Jamaican Pineapple Salsa

I had so many dishes from Jamaica month that I just couldn't get around to posting them all last month, so I've got a few stragglers to share with you. I'm a huge fan of fruity salsas, and I wanted to share this one with you before pineapple goes completely out of season! Enjoy the last of the lovely warm weather with a Jamaican cocktail and some gorgeous fresh and tangy pineapple salsa.

I think the jalapeños have the loveliest flavour for this dish, but if you want it even more brightly colourful then chopped red chilli would look lovely.

Jamaican Pineapple Salsa

Ingredients
2 cups fresh diced pineapple
1 jalapeño chilli, finely minced (I like to leave the hot bits in, but you can remove them first if you prefer)
2 tbsp. finely chopped mint
2 tbsp. finely chopped coriander
3-4 shallots, sliced
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp brown sugar
Salt and pepper

To Make:
1. Combine all ingredients. Store in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to let the flavours deepen.
2. Serve.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Jamaica.

Check out my other Jamaican recipe posts:

Jamaican Rum Punch

Jerk Tofu & Pineapple Skewers

Jamaican Peanut Punch

Gizzada (Coconut & Brown Sugar Tarts)

Old-time Jamaican Lemonade

Jamaican Ginger Cake

Callaloo

Jamaican Patties

Jerk Sweet Potato Chips

Filipino Adobo Tofu with Pineapple and Bamboo Shoots

March is Philippines month on the blog, and I'm looking forward to sharing a lot of new dishes with you. As with a lot of Asian nations, the Philippines has a long history of association with a lot of different countries - all of which have influenced their cuisine. The resulting cuisine has Malaysian, Spanish, Chinese and even American influences which have contributed to their unique cuisine. Generally, I have to say, it's a very meaty country! They love eating their pigs over there and most of the recipes I found contained several part of the pig. But I found a smattering of lovely vegetarian dishes hidden amongst all the meat and have more than enough to share a month's worth of recipes with you.

I'm going to start with some Adobo Tofu. You might think of Spain when you hear the word adobo, and infact the adobo is quite well known and well used in America thanks to it's large hispanic population. But what you might not know is that when the Spanish explored the Philippines in the 16th Century, they discovered that the Filipino population had a very similar method of cooking with vinegar. Because it was so similar to the Spanish method, they named it adobo, despite the fact that it was indigenous to the region.

Filipino Adobo Tofu with Pineapple & Bamboo Shoots

Ingredients
500g hard tofu (sometimes called extra firm tofu)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 small pineapple (about 1 1/2 - 2 cups chopped)
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup white vinegar (I used white wine vinegar, you can use palm vingear, coconut vinegar or any other variety of white vinegar)
1/3 cup light soy sauce
2 bay leaves
Generous grinding of black pepper
1 small can (220g) bamboo shoots (if you can find fresh shoot, even better!)

To Make
1. Squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the tofu and cut into cubes or triangles. Heat the oil in a wok and fry pieces until lightly browned on both sides. Remove and set aside.
2. Peel and chop your pineapple and set aside. Peel and slice your garlic and lighty fry in the remaining oil in the wok (you may need to add more if there is not much left) until just starting to go golden. Then add the pineapple and cook for about another 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the vegetable stock, vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves and black pepper. Bring to a simmer.
4. Add the tofu and drained bamboo shoots. Simmer for about 15 minutes. 

You can serve with rice and steamed vegetables. 
Serves 4. 

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food the Philippines.

Check out my other Filipino recipe posts:

Lumpiang Sariwa

Coconut Mango Float

Lumpiang Prito with Vinegar Dipping Sauce

Pancit Canton

Jerk Tofu & Pineapple Skewers

The cornerstone of Jamaican savoury food is Jerk seasoning, used on just about anything (although mostly meat!). I've made some jerk tofu to get us started on Jamaican month and made it into BBQ skewers with pineapple. The photograph here is from before they were cooked, because after they were cooked they were gobbled up immediately :)

Jerk Tofu & Pineapple Skewers

Ingredients
375g hard tofu, drained and pressed and cut into cubes
1/2 fresh pineapple, cut into cubes
2-3 shallots, cut into 1 inch lengths

Jerk Marinade:
2 shallots, chopped
2.5 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp thyme leaves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 scotch bonnet chilli (if you don't like it hot, use only a quarter)
3 tbsp lime juice
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp oil

To Make:
1. Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a food processor (or mortar and pestle) and purée into a smooth paste.
2. Pour the marinade all over the tofu cubes and mix well. Marinade overnight, or for at least a couple of hours. Mix or toss the tofu every so often to make sure the marinade is coating all the tofu.
3. If using wooden skewers, soak in water while you get all the ingredients ready to thread.
4. Cut your pineapple and shallots and thread these onto the skewers with the tofu. Once finished drizzle any marinade left all over the skewers.
5. BBQ until the tofu is browned and starting to go crispy and the pineapple is golden brown and starting to caramelise. You may need to add a little oil to the BBQ if it is too dry. Eat straight away while they're hot.

Makes approximately 17 skewers.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Jamaica.

Check out my other Jamaican recipe posts:

Jamaican Rum Punch

Jamaican Peanut Punch

Gizzada (Coconut & Brown Sugar Tarts)

Old-time Jamaican Lemonade

Jamaican Ginger Cake

Pineapple Salsa

Callaloo

Jamaican Patties

Jerk Sweet Potato Chips

Samoan Pineapple Turnovers (Paifala)

You may have noticed things being a bit quiet around here lately, I took an unplanned two weeks off the blog at the start of the month. I've had a lot on my mind the last couple of weeks, I've been doing some heavy duty thinking and planning so I didn't quite have room for planning blog posts and typing up recipes. I've been looking for some extra work so that I can earn a bit more money, planning a big holiday overseas, discussing lots of things with my partner - such as whether or not we want to move away from where we are to another area, we've also both been trying to decide whether or not to do further study. It's all just a big jumble of thinking going on in my head at the moment!

In amongst all of this you may have thought I have forgotten to have a feature country this month, well don't fear! I haven't, I have had this all planned for a while but it had a bit of a set back. Firstly, I had to move my traditional start-of-the-month dinner party back into the second week of the month (this is the dinner party in which I make lots of experimental dishes from the featured country and force them upon my trusting friends), so I was a week behind. Then I was a bit slack with the photos at that dinner party so I had to spend some time re-photographing some of the dishes. But they're coming along and I'm happy to finally bring you one of them!

Firstly - let's talk Samoa.



Some of you who don't live in Australia might not know where Samoa is, well you can probably be forgiven because it's pretty tiny. This map comes from worldatlas.com. As you can see, Samoa is one of our neighbours (I live in Australia just in case you didn't know). So there are quite a few Samoans living in Australia; they're generally stereotyped as big scary guys who are good at rugby (mostly because they're so big). But just because there are plenty of Samoans living in Australia, it doesn't mean I have ever encountered any of their food! A quick google search revealed absolutely no Samoan restaurants in Sydney.

I was wary about taking on Samoa, because I've been burned by micronesian/pacific island countries before. I once tried to have a dinner party of foods from Palau. You know what the only  recipe I found on the internet was? This delicious looking fruit bat soup. Mmmmm...

So I did a quick google search on Samoan dishes before I accepted the request from a reader to feature Samoa. Luckily I found a bit more than I did for Palau, and it looked a lot more palatable! I still didn't find a lot so there may be fewer recipes than for some of my other months. I was basically relying on what information I could find on the internet - so if you have a Samoan recipe to share please email it to me at kbobo.contact@gmail.com.

So, enough chat! Before we get into the food, lets take a brief swim on this spectacular Samoan beach.

Image from www.tourist-destinations.com

Now we have worked up an appetite let me introduce my first Samoa month recipe - Paifala. I'm posting this one up first because one of my dinner guests texted me soon after to ask me for the recipe because she loved them so much, so I figured I'd better get it online quickly for her. These are a simple looking pastry turnover filled with pineapple custard, but the key is in the lovingly handmade pastry (don't worry, not as hard as it sounds!)

This recipe, which I found on Samoafood.com was already almost vegan so I didn't really need to change it much. I decided to try and keep it authentic and traditional, so I simply followed the recipe with a couple of substitutions and some minor changes. If I wasn't trying to make it traditional I would have used wholemeal flour - as I think it would be even tastier, and maybe added some mild spices to the pastry. But as is they are a delicious sweet treat.

The recipe says that it makes five, so I made a double batch because I was expecting 8 people for dinner. In the end though they turned out to be really big turnovers, so we only had half of one each at the dinner party and had lots of them leftover! So I'm giving you the original quantities to make 5 big paifala. You can double the recipe at your own discretion :)

Paifala - Samoan Pineapple Turnovers

Adapted from Samoafood.com

Ingredients

1 x 440g can of crushed pineapple in juice (not syrup!)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup rice or almond milk

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup of the juice from the can of pineapple

3 cups plain white flour (I recommend trying wholemeal instead, but probably less authentic)

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup vegan margarine

1 cup coconut milk (or 3/4 cup coconut cream plus 1/4 cup water)

To Make

1. Make the filling! Drain out 1/2 cup of juice from the can and set aside. Combine the pineapple (with remaining juice), sugar and milk in a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, uncovered. Stir the cornstarch into the juice you have set aside until dissolved.

2. Add the cornstarch juice to the saucepan and stir continuously over a low heat for a couple of minutes, until you see the mixture thicken. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

3. Make the pastry! First - preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Then, place the flour, baking powder and margarine in a bowl. Rub with your fingers until the mixture looks a bit like coarse bread crumbs. Then add the coconut milk and mix together to form a dough.

4. Turn out the dough into a floured surface. You don't need to knead it, but just press it together a bit so that it forms a smooth connected ball. 

5. Cut the dough into 5 equal pieces (or you could probably make 6 if you wanted, they'll just be slightly smaller). Roll each piece out into a 20cm circle.

6. Put about one fifth of the cooled pineapple filling over half of the pastry circle, leaving about 2-3 cm around the border so you can seal it properly.

7. Lightly brush the edge with water and fold the pastry over. Press the edge together with your fingers or with a fork. You can make whatever pattern you like with the edge (fork marks, folded over, thumb print waves), just make sure it's sealed well so that the custard doesn't spill out while it's baking.

8. Poke some holes in the top with a fork or knife, this is a bit tricky because the dough it quite soft - but persevere otherwise your turnovers will puff up big time in the oven.

9. Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling and then bake the turnovers in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until just turning golden on top. Remove and cool before serving. If you like, you can dust them with icing sugar while they cool.

Makes 5 big paifala.

Keep your eye out this month for more tasty Samoan treats!

Also don't forget you can follow me on facebook if you want to get my posts all up in your newsfeed - just jump onto the page here and hit "Like".

Coming Soon:

How I lost 5kg in 9 days and gained so much more energy - my 9 day detox plan!

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Samoa.

Check out my other recipe posts:

Creamy Coconut Rice (Alaisa Fa'apopo)

Coconut Bread Rolls

Koko Rice

Sweet Potato in Creamy Coconut Sauce

Sapasui (Chop Suey)

Rujak (Indonesian Fruit Salad with Chilli Dressing)

When I heard about rujak it went immediately on my Indonesian meal plan. It's everything I love about south east Asian food - fresh, brightly coloured and laced with chilli! An admission though - I cheated a bit. I know, I feel terrible. But the thing is, that I just happened to find a jar in my cupboard that had been sitting up the back unopened for a while. It was labelled Sambal Rujak! Great, makes it easier for me AND uses up one of the many jars in my over crowded pantry!

It still feels like cheating though, and I realise that this may be an ingredient not available to a lot of people. So, for those who don't have an Asian grocer nearby, I have included a recipe for the sambal rujak which comes from the lovely SBS Feast Magazine, which also has a beautiful recipe for Rujak in it's October edition. I'll definitely have to give it a try myself sometime, because I'm sure that making a fresh sauce is much nicer than getting it out of a jar.

Despite a lot of recipes and references for rujak around on the internet, not one of them mentioned when this dish is traditionally served. Is it a dinner or dessert? Or maybe just a snack. It could really go either way in my opinion - the fruit makes it light and sweet and good for dessert, the chilli sauce lends a savoury flair. I couldn't find an answer so I served it up with my savoury dishes at my Indonesian feast. So, if any Indonesians read this, please let me know!

Ingredients
2 mangoes
1/2 papaya
1 small pineapple
1 400g can of lychees
2 pink grapefruits
(Starfruit - sadly I couldn't get this, but I really wanted to put it in mine!)
Sambal Rujak (either from a jar or use the recipe below)
Juice of 1 lime

To Make
1. Cut the mango flesh, into large chunks. Remove the skin and seeds from the papaya and also chop into big chunks.
2. Remove the skin from the pineapple, remove the woody core and chop into large pieces. Peel the skin off the grapefruit and divide into segments.
3. Drain the can of lychees and combine in a bowl with the mango, papaya, pineapple and grapefruit. Drizzle sauce over to taste (I used about scant 1/4 cup). Drizzle the lime juice over and mix through. Serve.

Serves 4, or 6-8 as part of a buffet.

Sambal Rujak (from SBS Feast Issue #14)
3 tsp sambal oelek
1/3 cup grated palm sugar
1/3 cup kecap manis
1 tbsp lemon juice

To Make: 
1. Whisk ingredients together until combined. Pour over fruit.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Indonesia!

Check out my other Indonesian recipe posts:

Gado Gado

Triple Threat Coconut Cake

Acar Kuning (Hot, Sour & Sweet Vegetables)

Lontong Paris 

Jus Alpukat (Avocado Milkshake)
Lawar Ayam (Coconut and Bean Salad)

Rendang Tofu

Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)

My last offering from Germany - and it's a real winner! It's a dessert called rote grütze, an easy fruit dessert made from fresh red fruits with cornstarch to thicken. Rote is German for red, as this dessert is made with a mixture of red fruits. Traditionally, the main fruit used is red currants - which means mine is slightly lacking in authenticity because red currants really aren't available anywhere near me. You can use any combination of red fruits you like such as currants, raspberries, bilberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries etc. 

Mine also differs from the traditional in that it contains a touch of grün grütze (grün meaning green). Although red is the most common type, this dessert is sometimes also made in green, yellow or blue grütze. Green is made with kiwi fruit, pineapple, gooseberries, grapes and anything else green you like. Yellow is made from peaches, yellow gooseberries, golden kiwifruit, pineapple, banana and anything else yellow you like. Blue is made from blueberries, blackberries, plums, blackcurrents and grapes. So, I thought I might be a bit tricky and make my rote grütze with a little layer of grün on top - because it's pretty!

Rote Grütze

600g mixed red fruits (I used 200g strawberries, 200g raspberries, 200g sour cherries)

3 tbsp raw sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

3 tbsp cold water

To Make

1. Wash and slice the fruit and place in a saucepan with the sugar. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. 

2. In a small cup combine the cornstarch and cold water and stir well until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. 

3. Remove the simmering berries from the heat and stir through the cornstarch, stirring continuously. Pour the berries (while still hot) evenly amongst your serving glasses and place in the fridge to chill while you make the grün grütze.

Grün Grütze 

500g green kiwifruit

100g pineapple, crushed

3 tbsp raw sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

3 tbsp cold water

To Make

1. If the pineapple is fresh, you may want to puree it in a food processor or blender to make is smooth. Scoop the kiwifuit flesh out and chop roughly in a saucepan with the sugar and pineapple. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. 

2. In a small cup combine the cornstarch and cold water and stir well until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. 

3. Remove the simmering fruit from the heat and stir through the cornstarch, stirring continuously. Spoon a layer over the top of the red fruits in the serving glasses. Allow to chill for several hours before eating. You can decorate with fresh fruit if you'd like to make it even more pretty.

Makes 6 if you use martini glasses, or 4 if you use larger glasses (such as wine glasses or parfait glasses).

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

German Apple Pancakes

Rohkostsalat (Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

Frankfurter Kranz (Bundt Cake Layered with Cherry Jam & Rum Buttercream)

German Potato Salad

Kaiserschmarrn (Torn Pancakes with Apple)

Rohkostsalat (German Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

This salad is a bit like a German coleslaw, to me anyway. For that reason it reminds me of summer and picnics and gatherings outside in the sun. Which is nice, because the weather hasn't exactly been delightfully spring-like lately. Last week we had a couple of really hot days, followed by a cold and misty day and then a huge hail storm. Now it's cold with the occasionally shower and I'm feeling short changed by spring! But this salad put me in a lovely spring mood, and luckily on the day that I cooked it it was rather hot!

Ingredients

1/4 green cabbage (you can also use red cabbage or a mixture of both for pretty colours)

1 large green apple

1/2 cup raisins

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp pineapple juice

Dressing

1/2 cup raw cashew pieces, soaked in cold water for at least an hour (or as long as over night) and drained

2 tbsp vegan cream cheese

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

3 tbsp mayonnaise (a vegan brand)

To Make

1. Finely shred the cabbage and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the raisins and pineapple.

2. Core the green apple and chop finely. Add to the mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice and pineapple juice and mix through.

3. Put the cashews in a small food processor and process until it forms a smooth and creamy paste. Add the remaining dressing ingredients and process the dressing until completely smooth.

4. Stir the dressing through the salad. Chill before serving.

Serves 5-6 as a side salad.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

German Apple Pancakes

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

Frankfurter Kranz (Bundt Cake Layered with Cherry Jam & Rum Buttercream)

German Potato Salad

Kaiserschmarrn (Torn Pancakes with Apple)

Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)

Kho Manor Nung To Hu (Cambodian Pineapple and Tofu)

Cambodian food is famous for being simple, elegant, fresh and for it's skilful combinations of contrasting flavours. Often fresh fruit takes a starring role in savoury dishes, such as mango and chilli salsa or this delicious and quick pineapple and tofu dish. Apart from marinating the tofu, the dish is very quick to whip up and will have even the most tofu-wary coming back for more. I served this up to a table full of dinner guests, several  of which remarked "I don't usually like tofu, but I love this!". So it may be a good one to use when introducing tofu to sceptics!

Ingredients

300g hard tofu (sometimes called extra-firm tofu)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 stem lemon grass, tough outer parts removed and finely minced

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 cup mushroom sauce (see note below)

1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

2 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 small fresh pineapple, skin removed and chopped into wedges

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup chopped coriander

To Make

1. Drain the tofu of any liquid in the packet, then squeeze the block gently in your hands to remove as much liquid as possible (if your tofu doesn't withstand gentle squeezing then you have bought the wrong type of tofu - you want hard tofu not firm tofu, it should be a fairly solid block).

2. Cut the tofu into about 2cm squared cubes and place in a bowl or tupperware container.

3. Add the garlic, lemongrass, sugar, soy sauce, mushroom sauce, black pepper and sesame oil and stir well to coat. Leave the tofu to marinate for 2 hours (more is fine, you can leave it over night if you want), stirring every now and then to ensure even marinating.

4. Heat the tbsp of vegetable oil in a wok and add the tofu (including all the marinade). 

5. Add the pineapple and water and simmer for about 15 minutes. The pineapple should be cooked and the sauce thickened slightly. 

6. Stir through the fresh coriander and serve immediately. Serve with rice.

Serves 3-4 as a meal with rice.

NOTE: Mushroom sauce is generally used as a vegetarian alternative to oyster sauce, it is pretty widely available in Asian supermarkets and some regular supermarkets. If you can't find any, check the Asian section of your supermarkets for anything which is labelled as "Stir Fry Sauce" with no other specific descriptions. These generic sauces are usually vegan friendly (you will have to check the back to make sure) and are made from either mushroom stock or a soy bean product. It will have a very similar taste to mushroom sauce, so just substitute that.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Cambodia!

Check out my other Cambodian recipe posts:

Hot and Sour Mushroom Soup

Cambodian Spiced Eggplant

Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Parfait (Borbo Skor La-Pov)

Num Chet Chien (Banana Nuggets!)

Khmer Lemongrass Vegetable Curry

Nem To-hu Sap (Vegetarian Summer Rolls)

Tirk Salouk Swai (Mango Chilli Salsa)

Cucumber & Vermicelli Salad

Pineapple & Basil Vodka

Pineapple and basil infused vodka? Possibly one of the best ideas ever? This amazing concoction was inspired by a recipe in Matthew Teacher's great little book The Home Distiller's Handbook for Pineapple and Basil Cordial. My version is a bit stronger on the vodka :) The basil in this one came fresh from my beautiful garden where the basil is growing like crazy because all of the rain we have been having. Overall the basil flavour in this infusion is stronger than the pineapple, however, although the pineapple flavour is subtle it serves a great purpose to provide a sweeter undertone to the strength of the basil.

Infusing my own spirits is something I plan to get into a lot more and the success of my first try has only inspired me even more! This infusion makes a wonderfully fresh tasting vodka which needs nothing more than some soda water and a squeeze of lemon to drink with!

Ingredients
750ml vodka
1 small pineapple, peeled and chopped
1 bunch basil, washed

.....that's it!

To Make
1. In a large jar with a sealable lid (with a wide top so that you can get the stuff back out again!) place the sliced pineapple and the bunch of basil (tear up the basil leaves slightly so that the flavour infuses easier).
2. Pour the vodka into the jar and shake slightly. Tip: poke the basil leaves under the vodka so that they don't dry out or become too brown.
3. Seal the lid on the jar and set aside in a dark cupboard to infuse for 1-3 weeks (the longer you leave it the stronger the basil flavour), getting it out occasionally to shake it (but ensure that the fresh ingredients are covered by the vodka before putting back in the cupboard) and taste it to see if it is infused to your taste yet.
4. When you get it to the strength you like strain the whole jar through a strainer lined with muslin or cheesecloth. Put the soaked pineapple pieces into the muslin and squeeze to get as much of the pineapple-y-ness out of it as possible. Discard the basil and pineapple and put the vodka into a bottle.

Serve with lemonade, soda water (with a squeeze of lemon juice), pineapple juice or just on ice with water and a slice of lemon (simple - but actually very delicious).