Tropical Teatime!

I'm feeling rather pleased with a jam break-through that I've just made. I've been experimenting with coconut preserves for a long while, and I've finally come up with something I actually like, that's not too sweet, but still good and coconutty, made with fresh coconut and coconut milk, it comes out a little bit like dulce de leche. To celebrate we made had a proper tropical afternoon tea - vanilla tea and coconut scones on the terrace, with Matotea holding court, how jolly civilized!!!!

Coco loco cat

Our little kitten is definitely getting into her troubled adolescence, she mysteriously disappeared for almost four days straight, causing Matotea to morbidly lament her disappearance - not sure where she went, but she nonchalantly showed up, looking a little skinnier, but none the worse for wear. She's also really into climbing at the moment, on sunday she put on quite a show, suddenly shimmying up our nearby coconuts, then gingerly climbing down the palm leafs, before sliding and and tumbling the few remaining feet to the ground, and then starting again! It kept the girls shrieking with delight for a good half hour!

May Day mayhem!

On May Day, for lack of a maypole to dance around, or a socialist flag to wave, we girls ventured out for a quick swim on my favourite beach. No mermaids this time, but lots of big waves and a lot of fun!

 Then to top it all off, chef Mato helped me bake some coconut jam biscuits.....and we all helped eat them. Long-live bank holidays - in fact, there are 5 official holidays here in May, plus a half-term break, whew, I'll need to keep on my toes with projects for girls over the next few weeks!

Coco-nuts

Viriamu has launched himself headlong into coprah production (dried coconut flesh, for coconut oil)  its one of the main exports of Tahiti's outer islands. Recently a Rurutu co-operative has been formed to  facilitate sending coprah in bulk to Tahiti's major oil producer, and everyone seems to be building coprah driers and trying their hand at it. Coprah production is subsidized by the government, as a means of keeping people on the islands, to avoid the growing issues of over-population, homelessnes and joblessness in Tahiti, so it is once more a viable product.

Viriamu needs no more encouragement, we have a huge coconut plantation here that was exploited for coprah by his grandfather. Viriamu's never happier than when out back scanning for coconuts (except maybe for when he's with his horses) or hacking the coconuts open with his axe, or scooping out the flesh. It's real man's work. The girls are often enlisted in the coconut spree (more or less grudgingly).

Yesterday he was so adamant that he wanted to get his quota shelled, that he spent all afternoon out there, and ended up working by torch-light until 11pm, now tell me is that normal?........ We happened to be up anyway, awaiting out delegation of politicians, who were out at a rally, but still.....speaking of politicians, with the upcoming elections in France there are a lot of these guys around at the moment, all promising us this and that; it's the only time we see them, but it does make for lots of very lively and very long political meetings! This morning Viriamu has the hugest blister on his thumb from coconut shelling, but I don't think he's going to be easily dissuaded.

Monoi

Moving on from the incense and hand-milled soap, now I'm playing around with infusing and perfuming monoi oil. It's great for the skin and hair, and ideal for massage. In fact our whole family loves giving and receiving massages, big and small, here Heimana is preparing to give Daddy a quick back rub! She just can't get enough of being massaged and even before she's out of the bath-tub she's pointing at the monoi bottle saying 'maaaoo' (her best attempt at maro, which means massage in tahitian).

The timing is perfect for my experimentation, the sun is there and the flowers are all out, so it's a great time to start infusing monoi.

 here's our ylang-ylang, there's also a mountain of plumeria....

I've been letting my imagination run wild, I've tried coconut flowers and lemon rinds, Rurutu coffee grinds and of course the classics like tahitian jasmin, vanilla and sandalwood, pretty much all the spices I have on the shelf, star anise, clove, cardamon and cinnamon all give lovely complex scents. I'm very happy with a lot of the results and am now playing at blending my own fragrances (today's success is a Rose-sandalwood-vanilla blend) I haven't gone as far as making my own essential oils yet......but I am thinking about it and have already been playing around with floral waters, though it's still early days yet......

Close encounter with a coconut!

Yesterday, I was out in the garden collecting fallen coconuts to make some coconut milk, I had just stopped to give one of Viriamu's horses a pat behind the ears, when a coconut came hurtling out of the tree beside me, with a cartoon-style whistle, before glancing off my left shoulder onto the floor. Our coconut trees can't be more than 10m high, but still it was quite a shock and I'll have a bit of a bruise on my shoulder to show for it. I had been warned and of course had heard plenty of tales of people injured by coconuts, but I'd never been quite this close to it before myself! Falling coconuts supposedly kill ten times more people than shark attacks....though there doesn't seem to be much actual data behind this figure. Nevertheless my advice to you, when living in a tropical paradise beware of the falling coconuts! Today it's just rain that's falling, in a steady refreshing drizzle.....

An illustrated guide to making coconut-milk (for beginners!)

Coconut milk was not something I gave much thought to a few months ago – it was just something you got out of a tin. Well not here, one thing that we are never short of is coconuts.

The trick is to figure out how to turn this...

into this...

This is just one of the many things that make me feel like a total idiot – most Tahitians have been opening coconuts since they were knee-high to a grasshopper, so I come in at a skill level of a bout 4 years old here, it’s kind of strange being so incompetent at so many things! But I’m learning, oh yes I am. Husking coconuts is now no longer a mystery, in fact I might even be getting better at it. So here’s a quick how to, for you would be ‘survivors’.

First choose your coconut. For coconut milk (versus drinking and various other Tahitian concoctions) you need a mature coconut, so one with a dried brown husk. Make sure it’s not sprouting too much and give it a shake to see if it’s got some water in it. If it’s good then you can start the husking. The tool of choice here is a sharpened stick or metal spike stuck into the ground, so you deftly skewer the coconut onto the stake and peel away the husk in one or two swift movements (alternatively you can spend 20 minutes working up a sweat wrenching and cursing, peeling off at least a dozen small shreds of husk, hopefully without taking out an eye or too much bodily harm).

Good, so you’ve peeled your coconut and Maroro is happily playing with the shredded husk (incidentally this is good stuff for making fires to keep away the mossies). So now you have a fibrous lump that needs cleaning with a few swift machete strokes, then whack! One resonating thump with the machete makes the coconut fall into two perfect halves – the first time I did this it worked like a dream, and I can’t tell you how satisfying it was....but I’ve never managed to repeat the exercise so now I resort to throwing it against the wall, smashing it on the floor or a few satisfying blows with a hammer, all of which have the same effect, just less finesse.

Anyway you have your delicious white coconut meat to hand, now for the grating. We have a little stool here and a board with a grater, so you just squat down on the stool and grate away...a little bit of skin usually gets grated at some point, but it’s just a minor flesh wound so you continue undaunted ‘til you have a beautiful white fluffy pile of grated meat. Then you get a dampened dish towel, take a handful of meat into the dish towel and squeeze as hard as you can, a small trickle of white liquid will pour into your receptacle of choice, you’ll get about half a cup per coconut. So go on knock yourself out with the stuff! It’s actually great exercise for the upper body and arms, I’m considering making a workout video ;-)

CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING LESSON 1!