12/19: Samoan Dinner - Pani Popo (bread)

adapted from: http://www.samoa.as/recipe9.htm

Here's the recipe for Pani Popo:

5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 package yeast
2 1/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon shortening, margarine, or butter
1 teaspoon salt

Mix 2 1/2 cups of flour and yeast. In a saucepan heat and stir milk;
sugar; shortening, margarine, or butter; and salt til warm and
shortening almost melts. Add to flour mixture. Beat with an electric
mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Using a
spoon, stir in as much remaining flour as you can to make a moderatly
stiff dough that is smooth and easy to pull - 6-8 minutes.
Put some Crisco shortening on your hands. This will add moisture to
your rolls and make it easier to handle. Shape in a ball and put in a
greased bowl. Turn it on both sides to grease the whole ball of
dough. Cover and let rise in the oven on the top rack and below it in
a pan put some hot water. (The steam from the hot water will help it
to rise) about 45 minutes. Punch dough down.

Roll 18 balls and cover for 10 minutes while you make the following
milk mixture.
Mix 2 cans of coconut milk with 1 cup of sugar. (Add more sugar if
you like it sweeter.) In 2 13x9x2 pans, pour in half of the milk
mixture in each pan, put in 9 bread rolls on top (or you can make the
rolls smaller to make more rolls). Bake at 375 degrees in the oven
for 20 minutes or until bread tests done.

My Bread Recipe: (with influence from "bread" book)

• 100% a.p. flour - 434 grams (3 cups)
• 5% milk powder - 21.7 grams
• 5% sugar - 21.7 grams
• 5% butter - 21.7 grams
• 3.5 % heavy cream - 15 grams
• 60% warm water (1/2 hot, 1/2 cold) - 260grams
• 1.8% salt - 7.8 grams
• 2.5% yeast - 10.85 grams

Coconut Milk Mixture:

• 1 can coconut milk
• 2/3 cup of sugar (should have used 1/2 cup if went straight from recipe...my math was wrong)

Procedure:

1. place all ingredients into bread machine
   
2. push "sweet" and "dough"...takes 1 hr 35 min (dough is moderately wet and sticky)
   
3. take out of machine and with only lil flour on fingers, knead dough and into a ball
4. separate into 4 pieces
5. then separate again into 4 balls about 1.5 inch diameter balls
   
6. pour coconut milk + sugar mixture to bottom of a baking pan
7. place dough balls on top of coconut milk mixture
8. sit for 15minutes to rise as oven preheats to 375
9. bake 25 minutes at 375
10. rotate and lower temp to 350 + bake for 15 minutes til done (tops getting dark fast so i lowered the temp)
    
11. end was 205-210 degrees...was 195 at 35 minutes total

Result:

• loved it!
• so airy and light...just like a perfect dinner roll
• coconut milk was excessive..think i can half the recipe yet again...i ate it after reheating and the bottom was soggy because of it...
• think i just want coconut milk to get soaked to the very bottom of bread, not to sit in a pool of it when its done
• ugly look at the bottom as the starch made the coconut milk thick and looking like mashed potato gravy
• everyone liked this a lot
  

12/19: Samoan Dinner - Palusami

adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/samoan-palusami/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 2 (10 ounce) bags fresh spinach
• 1 (12 ounce) can corned beef, broken into pieces
• 2 (10 ounce) cans coconut milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Make a layer of spinach leaves in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with some of the corned beef, then keep repeating layers of spinach and corned beef until you run out of spinach. Don't worry about how full the dish is because the spinach will shrink as it cooks. Pour both cans of coconut milk over the dish, pressing the leaves down with a spoon. Cover tightly with a lid or aluminum foil.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until spinach has completely wilted and the sauce is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

My ingredients:

• 3 bunches (about 2 lbs) of taro leaves - 3.89/lb @ sunset super (other recipes called for yam leaves...i think they might be the same thing or mislabeled at sunset super)
• 1 can corn beef (safeway generic brand)
• 1 can coconut milk

My Procedure:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
   
2. rips off leaves from stems of taro leaves...wash off all dirt (very dirty)
3. line a tray with taro leaves, then broken pieces of corned beef, and keep repeating til hit the top of the tray.
   
4. pour coconut milk on top
5. bake covered for 50min til bubbly

Result:

• pretty good but still tastes bland...needs to add salt
• corned beef is very tasteless...don't think i need it
• similar to creamed spinach
• can definitely substitute with spinach next time to save money
  

12/19: Samoan Dinner - Poisson Cru

adapted from: http://www.whats4eats.com/fish/poisson-cru-recipe

Not exactly the real thing...but i tried...way simpler

ingredients:

• 1 lb raw tuna (8.99/lb at sunset super)...cheaper than octopus @ 10.99/lb
  
• lime juice of 1 lime
• cucumber (diced same size as tuna...about 1/2 inch pieces)
• 1/4 can coconut milk
  
• salt and pepper

procedure:

1. cut up tuna and cucumber and mix...
2. squeeze lime juice on top and marinade for 10 minutes
3. pour out excess lime juice
4. pour coconut milk and salt and pepper on top and mix

result:

• i liked it but i prefer a stronger flavor as in tuna poke.
• coconut milk works with the tuna but not extraordinary
• think it tastes better with a potato chip
• should make it more interesting with some addons...but then it would be more like poke
• tomatos would be cool as the recipe i referred to had it
  

12/19: Samoan Dinner - Samoan Green Banana

from recipe @ http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Samoan-Green-Banana/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 3 (13.5 ounce) cans coconut milk
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 6 small unripe (green) bananas

Directions

1. Combine the coconut milk and onion in a bowl; set aside.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium heat. Boil the bananas in their skin for 30 to 40 minutes; drain. Run the bananas under cold water until they are cool enough to handle. Remove the bananas whole from their skins.
3. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Place the bananas in the pan. Pour the coconut milk mixture over the bananas. Cook until the coconut milk is foamy. Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving.

My experience:

• added 2 tbsp of sugar to it as i though it would taste better

Result:

• pretty good...very similar to eating taro. its texture is very similar...not mushy as i expected
• good side dish to a meat dish
• feel the fattiness of the coconut milk
• not many people liked it...think they just can't get over eating unripe bananas...
• should be how plantains taste
  

12/19: Samoan Dinner - Kalua Pig

adapted from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sam-Choys-Oven-Roasted-Kalua-Pig-233927

Preparation (from website)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using small sharp knife, cut 1/4-inch-deep slits 1 inch apart all over pork roast. Rub 2 tablespoons sea salt all over pork. Unfold 1 banana leaf on work surface and place pork roast atop leaf. Fold up leaf around pork, enclosing completely. Repeat wrapping pork in remaining 2 banana leaves, 1 at a time.

Tie with kitchen string to secure, then wrap roast in foil. Place pork in roasting pan; pour 4 cups water into pan.

Roast pork in oven until very tender when pierced with fork, about 5 hours. Unwrap pork and cool slightly. Shred pork and place in large bowl. Bring remaining 2 cups water and remaining 2 teaspoons salt to boil in small saucepan. Add liquid smoke; pour over pork and stir to blend. Let stand 10 minutes to allow liquid to flavor pork. Serve.

My Ingredients:

• bone-in pork shoulder roast (5.5 lbs + 2.5 lbs) - 89 cents a pound at safeway
  

My Procedure:

1. preheat oven to 350
   
2. both pieces of meat were rubbed with salt and pepper and liquid smoke then wrapped in banana leaf, tied with string and wrapped in foil. both are placed in a oven tray with enough hot water to cover about 1 inch up the foiled meat
   
3. in 2 hours, i checked the smaller piece was fork tender and the temp was at 140 so i took it out of the oven...
4. after 30min of resting i poked the smaller meat and it still had red blood so i put it back in the oven with the big meat
5. after a total of 4 hrs, i checked both meats and both were very fork tender and registered about 140-145.
   
6. i let the meat sit out covered for 30min, then tried to pull it apart...it didn't pull...was very tender but could not pull apart
7. so i decided to slice and chop the meat into small little pieces and put more salt and pepper on top

Result:

• i failed to cook the meat long enough to the point of fall off the bone tender....
• meat was tender but not kalua pork which is supposed to be shreds of meat
• meat lacked flavor...can sense the banana leaf but not much else
• not salty enough...i never did the salt water solution poured on top
• very slight liquid smoke flavor...think i need more
• i still like it as it was very tender...now i know how to make a very tender sliced pork shoulder roast...all i have to do is do the same thing, then uncover and sear the meat to get a nice color and slice

Next Time:

• cook meat to 195-210 where the meat falls off the bone and shreddy
• add more flavor, especially salt to the meat
• should brine it beforehand to get more flavor into the meat