cooking for guests
I forgot to write an update about cooking for our host family last week. On Saturday (March 9), we hosted our family in our haus kuk (kitchen). We were expected to make a meal, dessert, and serve hot beverages.
Dessert was the challenge. We had already decided to make a vegetable curry and serve it with chicken over rice, but what to make for dessert. In our previous four visits with our host family we had ascertained that they love cake, but it's not something that they make for themselves because it involves baking, which is tricky over a fire . . . that's pretty much my response too! : )
However, we really wanted to honor them by making a cake like thing. So I started brainstorming and looking through recipes, hoping to find something with limited ingredients that didn't need a long baking time. Good luck with that! I found a recipe for biscuits we had almost all the ingredients for and decided to try experimenting with that. Light bulb moment: chocolate papaya biscuits.
For some reason, when I told people that's what I wanted to make I got some strange looks. But it seemed like a great idea to me and my roommate was willing to go along with the plan. We went up the road at 8am on Saturday to where some local ladies wait for a ride to a market a few miles away. Our goal was to find a papaya and maybe a pineapple, but you never know what you will actually find. Thankfully, both were available. The pineapple was backup in case the dessert flopped. Always a possibility with me. : )
By now, my roommate and I have figured out that cooking can be an all day event we started early. At lunch we mixed up the biscuit recipe, which we decided to bake as a cake rather than biscuits. We mashed 1 1/2 cups of papaya and mixed that together with the dry ingredients. Instead of cocoa powder we used some milo powder, which is like hot chocolate. Mix, mix, mix and then the fun part. There are a couple of different ways to bake over a fire. You can make a sand oven where you have a large pot with sand in the bottom and then put a smaller pan on top of some rocks or cans and put the lid on. We chose the other method, a steam oven. A large pot with water and then a smaller pot/pan inside.
I don't know that either one works more effectively or quickly, but the main thing to remember is that whatever amount of time your recipe says, allow for A LOT longer! My biscuit recipe said it needed to bake for 14-16 minutes. Considering we had no real idea of what temperature our fire was at, I didn't know how long it would take, but thought maybe 45 minutes. Three and a half hours later . . . it was finished. Whew! Part of the problem was that we put the lid on the smaller pot instead of the larger water pot. Once we switched it went quite a bit quicker. Good thing we started early!
It turned out well. We had added sugar to the recipe because we were making it sweeter, but we probably should have left out some of the baking powder and added a bit more sugar. However, we decided to make a papaya sugar glaze to frost the cake with and then there was extra that you could drizzle over your cake. That definitely countered the slightly salty flavor of the cake and made a great combination.
The timing worked out well because we had just finished cooking the last of the food and put the water on to heat for hot beverages when our family showed up.
Lots of prayer went into the preparation and it was a blessing to see how God answered in so many ways. Our fire lit and we were able to maintain it all day. The food tasted good and was cooked all the way through. Our family all had seconds and then took the remainder home for a friend. We had a great time of fellowship telling stories and spending time together. Also, even though it had rained every evening for the past few days, we didn't get rain until all of the families had left! It was a bit muddy, but not a swamp.
It was a lot of work to prepare the meal, host, and clean up, but it was a great experience. It also helped to give me confidence in initiating hosting people in the future, even while cooking over a fire. Great answer to prayer!
Dessert was the challenge. We had already decided to make a vegetable curry and serve it with chicken over rice, but what to make for dessert. In our previous four visits with our host family we had ascertained that they love cake, but it's not something that they make for themselves because it involves baking, which is tricky over a fire . . . that's pretty much my response too! : )
However, we really wanted to honor them by making a cake like thing. So I started brainstorming and looking through recipes, hoping to find something with limited ingredients that didn't need a long baking time. Good luck with that! I found a recipe for biscuits we had almost all the ingredients for and decided to try experimenting with that. Light bulb moment: chocolate papaya biscuits.
For some reason, when I told people that's what I wanted to make I got some strange looks. But it seemed like a great idea to me and my roommate was willing to go along with the plan. We went up the road at 8am on Saturday to where some local ladies wait for a ride to a market a few miles away. Our goal was to find a papaya and maybe a pineapple, but you never know what you will actually find. Thankfully, both were available. The pineapple was backup in case the dessert flopped. Always a possibility with me. : )
By now, my roommate and I have figured out that cooking can be an all day event we started early. At lunch we mixed up the biscuit recipe, which we decided to bake as a cake rather than biscuits. We mashed 1 1/2 cups of papaya and mixed that together with the dry ingredients. Instead of cocoa powder we used some milo powder, which is like hot chocolate. Mix, mix, mix and then the fun part. There are a couple of different ways to bake over a fire. You can make a sand oven where you have a large pot with sand in the bottom and then put a smaller pan on top of some rocks or cans and put the lid on. We chose the other method, a steam oven. A large pot with water and then a smaller pot/pan inside.
 |
| Steaming away (lid was off for the picture) |
I don't know that either one works more effectively or quickly, but the main thing to remember is that whatever amount of time your recipe says, allow for A LOT longer! My biscuit recipe said it needed to bake for 14-16 minutes. Considering we had no real idea of what temperature our fire was at, I didn't know how long it would take, but thought maybe 45 minutes. Three and a half hours later . . . it was finished. Whew! Part of the problem was that we put the lid on the smaller pot instead of the larger water pot. Once we switched it went quite a bit quicker. Good thing we started early!
It turned out well. We had added sugar to the recipe because we were making it sweeter, but we probably should have left out some of the baking powder and added a bit more sugar. However, we decided to make a papaya sugar glaze to frost the cake with and then there was extra that you could drizzle over your cake. That definitely countered the slightly salty flavor of the cake and made a great combination.
 |
| Papaya glaze |
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| "Frosted" and ready to be eaten |
The timing worked out well because we had just finished cooking the last of the food and put the water on to heat for hot beverages when our family showed up.
 |
| We sat on these mats next to our haus kuk and thankfully it didn't rain! |
Lots of prayer went into the preparation and it was a blessing to see how God answered in so many ways. Our fire lit and we were able to maintain it all day. The food tasted good and was cooked all the way through. Our family all had seconds and then took the remainder home for a friend. We had a great time of fellowship telling stories and spending time together. Also, even though it had rained every evening for the past few days, we didn't get rain until all of the families had left! It was a bit muddy, but not a swamp.
 |
| We found this praying mantis hanging out on our table when we were cleaning up after dinner. |
It was a lot of work to prepare the meal, host, and clean up, but it was a great experience. It also helped to give me confidence in initiating hosting people in the future, even while cooking over a fire. Great answer to prayer!
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