Vegan MoFo - Stopover 20 - Vanuatu

Vanuatu is a group of 83 islands in the South Pacific. The cuisine is mainly based on seafood, root vegetables such as taro and yams, fruit and other vegetables. Papayas, pineapples, mangoes, plantains and sweet potatoes are grown abundantly and commonly used in cooking. Coconut milk and cream are used as the main flavourings of dishes.

The national dish of Vanuatu is called lap-lap, a porridge made with coconut milk. This didn't appeal to me as I'm not a cereal type of gal, so I gathered inspiration from a page full of Vanuatu recipes. I liked the sound of a recipe called green popo curry even though I wasn't sure what popo actually was. Google wasn't helpful with my popo searches initially and insisted on giving me results for poop! When I eventually worked out that popo is green papaya, the recipe had my tick of approval. I've only previously used green papaya for som tam, the notorious spicy Thai salad, so I was pleased to find another way to cook with it.  

Another dish that caught my eye was citrus (orange and lemon) baked fish in coconut cream. This captured my interest as I had been keen to try out a different tofu baking technique that Kari had posted about earlier this month - orange baked tofu parcels. I adore baked tofu but have never wrapped it in foil with seasonings prior to baking before. I envisaged that the tofu would retain a much softer texture this way.

The green popo curry was very spicy and flavoursome, the green papaya appeared to have a fairly neutral taste and a pretty study texture. The tofu turned out to be very tender and did a fine job of soaking up the orange, lemon and coconut flavours it was baked with. Although I adore lemon and limes in just about everything, I'm not as keen on oranges in savoury items so I can't see myself making this dish again the same way. I did enjoy trialling a new approach of baking tofu and am excited about trying out a totally different combination of flavours I have in mind for tofu baked parcels next time.  


Green Popo (Papaya) Curry (Adapted from a recipe on this page)

2 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
1 large onion, thinly sliced into half moons
2 cloves garlic, mined
2cm piece ginger, minced
3 small thai green chillies, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
300ml light coconut milk
½ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
1 large popo/green papaya (1.2kg), outer skin peeled, seeds removed and cut into bite sized pieces
1/3 cup lemon juice

Melt the dairy free margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, ginger and chillies and fry for 5 minutes or until the onions have softened. Stir through the curry powder and cook for a minute then pour in the coconut milk, water and salt.

Add the papaya and stir well. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir through the lemon juice and serve with cooked rice.

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Did you know?

Pentecost Island in Vanuatu is where the origins of the modern thrillseeking activity bungee jumping can be traced back to. Land diving was an ancient practice which used tree vines rather than a bungee cord. The goal was to land close enough to the ground to graze it with your hair or shoulder. It was proof of their manhood (for the survivors anyway) and it also ensured a good yam harvest for the following season!

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.

Jaffa Balls

Without intending to be overly monotonous, I wanted to share my latest rendition of the old traditional rum ball recipe, jaffa balls.

My baking of sweet things has been solely limited to chocolatey balls in recent times, as they seem to be a growing obsession with the man and son. As soon as a batch has been scoffed, I am under constant pressure to produce more (thankfully they are a cinch to throw together). If the batch runs out mid week and there is no soymilke condensed milk in the pantry, my campers are not happy at all as they have to wait until at least Saturday for their fix when I can make that next trip to the health food store.

Choc-mint balls have been a remarkable success and since they were introduced, left the standard old rum balls for dead. It led me to pondering about other types of flavours that could be used in these balls. Chocolate and peppermint has always been a favoured combination since my childhood, I would always opt for a choc-mint sweet over straight chocolate any day of the week. Not far behind would have to be chocolate and orange. Terry's chocolate orange balls and jaffas are yummy treats that immediately spring to mind from that genre.

And so with yet another single ingredient substitution, jaffa balls were born! A simple change from peppermint to orange essense gave these balls exactly the orangey touch they needed. Of course, they were declared to be the new favourites although I will be interested to see if they are still living up to their current hype a few batches down the track!

Jaffa balls

250g packet Arnott's Nice biscuits
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
330g can Soymilke soy condensed milk
2 teaspoons Maharajah's Choice orange essense
Extra desiccated coconut, for coating

Process biscuits in a food processor until they become a fine powder. Add the cocoa and 1/2 cup coconut to the food processor and pulse a few times. Transfer mixture to a bowl then add the soy condensed milk and orange essense. Mix together until everything is well combined.

Place mixture in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to give it a firmer texture which makes it easier to roll the balls. If the mixture is too soft, it gets very sticky and difficult to roll properly and the balls will not hold their shape.

Put the extra coconut into a bowl. Roll spoonfuls of mixture into balls with your hands, and then coat in coconut. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.