making mumu.
If you have never heard of mumu before, it is a fairly common, traditional party meal in the Pacific. The recipe I had was from Papua New Guinea, but apparently is pretty much the same in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, from what others said. Traditional cooking involves a fire pit, banana leaves, and six or so hours of cooking time, but my recipe had a variation which is apparently in use by people living in towns and cities in PNG. So my version involved a large baking dish, chicken, vegetables and coconut milk in the oven for an hour or so. I thought it tasted great, and a few people commented that it tasted authentic, so a win!
Have you tried anything new lately? How did it turn out?
Last week I baked a packet mix - not something I do very often, but I wanted a cake fairly quickly and without wanting to spend much time mixing it. So I decided, since it was a vanilla sponge cake, to turn at least some of it into lamingtons, something I had never done before. So I cut it into squares, and mixed chocolate icing, and filled a bowl with coconut. What really surprised me was how much icing it used! I made three batches, and still it only made eleven lamingtons! Although, when I stopped to think about it, coating six sides of a cake cube means using at least four times the icing it would take to cover the top of a cake.
They tasted great, though! Some of my friends helped me eat them while we watched a movie the next evening, Red.
A friend who left the country recently left a recipe book with me, and I've been trying a new recipe from it every weekend. This week's effort involved tuna and coconut milk. Last week's effort, Texas Hash, was a bit spicy for my taste! Apparently Australian chilli powder ir much spicier than American chilli powder (according to a friend in the US)! It did mean I got more creative with the leftovers: added mashed potato to make it a bit like a shepherd's pie (without pastry) one night, then treated it like nachos another night (adding corn chips, sour cream and cheese). Other efforts have included Spanish rice (very yummy!) and a casserole (very easy!) and a Nepalese Curry (very spicy!).
A few weeks ago we had a dinner at our place for all the staff and students of the course, as two students who had been here for an intensive were leaving. Everyone brought a dish to share. And I had a go at making mumu.
If you have never heard of mumu before, it is a fairly common, traditional party meal in the Pacific. The recipe I had was from Papua New Guinea, but apparently is pretty much the same in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, from what others said. Traditional cooking involves a fire pit, banana leaves, and six or so hours of cooking time, but my recipe had a variation which is apparently in use by people living in towns and cities in PNG. So my version involved a large baking dish, chicken, vegetables and coconut milk in the oven for an hour or so. I thought it tasted great, and a few people commented that it tasted authentic, so a win!
Have you tried anything new lately? How did it turn out?
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