Eating Around the World (From Home....And Gluten Free...): Marshall Islands

Welcome to the Marshall Islands! This is another stunning place that I wouldn't mind visiting. It seems like our travel fund needs a boost to go see all these amazing places! The tallest point on the Marshall Islands is a whopping 32 feet above sea level, and they span about 770,000 square miles. Most of the atolls and islands are coral that are on top of underwater volcanoes. Sounds like a fun place, right? According to Google, the population is about 82,000 people and the capital is Majuro. Their national dish is...

Barramundi Cod!

I'm not sure where to get Barramundi cod...however, everything I read says to use a white, flaky fish, so that's what we're going to use! We've been eating a lot of fish lately... The Barramundi cod is traditionally made in a coconut sauce. To go with the fish, we made roasted sweet potato salad with passion fruit mayonnaise, papaya salad, and Marshallese Baked Papaya with Coconut Cream. It was a lot of different steps, but fairly easy to make. Here's what we did:

COCONUT FISH

6 pieces white fish fillets (I used rockfish)
2 C coconut cream
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
2 jalapeños, thinly sliced in rounds
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tomatoes, sliced
6 tbsp avocado oil
6 tbsp gluten free flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix cornstarch to a paste with a little bit of the coconut cream.
Combine remaining coconut cream, onion, salt, jalapeño, lemon juice, and the corn starch mixture in a saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, stirring continually.
Simmer for 3 minutes, then remove from the heat.
Heat oven to 300 F.
Cut fish into even sized pieces (about 2-3 inches or so long).
Mix flour, extra salt & pepper on a plate for dredging the fish.
Dredge the fish until the fish is evenly coated with the flour mix.
Heat avocado oil in a pan over medium heat.
Lightly brown fish on both sides in the hot oil, adding more oil as needed.
Place the fish in an ovenproof dish as it is browned.
Evenly cover the fish with the tomato slices.
Evenly pour the coconut sauce over the top.
Bake uncovered in the oven until the fish is cooked through, about 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

(Source: Coconut Fish)

ROASTED SWEET POTATO SALAD

1/3 head iceberg lettuce, chopped
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into cubes
1 1/2 C raw whole macadamia nuts
2 avocados, cut in large dice
Avocado oil, for roasting
Salt

Dressing
3 tbsp passion fruit

6 tbsp mayonnaise
Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

To make the dressing, mix passion fruit with mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugars & vanilla.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Spread the cubed sweet potato over a baking tray and drizzle avocado oil and salt on the sweet potatoes, and mix until evenly covered.
Roast for 10 minutes.
Turn the sweet potatoes over then roast for a further 10 mins.
Add macadamia nuts to the tray of sweet potatoes then roast for a further 10 mins.
Remove tray from the oven when nuts are evenly golden and let cool.
In a salad bowl, mix the lettuce, avocado, sweet potatoes and nuts.
Serve with the salad dressing, to taste.
Enjoy!

(Source: Roasted Sweet Potato Salad)

PAPAYA SALAD

1 papaya, cubed

1 pineapple, cubed

Thai basil leaves, to taste

Combine all the ingredients.
Enjoy!

(Source: Papaya Salad)

MARSHALLESE BAKED PAPAYA WITH COCONUT CREAM

1 papaya, halved and seeded

1 can coconut cream

1/2 C sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place the papaya halves on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Sprinkle the papaya halves equally with the sugar.
Bake for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, remove from the oven and baste the papaya with the melted sugar.
Increase the heat to 400 F.
Add the coconut cream into the center of the papaya.
Bake for another 5-7 minutes.
Serve warm and enjoy!

(Source: Marshallese Baked Papaya with Coconut Cream)

The verdict? It was good! We really liked the additional sweetness of the tomato on the fish with the coconut. I didn't see the value in dredging the fish with the flour and frying it - I would skip this step next time. The sweet potato salad was very strange, and the dressing was very sweet, but it really worked. The macadamia nuts gave it some extra texture, which was great. The pineapple was delicious and the papaya didn't really do anything for me, but it could be that I didn't choose the right papaya. The Thai basil was an interesting addition, but I really liked it. It was really good with a little bit of salt on it too! The baked papaya with coconut cream was exactly as it sounds. There wasn't anything special about it, and was like eating warm papaya and coconut.