Welcome to Nauru! According to Google, Nauru has a population of 10,824 people, and the capital is Yaren. This is a little island in the South Pacific, and used to be called Pleasant Island. In reading about Nauru, it is quite fascinating - the history of the island is worth the read! From German settlements, to Japanese occupation during WWII, to mining that stripped the island of it's resources, it has quite the story to tell! One interesting fact was that the island has the worlds highest level of type 2 diabetes: 40% of the population has type 2 diabetes! 97% of men and 93% of women on the island are obese or morbidly obese. It's not a place that is high on my bucket list to go to. But, let me tell you, their food is very tasty! Their national dish is...
Coconut Crusted Fish!
Yum! It was fun to make, and quite tasty! We also made coconut mousse. I'll tell you all about it! Here's what I did:
- Juice the limes into a shallow bowl, and place the rock fish fillets in the lime juice. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
- Get three plates: one for flour, one for egg, one for coconut. Mix some salt and pepper, to taste, in with the flour.
- Start heating a frying pan with a thin coat of oil.
- Remove the filets from the lime juice, and dip in the flour and coat.
- Dip the fillets in the egg and coat.
- Dip the fillets in the coconut flakes, and coat, pushing the coconut to really make it stick.
- Lay the fillets in the heated oil, and let them crisp and brown.
- Flip the fillets to brown on the other side.
- Serve with lime wedges.
- In a large saucepan, heat the coconut milk, sugar, and shredded coconut, but do not boil.
- Remove from heat and stir in the gelatin. Whisk until it is cool.
- Beat the heavy cream, gradually incorporating the vanilla sugar.
- Beat egg whites until stiff.
- Fold in the whipped cream.
- Fold in the egg whites. The mixture should be airy.
- Put in fridge for at least four hours.
The verdict? The fish was very good. It had a nice crunch, and the lime really brightened the fish. I was afraid that it was going to be sweet, but it was quite savory. I think it would have gone well with some chips too :-) I found several recipes for sweet potato fries to go with the coconut crusted fish, but it was a fairly lazy day and I didn't want to deal with making fries. The mousse was a flop. We did not enjoy it at all. The original recipe called for agar-agar instead of gelatin - maybe that would have made a difference. It was so gummy and solid. Not mousse-like at all. We ended up throwing it out.
