Lucy's Dad's Recipe for a Healthy Meal

This is a chicken dish that is especially good for improving all life functions and reducing weight.

All the ingredients are available in Lidl stores, but no doubt with a little patience and some detective work they could be sourced in AmSam

Ingredients and method:
Take a boned chicken breast per person and put it in a polythene bag together with some chopped garlic, soy sauce, salt & pepper, a little bit of oil, (and anything else you fancy.... ginger maybe) and seal it up in the fridge for a few hours.

 Then, just before dinner:-

take a mansized bowl per person and chop the following into it:

Crispy lettuce,
Asparagus spears (from my garden in this case, but tinned would be ok)
Beetroot
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Red pepper..... or any others you can get
Green olives ..... from a salt solution rather than olive oil
Fresh avocado spooned out in teaspoon sized bits
Some Heinz salad dressing stirred into the lettuce (if you are a proper food gipsy)
A good dessert spoonful of low fat cottage cheese.

anything else you can get your hands on .... eg fresh young banana (Misu Cavendishii being the preferred variety, which is very readily available in AmSam). Tinned mandarin orange well drained. fresh mango/pineapple/papaya. etc etc.

When you are ready to eat chop some mushrooms into quarters and fry them and the chicken in olive oil until the chicken is cooked through. Cut the cooked chicken into chunks or slices and serve hot on the cold salad.

Vegan Gyoza (Dumplings) with Oats

Found this recipe in Japanese and arranged the ingredients in my style. I'm not a vegan, but surprisingly these dumplings are so similar texture to the meat and tasted really good, and of course a lot healthier with lots of fiber, less calories, and no saturated fat.

Ingredients:
10 leaves of Chinese cabbage
4 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms
1 1/2 cups oats
2 cloves garlic
3 slices ginger
pepper
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp sesami oil
2 tbsp water from dried shiitake
25 pcs dumpling dough

Preparation:
Hydrate shiitake mushroom in luke warm water for an hour or till it gets soft. Save some water.

Direction:
1. Mince Chinese cabagge, mushrooms, garlic and ginger.
2. Mix all the ingredients and water from mushroom (it adds some flavor) well with hand.
3. Wrap that in the dough and seal the dough with water.
4. Heat the frying pan in medium-high heat, pour a tbsp of oil, put dumplings and color only the bottom of the dumplings till they are golden brown.
5. Add hot water in the pan (about 1cm from the bottom of the pan), put a lid on it, lower the heat and steam it for 5-6 min.
6. Drain the excess water by using the lid, keep frying for a minute or so to dry the water (to make dumplings crispy), and sprinkle tiny bit of sesame oil over the dumplings for the flavor.
7. Serve and enjoy!

Notes:
- For the dip, I normally mix soy sauce, vinegar (about 1:1) and some spicy sauce.
- You can use ground pork or ground beef instead of oats if you want.

Momma Pittkin's Banana Cake

This is a great recipe for using up bananas that have turned brown and mushy - it's actually a lot easier to make this cake with ones like that. Also, I recommend doing this with a bundt pan, but you can use whatever baking dish you have. If you'd like to borrow my bundt pan, you're welcome to it as soon as I can get it back from Jesse (THE JUICE IS RUNNIN!)

INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 4 tbsp sour cream
- 1 cup mashed bananas
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 tsp salt
- chocolate chips and/or almonds and/or walnuts

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs (lightly beaten) and baking soda dissolved in sour cream. Beat well. Add banana, flour, salt, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Add chocolate chips to taste (if you like), and/or 1/2 cup of nuts. Bake in a well greased and floured bundt pan for 35-45 minutes. Instead of chocolate chips, you can also use blueberries. Another option is to use a little less banana and add a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Enjoy!

Ginger Bok Choy & Soba

This receipe was sent to me by Marion's grandaughter that lives in Florida!
"Marion tells me that you all have a lot of bok choy in Samoa. I have a delicious recipe for your website from a great vegan cookbook called Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz." (Brittany Sears)

8 oz soba noodles (or rice noodles)
1 tsp peanut or vegetable oil
1 bunch bok choy, leaves and stems separated, sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 small red onion, cut thinly into half-moons
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB fresh ginger
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 TB soy sauce

Prepare soba noodles according to package directions. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the bok coy stems (not the leaves yet) and the onion in the oil for about 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Sate for another minute or so. Add the bok choy leaves and soy sauce. Saute for another minute, until the leaves are wilted.

By this time, the noodles should be ready. Add the drained noodles to the pan and saute for about 2 minutes, using a pasta spoon, making sure everything is nice and coated. Serve immediately.

Personal note: This dish is FAB topped with dry-fried tofu with a little chile paste or hoisin.

Cuban Flan

Some of you have had the pleasure of enjoying this already. For those who haven't, this is one of the greatest desserts and really easy to make. Recipe was given to me by a Cuban grandmother, so each flan comes with its own Certificate of Authenticity.

ITEMS NEEDED:
9x5 bread pan
large baking dish to hold bread pan in water bath

INGREDIENTS:
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 6 Eggs
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 or 4 oz of Cream Cheese (depending on how thick you like it - I recommend 4)
- 1 Can Evaporated Milk (as far as I know only come in one size)
- 1 Can Condensed Milk

PREPARATION:

Pre-heat oven at 375. May have to adjust this depending on your oven.

Melt 1 Cup of Sugar in saucepan at medium heat. Occasionally stir gently so sugar melts evenly. Once sugar is melted to syrupy consistency, pour into the 9x5 bread pan. Tilt bread pan to coat all sides evenly with the caramel sauce. You'll have to do this quickly as the sauce will cool rapidly and harden. Set bread pan aside to cool.

In mixing bowl, combine eggs, vanilla, cream cheese, evaporated milk, and condensed milk. You can mix this with a whisk or blender. Try to make the cream cheese blend as well as possible, although you'll still be left at the end with little bits floating. THIS IS OKAY! DO NOT PANIC! Pour mixture into loaf pan and enjoy cracking sound as caramel hardens.

Fill larger baking pan about half full with water. Place the bread pan inside - the water should come up about 2/3 of the way up the side of the bread pan. Cover loosely with tin foil and bake in oven for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a knife - you want it to come out clean. The flan should have a spongy consistency, but not jiggly.

Remove from water bath and allow flan to cool to room temperature. Use knife to loosen around the edges and flip flan into serving dish, letting all the syrup drizzle over top and puddle around it. Refrigerate for at least one hour to chill. Slice and serve, drizzling syrup over top.

Megan's Sesame Soba Noodles with Cucumber, Bok Choy and Mixed Greens

"In keeping with the Asian theme, here is a great recipe for your website; it was actually sent to the both of us back in '09 by the incomparable Ms. Prairie Bly. I make it every now and then, and most importantly, Sean actually eats it, which is a pretty big deal in light of his hatred of vegetables. He'll even go back for seconds. I have never been able to amass all of the vegetables for this recipe at one time, but any substitutions or deletions do not seem to effect the overall awesomeness of this light, summery meal. Nearly all of the Asian ingredients are readily available at KS Mart." (Megan Goldfarb, May 2011)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime peel
2 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper, divided
1/3 cup canola oil
8 ounces soba noodles
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
3 cups (loosely packed) mixed baby greens
2 heads of baby bok choy, cored, thinly sliced crosswise
1 English hothouse cucumber, cut into matchstick-size strips
3 green onions, cut into matchstick-size strips
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro plus sprigs for garnish
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
Salted roasted peanuts

PREPARATION
Puree first 9 and 1 teaspoon red pepper in blender until smooth. With machine running, gradually add canola oil through opening in lid. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before continuing.

Cook soba noodles in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Rinse with cold water; drain well. Using kitchen shears, cut noodles crosswise in 2 to 3 places. Drizzle noodles in strainer with sesame oil and toss to coat.

Place greens, bok choy, cucumber, green onions, chopped cilantro, and mint in large bowl. Add 1 teaspoon red pepper, dressing, and noodles; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with cilantro sprigs and peanuts and serve

Jesse’s Som Tam! Spicy Thai Papaya Salad.

"This spicy green papaya salad comes together quickly once you've prepped all the ingredients.  It really should be seasoned to taste, so please feel free to adjust the amount of chili, garlic, fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice as you go."

Ingredients
2 small or 1 large very firm green papaya
2-5 cloves of garlic
fresh hot chilis, green or red
half a bunch of long beans, cut into 1 1/2-2 inch lengths
10-15 cherry tomatoes, halved, or 3-4 small tomatoes, cut into small wedges
limes
fish sauce
sugar
roasted, roughly chopped peanuts

To prepare ingredients:
Peel papaya.  Then, you want to cut the pale green flesh into long strands.  You could use a mandoline to do this, or even just grate it, though that wouldn't give quite the texture you want.  Without an special tool, cut off thin sheets of it and then slice into matchsticks.  Set aside.

To build the salad:

Stem and deseed chilis, if you want to moderate the heat. Put garlic and chilis into a mortar (or large bowl) and pound with a pestle or wooden spoon.  You don't quite want a paste, but you want to do more than bruise them.  You can add sugar at this point to help with the process.


Add long beans, and pound with the pestle to bruise and lightly split them open.  Add tomatoes and do the same; they should hold together but be softened up.  Then add shredded papaya, 2 Tbsps fish sauce, juice of two or three limes, and sugar (if you didn't add sugar with the chilis and garlic).  Pound papaya with the pestle to bruise and allow it to start to absorb some the seasoning.  In terms of consistency, you don't want mush but a tender, well-mixed and highly seasoned salad.  Add additional fish sauce and lime juice to taste.

Serve chilled or at room temperature, with sticky rice if you have it.

Delicious Thai Fish Cakes

“I love Thai fish cakes but never thought I would be able to make them so easily.  This recipe is really easy and through Jesse’s idea to try the local lime leaves, we have discovered another local ingredient that is free and tastes amazing!  The recipe calls for fresh Kaffir lime leaves which are not locally available so we grabbed a few leaves from the tree in Alice’s garden and shredded them with a knife.  The effect was simple quite amazing!”

Ingredients 
500 grams white fish meat, minced or chopped (we used the milk fish that you can get in any of the stores such as Aveina or Flymart) but Phil had to fillet them first which was a bit of a hassle.  We used the meat from 2 fish (plus one mahi mahi steak that I had in the freezer), the end result was 10 delicious fish cakes.

1 egg

1/2 cup local string beans, chopped finely
3 tbsp. fresh lime leaves, minced or chopped (find someone who has a lime tree)










1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. of red curry paste (Sometimes they have this in Laufou but not at the moment so this is a good thing to bring from off island.  I used green curry paste and it worked fine).  You can also make Thai curry paste from scratch.
3 cups cooking oil for frying

Preparation:
Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well knead by hand until it sticks.  Don’t worry if it seems sloppy.  I thought mine was too sloppy but if you form the cakes in your hand and drop them straight into the hot oil, they cook fine.
Form patties (about 3" in diameter) and deep fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.  This takes 3 – 5 mins for each fish cake.  I drained them into kitchen paper to get rid of the excess oil.

Serve with sweet chilli sauce or cucumber relish.

Ingredients for Cucumber Relish:
1 cup diced cucumber
1/2 cup ground roasted peanuts
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar or rice wine vinegar

Preparation:
Mix sugar and vinegar in the pot and heat.
When the mixture comes to the boil, remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Spoon into a cup, add diced cucumber, tomato and top with ground peanuts.

Jesse, Phil and Lucy do Thai!

Thai food

Thai is my favourite food and I don’t eat enough of it!  Last week, Jesse came around and we decided to make a few recipes that we have been talking about for a while.  In particular, I have been thinking of Som Tam since I arrived here 3 years ago but never had the courage to make it!  Jesse is a great cook so he prepared a delicious Som Tam.  His recipe is below and I recommend that everyone should try it.  I made Thai fish cakes with some help from Phil which turned out surprisingly well.  We had a few extras too but you will have to ask us in person about those!  I am going to put the recipes separately in the next two posts! I hope you will also try them.  I am planning to try Leslie’s Pad Thai this week.  Mmmmm.

Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup

Having never cooked bitter melon but long being curious, I was excited to see it at Fly Mart (as well as TSM and Family Mart). People tend to love it or hate it, but I found it pleasantly bitter. It's also purported to have medicinal properties, and is especially suited for hot, humid weather...read more here.

Ingredients

2 bitter melons (look for larger ones)

1/2 lb ground pork

3-4 dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked and cut into strips

small handful of bean thread noodles (optional)

3 cloves garlic, minced

a shallot or 1/2 onion or 2-3 scallions, minced

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

6 cups of a combination of broth and water, seasoned with fish sauce

lime, cilantro, and scallions for garnish

Soak bean thread noodles in hot water until soft but not cooked through, and chop into 1/2-1 inch pieces. Combine with ground pork, mushroom, garlic, onion, fish sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper. Mix well and set aside.

Bring broth and water to a boil. Feel free to use all broth--I use about 3 cups broth and 3 cups water with about 2 tablespoons of fish sauce. You can use just water, but be sure to season liberally with fish sauce.

Trim ends off bitter melon, and slice into roughly 2-3 inch lengths. With a paring knife or a spoon, remove and discard the white pith and seeds, leaving a hollow cylinder. Stuff bitter melon with pork mixture and add to broth. Lower heat and simmer until the melon is tender.

Serve with chopped cilantro and scallions and lots of lime.

Condensed Milk Substitute

SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK SUBSTITUTE
2 eggs 1 c. brown sugar (i've also used half white sugar when I ran out of brown sugar) 1 tsp. vanilla 2 tbsp. flour 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt Mix all ingredients and use as a substitute for sweetened condensed milk in recipes for pies, bars and desserts.

Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 7 graham crackers, crushed (or pre-made crust from cost-u-less $1.99)
• 
  
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (See post for condensed milk sub if not available)
• 1/4 cup lime juice (or Rose's Sweetened lime juice from cost-u-less in liquor section)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Spray the bottom of one 9 inch pie pan with no fat cooking spray. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on the bottom of the pan. (or just use pre-made crust tin from cost-u-less)
2. In a mixing bowl beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in the condensed milk until smooth. Add lemon juice (or lime juice) mixing well. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
3. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 40 to 45 minutes or until center is set. Cool and then chill. Keep cake refrigerated. (it takes things too long to cool here so I like to just stick it in the freezer). then move it to the lower fridge if serving the next day.

Add flavors

-to make lime flavored, set aside 2-3tblsp of cheesecake mixture and add up to 1 tablespoon of lime juice. Mix until smooth. frost top of cheesecake before serving.

-to make chocolate swirl, put chocolate chips (from cost-u-less) on top before baking. after 5 min in oven, use a stick/chopstick to swirl the melted chocolate around. follow the rest of the directions. more chips = more chocolatey.

-you can also make chocolate frosting the same way as the lime frosting but just with however many chocolate chips you like depending on preference.

-or you can melt a lot more chocolate chips into the whole mixture on low heat to have a more chocolatey cheesecake.

Chuka don (Chinese rice bowl)

Ingredients:

1 small carrot

4 pieces of green beans

5 leaves or more of lettuce

1/4 cup of dried fungi ($0.95 at TSM mart)

1 onion

7-8 oz shredded turkey

2 tbsp of oyster sauce

1 tsp of soy sauce

1 tbsp of sesame oil for frying, 1 tsp of sesame oil to sprinkle

1 1/2 cups of water

2 tbsp of corn starch and 2 tbsp of water (mix)

black pepper

2 cups of rice

Preparation:

- Hydrate the dried fungi in a bowl of luke warm water for 30 min. then wring them.

- Cut all the vegetables in the similar sizes so that they'll be cooked evenly.

Direction:

1. Stirfry all the vegetables and meat with 2 tbsp of sesame oil.

2. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, and pepper, to a little stronger taste than you think good enough, then add 1 1/2 cups of water.

3. Let it boil, then add the mixture of corn starch and water while stirring the stirfried food. Make sure corn starch is well dissolved.

4. Stop the heat, and sprinkle 1 tsp of sesame oil for the aroma.

5. Serve it on the bed of rice, and enjoy!

*Serves 3 people

Note:

- "Chuka" means Chinese and "don" means rice bowl in Japanese. We normally serve this food in a big bowl with rice on the bottom and stirfried thing on top of that rice. Don't ask me why it's called Chinese rice bowl in Japan!

- For the lettuce, I just used the leftover vegetable, so any leafy veggie is fine. Ideally, cabbage or Chinese cabbage since I want to save the lettuce for the fresh salad. Use it a lot since they lose the volume easily with the heat which means you can consume a lot of vegetables.

- For the meat, again, I used the leftover turkey meat, but I normally prefer using pork. Slices of chicken or beef are good alternatives too. Can be strips of bacon or lunch meat too. Baically, any meat is great, seafood is even better.

- You can add any other vegetables or eggs. I usually try to make it colorful.

- You'll add the water to make it thick with cornstarch, so you can put a little more spice/sauce than you think enough - the water and the corn starch dilute the whole thing eventually.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

1 large red or white onion

Two carrots

A hunk of peeled chopped cucumber (or a whole one)

1 tbs grated ginger

Chillies

1 Lime

½ can chopped pineapple

1 can tomatoes

A large fresh tomato (optional)

Fish sauce (optional)

½ cup water

1 tablespoon of tomato puree (optional)

Salt

Peanuts (optional) 

Ground nut oil (supposed to be really good for you and available in KS Mart)

Sesame oil (optional)

Method

1. Chop the chicken into 1.5” chunks and sprinkle with lime juice, fish sauce and grated ginger (set aside)
2. Chop the onion roughly and soften in large hot skillet with mix of ground nut oil (2/3) and sesame oil (1/3)
3. When the onion is soft, move to one side of the large pan and add the chicken pieces.  Cook the chicken on each side until it is cooked through but still tender and remove it (put it on kitchen towel to the side)

1. Add the sliced carrots, chillies and cucumber to the pan.  Stir fry for approx 10 mins until the carrots are just tender.
2. Add the juice of one lime, a few tablespoons of pineapple juice (from the can), the chopped tomatoes, ½ cup of water, fresh tomato, chopped pineapple and peanuts.  Mix well, put lid on plan and cook for 5-7 minutes.
3. Add the chicken pieces, season to taste and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serves 2 – 4 people.

Serve with rice and enjoy!!

Note: When no other fresh produce is available in Tutuila, you can usually always get carrots and chicken (plus most of the other ingredients on this list) so it is a good one to cook when supplies are low!

Pad Thai

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar -KS, Fly
• 1/4 cup soy sauce (or 1/8 soy 1/8 fish sauce)
• 2 tablespoons tamarind pulp (optional haven't seen on island)

• 1 (12 ounce) package dried rice noodles

• 1/2 cup peanut oil-KS mart
• 4 clove segments minced garlic
• 4 eggs
• 1 (12 ounce) package firm tofu (cut into cubes)-KS/Fly

• 1 1/2 cups ground peanuts
• 1 lime, cut into wedges-KS or sweetened lime juice from cost-u-less in liquor aisle

Other optionals: green onion, bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms (re-hydrated dried shitake from KS), shredded pork, beef, chicken, mock duck (not on island), shrimp, squid.

Directions

1. Prepare noodles as directed on package (some you have to boil, others you soak in water); drain (rinse in cold water to prevent sogginess) and set aside. (Under-cooking noodles slightly is better since you need to stir fry them again later.)
2. To prepare Pad Thai sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, blend sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and tamarind pulp (optional). Set aside.
3. Scramble and cook eggs, set aside
4. If you have any meats, cook it now. In a large skillet or wok over medium heat, warm oil and add garlic. Add tofu (and other optional veggies and pre-cooked meats) and stir until well mixed; add noodles and stir until cooked. Add eggs.
5. Stir in Pad Thai sauce. Stir in peanuts. Remove from heat.
6. Serve with lime on the side. Or drizzle a cap-full.

Feeds 4-6 people.

Flymart

Flymart is located in Nu'uuli a couple of buildings down from Family Mart (towards Tafuna).  There is no name on the sign but this photo shows what it looks like.  Fly is a great place to find treats like Balsamic Vinegar (although you have to buy 5 litres which will last a while); tahini (sometimes) and a variety of noodles and herbs.  They also have mung beans which are great for sprouting and adding to salads and stir frys.  Sometimes you can get good plum tomatoes, bags of spinach (also they sometimes have trays of baby spinach for $2) and pomelos as well as local veggies such as bagged chillies, limes and aubergine (egg plant).