Monday, February 8, 2010

A Recipe for Gorontalo Poki-Poki

Here’s the recipe for this eggplant in a coconut chili sauce dish as told to me by Ibu Elsje. It should serve 2-4 people. You can also use the same recipe with chicken or tofu instead of eggplants.

5 eggplants (or 2-3 American sized ones)

3 red chili peppers

2 candle nuts (skip them if you don’t have them)

1 white onion

2 red onions

4 twigs of fresh basil leaves

½ pandan leaf (skip if you can’t find this)

1 spring onion

2 lemon leaves

1 lemon grass

1 small box of coconut milk

2 cups of white rice

coconut oil

salt

1. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the chili peppers and candle nuts. Add the white onion and the two red onions. Pound everything together until you have a nice thick paste. Put this aside.

2. Wash the eggplants, trim the stems and peel most of the hard green collars. Cut each eggplant in half and then in half again, leaving the eggplant attached to the stem. Cover the eggplants with a dusting of salt and wait about two minutes.

3. Sauté the eggplants in coconut oil until they turn dark and soft. Remove from pan.

4. Using the rest of the oil in the pan, heat up the chili paste until it turns a brown color.

5. Add in the collection of green things – basil, pandan, a chopped spring onion, lemon leaves and lemon grass. Mix these all together and then pour in the coconut milk. Let the mixture come to a boil and then turn off the gas.

6. Add the eggplant to the pan and mix together with the sauce. Serve over rice.

Selamat makan!

7 comments:

  1. I want to eat foki foki with fufu (I've been on a fufu kick the past 2 weeks). I think they'd taste good together and would be a blast to pronounce. Maybe even better with a bit of froufrou on the side: maybe some French cut vegetables. And how about a bit of fried garbanzo for foki foki felafel with fufu and froufrou?

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  2. FYI - I think candle nuts are macademia nuts.

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  3. I was wondering how much coconut milk is in a box of coconut milk.

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  4. I just googled candlenuts and found out that macademica nuts can be used as a substitute since they have a similar texture and high oil content. But they're not as bitter as candlenuts so the taste would be quite different.

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  5. Oh and I have found pandan leaves in the U.S. (at an Asian supermarket in St. Paul). They were in the freezer section.

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  6. Thanks everyone for your input! I'm glad to hear that pandan leaves can be found in the U.S. And Teena, I went back to the store to look for a small box of coconut milk and it was 65 ml. Let me know if you try the recipe!

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  7. To my disappointment, I found out that the name of this delicious dish is not foki-foki, but rather poki-poki. I guess I need to work on my listening comprehension!

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