Best RecipesPai - Fruit pie News Recipes

By panipopos


If I say the word "pie", what image springs to mind? 
For most people, it's a double crusted round pie with a little steam vent in the top crust or a latticed fruit pie. The crust is made of flaky pastry which has a fluted edge, perhaps dusted with sugar. One serving is cut into a wedge-shape that fits nicely onto a silver cake server, and it's eaten either hot or cold with a scoop of ice-cream or a dollop of whipped cream.


If you said the word "pai" to me, the image that immediately pops into my head is a deep rectangular roasting dish half-filled with square pieces of pie, that are quickly disappearing as they are being lifted with an egg spatula onto saucers standing nearby. The bottom layer is like a thick crumbly buttery cookie. Above that is a moist fat layer of fruit and custard. This is topped off with light and fluffy meringue or chantilly cream. Three layers of yumminess. One square of heaven.

When this pai is put in front of me, the custard barely has time to stop jiggling before I've finished it off and taken my saucer back for more. If we've brought some pai home from some event and it's sitting in the refrigerator, then late that same evening, I'll creep into the kitchen, make sure no-one's about, and then eat that pie straight out of the roasting dish with the biggest spoon I can find. I don't even bother turning the kitchen lights on. Just use the light from the refrigerator.


Yes, this is one of those foods that makes a glutton out of me. 

Enjoy!


http://panipopos.blogspot.com 

Best RecipesSurimi Salad News Recipes

By panipopos

It's summer and my kitchen is almost the same temperature as my body temperature, so the last thing I feel like doing is cooking. In this kind of weather, the only thing I can be bothered making are smoothies and salads. So here is a salad I ate a lot growing up. The ingredients and measurements are totally flexible, depending on your preferences. 

Surimi Salad (serves 4)
½ pound (250 gr) surimi (imitation crab meat)
½ head lettuce, shredded
¼ medium onion, finely diced
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 stick celery, sliced
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
salt and pepper, to taste


Shred the surimi and put in a medium bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, seasoning to taste, and toss well. Cover the salad and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Toss once more before serving. 


If you think that the mayonnaise isn't "dressing" enough for this salad, trust me, it is. While the salad is sitting in the fridge, some liquid from the tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber will mix in with the mayo and combined with the flavour of the surimi, you'll end up with a nice tasty pool of dressing at the bottom of the salad bowl. Which is why I suggest you toss it just before serving.


While you're munching on your salad, I just want to take this chance to thank everyone for your continued support and encouragement. Even though I haven't posted anything for the last couple of months, I still get emails and comments every day about how my work has impacted your life. It's only been a year since I started blogging but the response has been overwhelming. So THANKS very much. 


Jay sent me a wonderful photo of her panikeke she made. I'm sure you'll agree they make you want to reach through the screen and do the cookie monster thing.

http://panipopos.blogspot.com 

Best RecipesKopai Video News Recipes

By panipopos




http://panipopos.blogspot.com 

Best RecipesKopai Koko News Recipes

By panipopos

Kopai koko provides a contrast in textures - soft and smooth dumplings with gritty rich koko. I don't recommend you make coconut dumplings for this, because it gives too much graininess to the dish. 

Serve around half a dozen puka with a bowlful of sosi.

 

http://panipopos.blogspot.com/  

Best RecipesKopai 'Ega'ega - Caramel Kopai News Recipes

By panipopos

This is probably my favourite kopai. It's like eating dessert for breakfast.

The dumplings are paired with a milky caramel sauce.

I admit, I don't really know what the proper name for this is. In my house, it was always just called kopai. So, to differentiate the kopai recipes on this blog, I've called this one Kopai 'Ega'ega (brown kopai) or Kopai 'Ena'ena if you're being polite, but if anyone out there knows the proper name, please let me know.

Serve around half a dozen puka with a bowlful of sosi.

http://panipopos.blogspot.com

Best RecipesKopai Pa'epa'e - White Kopai News Recipes

By panipopos

This is the plainest version of kopai, but delicious nonetheless. It gets it's flavour from milk/coconut milk and laumoli, if you have it.

http://panipopos.blogspot.com/

Best RecipesPuka Kopai - Kopai Dumplings News Recipes

By panipopos

Samoa, and much of the Pacific, is prone to cyclones. If one of these tropical storms hits really hard, then the natural food resources that Samoans depend upon are severely depleted. When such a disaster happened in the past, food relief and aid came in mainly from New Zealand, Australia, and the US. Now, where am I going with all this seriousness?

Oh yeah, I was trying to give you guys a historical context for kopai. So anyway, because assistance was coming in from benevolent Western nations, the food aid packages typically consisted of flour, sugar, rice, canned fish and canned meats.

In my imagination, the first native cyclone survivors to receive these packages of Western staple foods were probably thinking,"What the -?!? Huh?!?"

But then Samoan ingenuity kicked in. Cooking fires were started up, cans were forced open with sapelu (machetes), and people thought of as many ways as they could to use the foreign white stuff - rice, flour and sugar.

I'm convinced that Samoan classics like sua alaisa, koko alaisa, fa'apapa, panikeke, and alaisa fa'apopo, all originated during a post-cyclone burst of cooking creativity. But prize for the most inventive Samoan dish using only three ingredients has got to be...(drumroll)...kopai.

I mean, how...really, HOW do you take flour, sugar and water and make a dish that's super tasty, stands the test of time, and is beloved by Samoans the world over?

I'll never know. But it's GENIUS.