Tropical Recipes

Passionfruit Meringue

BEAT egg-whites tb a stiff froth and add gradually 2oz. sugar to each egg-white. Place in a bag made with greaseproof paper and force out into balls, or a rose tube may be used to make them a little more fancy. Bake in a very slow oven for about one hour, taking care they do not take colour. Press in the bottom of each meringue and fill with the following: Whip

quarter-pint cream with a little sugar until stiff, then add the pulp of four passionfruit. Join two together, and, if desired, a little plain cream may be piped around the join.—“Bittambo,” Tulagi.

Banana Pie

Make a pie crust in the usual way and line a pie plate with a layer of the pastry. Bake in oven until done. Make a mixture of three bananas, which have been mashed and then whipped with an egg-beater. Add 1 cup sugar, 1 dessertspoonful lemon-juice, pinch of salt, and two egg-whites which have been beaten separately until frothy. Pour this mixture into the pastry shell and bake in moderate oven 20 minutes. A sprinkling with some chopped nuts or cocoa-nut is a pleasant addition. This pie is better if eaten as soon as it is cooked.—“Bittambo,” Tulagi.

Baked Bananas

Fill a pie dish with sliced ripe bananas (cut lengthwise), then pour over same some strained coconut milk and bake in a good oven. —N.C.M.H.,

Fiji.

Tapioca Rissoles

Boil some fairly young tapioca (not too hard and woody), and mash same as you would potatoes.

Mix in some finely chopped up onions (spring onions will do if you have no others). Add a little seasoning and fry in the usual manner. The same can be tried with cooked unripe bananas, taro, or yams.—N.C.M.H., Fiji.

Tapioca Porridge (Or Sago)

Grate a tuber root of uncooked tapioca after well peeling it. Put about two inches of water or milk in a one-gallon saucepan. Bring to the boil. Then add the already-grated tapioca, with a little salt to taste and stir briskly for several minutes, so that the mixture won’t go lumpy. The resulting mass will be not unlike sago when cooked. It only takes a few minutes to cook, and should be stirred well to prevent from burning. When it has assumed a sago appearance it is done, and can be served with milk and sugar as porridge.

It could also be served as a dessert with stewed fruit. It needs some time to cool as it holds the heat. This is sufficient for two or three persons.

Tapioca should be well peeled by slitting the tuber from end to end with a knife. The point of the knife can then be inserted under the slit part and the skin lifted off. The skin is supposed to contain prussic acid, so that it is as well to see that it is well peeled.—N.C.M.H., Fiji.

Use Of Ghee

I always find ghee, 'coconut oil. or peanut .oil is more satisfactory to fry anything with than meat fat or dripping. These three do not “cling” to the mouth, as does dripping. Ghee is all right lf it nj ce and fresh—not that half-rancid stuff like lard. Also frying in oil would suit those who are vegetarians.—N.C.M.H., Fiji.

Best Way To Keep Stores

Keep potatoes, onions, etc., in a basket to pre vent sweating; keep cheese wrapped in a cloth wrung out in vinegar, and it will not harden; keep eggs in a cool place, or hang in a wire basket. Keep salt in an earthenware jar, in a dry place. Keep yeast in either wood or glass.

Keep fresh lard in a tin vessel, and flour, oat meal, etc., in a cool, dry place. Keep tea always in a tin caddy, bread in an earthenware jar, and butter m either enamel or chinaware, not glass.

Keep soap cut up the size required and allow to dry out it is much more economical to use Smabada,” Port Moresby.

Orange Pep

F°r tha t weary, all-gone feeling, the following will be found to be very helpful. Squeeze the juice of three or four oranges (more if there are plenty), strain, add a goodly teaspoonful of honey (not sugar), previously dissolved, a teaspoonful of lemon, then beat up separately the yolk (only) of a raw egg, strain, and add this to the orange mixture with a few drops of vanilla. Mix thoroughly and sip slowly in order to get the full benefit of this food-drink by mixing the saliva well with it. It is better taken without anything ea *‘ 9.5? a , day will kee P th e undertaker away.

Try it.—“Smabada,” Port Moresby.