Why hobbit food you ask?

Have you ever wondered what hobbits eat? This question never occurred to us until one Sunday night where we used left over boiled, mashed up tubers to cover a hard boiled egg. We took this concept from a Guyanese dish known as Egg Ball. Which really is a hard boiled egg covered in a single root called cassava. After we fried up these tuber balls and were sitting down to devour them Tony said, "Sara, you cook like a hobbit and it's awesome" which then turned these tuber balls into hobbit balls. This also got us thinking, "what else have we cooked that's been inspired through the use of local ingredients and cuisine?" From this our blog was born. But if you're actually looking for foods that hobbits eat you won't find them here. But we do hope you enjoy our creations!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Coconut Oil

I was so excited to learn how to make my own coconut oil! Especially being some place where I can't just run to the store and buy it. Although it's cheaper to make my own...but it's kind of a long process.

Coconut oil is good for you and better for you to cook with. It also makes your house smell good and adds a nice flavor to your food.

Here's what you do:

Get coconuts, I used 4. Break open.

Remove the "meat".
I used a knife to chip away at the coconut meat, it took awhile and my hands hurt afterward.

Grate the coconut. Again this takes some time.

Place shredded coconut in a blender, add a little water to cover the blade.

Blend until you get a consistency like this.
Milky.

Squeeze coconut pulp to get all the milk.
I highly recommend a strainer for this part.

You get coconut milk!


Set container of milk in the fridge over night.
The fat from the milk floats to the top and you should get a solid type consistency.
This is what you fry to get coconut oil.

Place milk fat in a skillet (my kahari was a little difficult to catch the oil, but it worked okay) and let boil, you don't want to burn the oil so watch it and stir every once in awhile.
Do you see the oil at the top?

Use a spoon to catch the oil or carefully try and pour the oil into a glass container.

Coconut oil!

Keep stirring and trying to squeeze out more oil.

In the end you'll get this.
I forget what it's called but you can eat it, I think it tastes good. It's good with a little sugar too.

So there you have it, coconut oil!

~Sara