SOLOMON ISLANDS Coconut Crab Cakes with Papaya Relish, Sweet Potatoes Cooked in Coconut Cream, and PawPaw Salad

THE COUNT IS ON!

In late September 2011, I was feeling frustrated; my once-adventurous children were getting pickier and pickier when it came to eating. Rather than fight them, I turned culinary exploration into a game. For the month of October, we cooked and ate a meal from a different country each weeknight and tracked our journey with maps and passports I created. So many friends asked if they could follow along with their own kids, I named our journey One-World Whisk (OWW) and created a blog . The initiative worked. At the end of October, my daughters regained a passion for trying new foods. I was a working mom of three, so we stopped when the month ended. Thankfully, OWW inspired my daughters well beyond — as teens and young adults, they still love travel, food, exploring new cultures.

Sometime in 2019, I picked up again OWW again simply because I was in a culinary rut. At first I posted sporadically, but a year or two back began posting every Thursday. As of my next recipe, I will have 50 countries remaining. I had no ambitions for completing the whole world when I started OWW in 2011, or even in 2019 when I began anew, but now that the end is insight, I have a plan. Plus I love a good donut ending. I thus am switching into turbo mode for the summer. For the next ten weeks, I will be posting four+ times a week, so that I can complete the journey by October 1, 2026, fifteen years to the day it began.

In terms of tonight's dish, this one flummoxed me.

So many sites feature identical recipes when searching for dishes from less visited countries, typically bloggers copying bloggers. I wanted to do something more directly from the source. So for $0.99 I bought a "Traditional Solomon Islands Cookbook: 50 Authentic Recipes from Solomon Islands" cookbook on Amazon. I figured it was low cost because it was from an island group. Nope. Turns out it, the author has published scores of similar cookbooks from around the world, all in the same month, likely all AI generated. I did not catch on until I started to cook and realized the recipes did not seem quite authentic. Ie, the papaya (pawpaw) salad seemed Thai. The crab cakes called for mayo and mustard.

I am still posting what I made rather than doing the country again because I did reverse out of the recipes and try to find more authentic version of them using some of the ingredients I had purchased. And the meal was quite good. But if you visit the Solomon Islands, unsure you will be impressed with this as highly authentic.

Coconut Crab Cakes with Papaya Relish

Coconut Crab Cakes

1 lb white crab meat

1 egg

1-inch fresh ginger, grated

½ fresh red chili (such as Thai or bird's eye)

¼ red bell pepper

 ¼ cup thick coconut milk from the top of an unshaken can of coconut milk

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (~½ lime)

½ cup Panko breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

2 tablespoons canola oil

Papaya Relish

1 medium ripe (but firm) Hawaiian papaya

¼ yellow onion

½ fresh red chili (such as Thai or bird's eye)

¼ cup fresh lime juice (~2 limes)

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro

½ teaspoon sugar

1. Pick over the crab meat for shells.

2. In a large bowl, beat the egg. Add in the ginger. Finley chop both peppers and add to the bowl. Add in the coconut milk and lime juice. Mix well, until all is blended thoroughly.

3. Add in the crab, cilantro, and Panko. Toss gently until combined. Divide into quarter, and make each quarter into a tight cake. Place in refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.

4. Chop the papaya and onion and add to a medium bowl. Mince the red chili and add to the bowl. Add the lime juice, cilantro, and sugar and mix to combine. Place in refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.

5. Heat oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Gently place the crab cakes in the pan and lower heat to medium-low. Cook about 7 minutes per side, flipping gently, until both sides are golden and crab cake is cooked through. Serve garnished with papaya relish.

Sweet Potatoes Cooked in Coconut Cream

2 orange flesh sweet potatoes

~1 can coconut milk*

Salt and pepper to taste

*If you have a full can, great. if you used ¼ cup for your Coconut Crab Cakes, no need to open a new can. Just use the remainder.

1. Piece sweet potatoes with a fork. Place on a microwave-safe dish and cook 3-4 minutes, until just barely cooked through. Let cool about 10 minutes. Peel and cut into large, bit-size cubes. Alternatively, you can peel and cube the potatoes and boil in water ~10 minutes.

2. Add potatoes and coconut milk to a saucepan large enough to heat all. Turn on medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce to low and simmer until milk turns thick and potatoes are cooked through. Season to taste.

PawPaw Salad

1 green pawpaw (unripe papaya)

1 onion

2 medium tomatoes, such a Roma or tomatoes on the vine

2 Persian cucumbers

½ cup grated carrot

2 limes

2 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel the green pawpaw and remove the seeds. Cut the pawpaw into thin strips or grate it using a grater.

2. Slice the onion thinly. Dice the tomatoes. Chop the cucumber. Combine the onion, tomatoes, cucumber, and grated carrot in a large mixing bowl, Add the green pawpaw to the mixing bowl and toss all the ingredients together.

3. Squeeze the lime juice over the salad and mix in the cilantro. Mix well then season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Chill up to 2 hours before serving.

#countdown #globalcooking #everycountry #solomonislands

FUN FACTS:

• The Solomon Islands comprises six major islands and approximately 992 small islands, atolls and reefs.

• Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña named the islands in 1568, hoping people would associate them with the biblical King Solomon's legendary mines and vast wealth.

•  During World War II. then U.S. Lieutenant John F. Kennedy's patrol boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands. He and his crew swam 3.5 miles to a nearby island where they were ultimately rescued by local scouts.