Recipes from Papua New Guinea

When we collect ethnic art, we feel that we are - on some level - participating in and partaking of the culture from which the objects came. We feel enriched by ownership of the material, and by the effort that we have made to transcend familiar tastes and conventions in order to appreciate a new and challenging kind of art. We spend months each year combing the hinterlands at all points East, just to find things no one has ever seen before. We ask you to take the Ethnic Challenge, to appreciate the unfamiliar in art. And then, to toughen you up, we send out recipes that would dismay the provisioner of any restaurant. Here are the first prize winners for the all-Un-American meal! With many thanks to Lesley Martin of Pacific Artifacts in Vista, California, whose expertise in everything Papuan, from Art to Australasian Cooking, is unchallenged.

Sago Grub Sate with Peanut Sauce

Steam three dozen Sago grubs. You may remove the heads, but it is not necessary. Combine the following ingredients, and heat, but do not boil, to make Sate Sauce:

5 - 6 oz. ground fresh roasted peanuts or the same amount best quality peanut butter 4-6 small, hot chiles, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 stem lemon grass, chopped 1 tbsp lime juice 2 tbsp soy sauce 200 ml coconut milk

Put the grubs on a wooden skewer (six to a stick) and cover with half the sauce. Grill over a charcoal fire or in the oven for about 5 minutes. Then turn over, cover with the rest of the sauce and grill another 5 minutes. Serve with rice.

The same Sate Sauce goes beautifully with a Santa Fe kids' favorite,

Chicken on a Stick. Take a couple of skinless, boned chicken breasts, slice them the long way, an inch wide. Marinate for 10 minutes to overnight in a mix of chopped garlic, finely chopped ginger, and soy sauce (some like to mix in a bit of barbecue sauce). Then poke a skewer through the chicken, and grill until just done, turning once.

And from the mettle-testing menu of the as-yet-only-dreamed-of Extreme Cuisine Restaurant:

Flying Fox with Prunes and Cream Sauce

6 flying foxes (in case you are wondering, these are bats) 1 pound prunes 1 ¼ cup white wine salt, pepper 1/4 cup flour 2 oz. butter 1 tbsp red currant jelly 1 cup thick cream

Remove the flesh from the flying foxes. Either plunge the animals in boiling water for a while, then skin them and remove the flesh from the bones, or roast the animals for a little over an open fire, remove, and when cool, break open down the backbone and remove the flesh from the skin.

Soak the prunes overnight in 1 cup of the wine, then heat for about ten minutes in the wine before using. Season the flying fox meat with salt and pepper and roll in flour. Saute in butter over a low heat until brown. Add the rest of the wine, cover and cook another 20 minutes. Add the juice from the prunes, and transfer the prunes onto a serving dish. Cook the meat in the prune juice, uncovered, for another 10 minutes, then place on the serving dish with the prunes.

The preparation of the following recipe requires an ingredient which is now a protected species.

Paua Sup (Power Soup) First, catch your snake. This should be a python. Tie the snake to a pole and while still alive, skin and remove excess fat. Remove the gall bladder and keep for other culinary/medical purposes. Chop the snake into one inch lengths and place in a pot of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 hours. When cooking is complete, discard the water. (Boil the head of the snake separately, the liquid is useful as a remedy against choking.) Meanwhile, prepare separately stock from a chicken (an old one) and/or pork scraps, onion, chili, salt and pepper. While this is cooking, skim off the fat and discard. Cook for 3-4 hours, let cool and remove all extraneous elements. Prepare also a herb soup of abika cabbage and a large quantity of ginger. Combine all ingredients and reheat. As an optional extra, brandy may be added.

top

Anahita Gallery Inc.

616 ½ B Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87051