coconut vanilla jam

After trying coconut vanilla jam in Noumea last year, I was interested in finding a recipe for it.

To my surprise as I was flipping through Christine Ferber's book, she had a recipe for coconut vanilla jam.

My problem with the recipe was that she used fresh coconut...yup, crack it open, scrape out the flesh, save the milk....where the heck would I find a whole coconut in Japan?

I decided to ad-lib. I had coconut for baking. I bought some coconut milk. I used the last half of the Lifou vanilla that I had bought in Noumea.

I adjusted the recipe. The taste was just like what I remembered, though the texture could have been a little softer.

I think if I used something thinner like coconut flakes instead of coconut strips it would have turned out softer. I also think it needs to be a bit more syrupy.

We tried it on toast for breakfast yesterday, but I think it may be better baked in a nice flaky crust or maybe with some dark chocolate covering it....

It is Halloween today but it isn't celebrated much here, though the stores surely take advantage of making some money from it. If you are celebrating the day, have fun but be safe, oh we have another 3-day weekend here, hope you have a good one.

making ice cream

Last year, I was chatting with my friend Kazumi and we were talking about ice cream makers. I was asking her what brand was the best and told her I was thinking of buying one.

She told me that if I didn't mind, she was cleaning out her garage and noticed several appliances that she hadn't used in awhile, so if I wanted a second hand ice cream maker, I could have one of hers.

I immediately said "yes, please!" After our conversation, it was some time before we got together again, so it was awhile before I received the maker from her.

After receiving the machine, I immediately thought that I should try making vanilla ice cream, as that is the most basic flavor.

Of course, when you get a new gadget, you have to get a new cookbook, right? I purchased David Lebovitz's book, "The Perfect Scoop", it was raved about all over the blogosphere last year. I also found an ice cream recipe book which doesn't use eggs in Japanese.

The reason why I wanted to try an egg-less recipe for my first trial was that I didn't have the confidence of not overcooking the eggs for the custard.

So, I tried the egg-less recipe in Japanese. The method required you to beat the fresh cream with sugar until you got peaks. Then add in some milk and pour the mixture into your ice cream maker.

I didn't like this version at all. First, it was more like ice milk than vanilla ice cream because it didn't call for any vanilla. Next, it was gritty and didn't hold its shape at all (it melted after snapping this shot). And lastly, while beating the cream with the sugar for the amount of time suggested, the cream started to separate. (insert pouty face). So after mixing it with the amount of milk and then putting the mixture into the ice cream maker, there were streaks of oil from the cream, leaving an ugly residue on your spoon as well as in your mouth....blah.

Another thing I didn't like about this book was there was no indication of how much ice cream you would yield if your followed the full recipe...sigh.

So, a couple of days later, I tried David's method for Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream.

His version called for heating cream with sugar and some vanilla from a vanilla pod. I halved the recipe since my maker only makes 1/2 a liter and used part of the Lifou vanilla which I bought on our trip to Noumea last year.

This version also called for vanilla extract. After heating the cream and sugar until the sugar dissolved, I added the milk and the extract. Then I chilled the mixture.

After several hours, I put the chilled mixture into the maker and came out with a creamy vanilla ice cream. This was delicious!

Satoshi had tried the first attempt and was surprised when I told him that I made the second version too. (He thought I had bought it.)

I'm so happy I bought David's book. I will probably take the Japanese recipes and adapt them to this vanilla ice cream recipe. I also hope to try a custard version...hopefully, I'll get up enough courage to.

eating & buying local...well sort of...

In New Caledonia, there was a lot of opportunity to have seafood. Vegetables we found out were very expensive, so most times you only have a little veggie as garnish.

This ceviche at Ilot Maitre had raw shrimp, pineapple, tomato and passion fruit, Satoshi really liked this.






Vine ripened tomatoes at the local market looked gorgeous, I'm not sure if 530 XPF per kilo (about 768 yen or US $6.67), is expensive or reasonaable, since I don't usually buy in bulk it seemed kind of expensive.

Shrimp is plentiful and I found out that they trade them with Tahiti for their black pearls. If you want to buy black pearls, you probably will get a better buy in New Caledonia because they get them cheap (the jewelers pay no tax because of the trade)! This dish was delicious, shrimp fried in a light batter on a bed of shredded lettuce, julienned carrots and cucumbers with a chimchurri sauce--we ate this twice on Ilot Maitre.

And look how big this papaya was.

We paid 960 XPF for this salad (about 1391 yen or US $12) at George's Traiteur, it was a nice change from eating panini or filled baguette sandwiches.

Satoshi's friend who lives in Noumea sent us this basket of tropical fruits while at Ilot Maitre. (Thank you!)

A popular dessert in New Caledonia is creme brulee, this one wasn't too sweet, but look at the amount--three demitasse cups! (and I ate it all by myself...hee hee)





Crayfish salad. I would be scared to see this crayfish in the river--it was huge!






Cafe Lola is the local coffee and is grown by a Japanese who started a coffee farm in the 90's on New Caledonia.


A delicious appetizer at L'hippocampe (Le Meridien Noumea)with cream cheese, smoked salmon, tomatoes, onions, a squeeze of lime topped with tobiko (flying fish eggs)--I wish they had served this with bread or toast.




Local jams made by Les Confiseries de Ninou. I discovered them at breakfast on Ilot Maitre and really enjoyed the Confiture de coco a la vanille (coconut with vanilla jam)--shredded coconut with flecks of vanilla, great on brioche and pancakes. I found them in Noumea and bought myself a large jar and bought the smaller sizes to give away, Gelee a Jamelon (black plum jelly), the coconut with vanilla and Confiture de Pomme-liane Papaye (passion fruit with papaya).

At the farmers market, I found this official checking out the fish.

Niaouli (melaleuca viridiflora) is used for medicinal purposes (I think we call this paperbark tree or bottle brush tree in Hawaii). When you break the leaf it smells like eucalyptus. The oils are used for cough syrup and antiseptics.

I bought some Niaouli bath salts from Pacifico Nature.






My best buy (or so I felt) was Lifou Vanilla (250 XPF for one pod--362 yen or US $3.15). There are 3 outer islands of New Caledonia called Loyalty island--Ouvea, Lifou and Mare. Look at the size of these vanilla pods!--the shriveled up one is one that I had at home, which I think I paid twice as much for. When you buy it from the morning market, the lady lets you stick your hand into a big glass jar and pick out the pods you want to buy! She also sold vanilla pods that were grown in Vanuatu for the same price. The vanilla really made my suitcase smell nice. (I hope it was okay for me to bring these back without going through agriculture, if not, pretend you didn't read this).

These chips were French, we found out afterwards that they have a local brand called "stone chips". The beer was definitely not local. New Caledonia imports the hops from France then sends them to Japan to brew and the beer was imported back to New Caledonia.

And what would a vacation be without chocolate! We found some local chocolatiers in Noumea.

Tonton Jules's palet d'or and almond bon bon--pricey goodness.

Chocolats Morand--ganache te (tea) noir and Noisette au lait--delicious. I was surprised that he specified the cacao percentage and where he gets his chocolate from on his bars as the other chocolatiers didn't.

Boulangerie Marais' mendiants--a delicious treat while window shopping.

George's Traiteur
Centre Ville 5 av du Mal Foch
Phone: 28.80.70

Tonton Jules
Ctre Ville 7 bis Rue du Gal Magnin
Phone: 27.39.49

Chocolats Morand
Quartier Latin 13 rue Eugene Porcheron
Phone: 27.31.77

Pacifico Nature
4 rue du Dr Lescour
Phone: 24.12.54

Les Confiseries de Ninou
Mont Dore
Phone: 41.19.22

Boulangerie Marais
Quartier Latin 21 rue Eugene Porcheron
Phone: 27.25.24

p.s. you can also find pasta, but be warned, New Caledonians like their pasta quite soft, so you may be disappointed.

Whew! that was a long post and a lot of food, there was also veal sweetbreads (a first try) and sarawak ice cream (spicy goodness!).

Since coming back to Osaka, we've had sushi and ramen! Baguettes and croissants are delicious, but you cannot beat rice!

I hope you enjoyed our adventure as much as we did!

noumea

From the Le Meridien Noumea, the town of Noumea was about a 30 minute bus ride.









Noumea's main mode of transportation is the car. You will sometimes see a scooter or motorcycle. Public transportation are buses or taxis and rarely will you see anyone walking or riding bicycles. If you paid for your bus fare before boarding the bus it cost more (200 XPF about 289 yen or US $2.50) than if your pre-bought a fare card (170 XPF about 246 yen or US $2.14). I couldn't understand the need for these cards other than to distinguish pre-bought and on-board fares and we often saw them littered on the bus and streets.

Much of the town is hilly, which gave breath taking views of the city and bays on clear days.

I was disappointed at how much graffiti was all over the place. At sightseeing spots, graffiti even covered the landmark or statue. Even houses with garage doors or walls had graffiti tagged on them.

The money in New Caledonia is the Pacific Franc (XPF). We were surprised at the size of the bills and coins, they were larger than what we were used to in the U.S. and in Japan. Unfortunately, our yen wasn't too strong so everything was REALLY expensive.

The marina area had many boats, but only 1 boat is available for rent to go cruising or fishing!



Most of the street signs were in French.


And the traffic signals were interesting. The smaller one on the bottom are for cars that are closest to the signal. The larger one at the top are for the cars further back of the line.

A new aquarium was opened a couple of days before we got there, they have lots of unusual fish plus a live florescent coral display.

Unlike Japan, there are many benches and places to sit to have lunch or just take a breather.





They even had a Chinatown (doesn't every city?). This one was called Polynesia Chinatown.

We were smiling when we saw this store called "Waikiki" in Chinatown.

I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly everyone was. Many people greet you with a "Bon Jour" or "Konnichiwa" on the street and especially when you enter a restaurant or store. You also often see people kissing each other on both cheeks, (even the hotel staff kissed each other on the cheeks when changing shifts!) You also see people yelling across the street to tell a friend "hi".

Despite the graffiti and litter, Noumea was still a great place to roam around.

Next post will feature everything French....stay tuned.

Aquarium
61 promenade Roger Laroque
Anse Vata
Phone: 26.27.31
Closed on Mondays

Le Meridien Noumea
Pointe Magnin
Phone: 26.50.00