By Veronica Thoms
I grew up in Fiji and I love food, all aspects of it. Meal planning, cooking, eating, taking photos, reading about food. It doesn’t matter as long as good food is involved.
I hope to be able to share some of the food I enjoy with you and look at how local produce can be utilised or incorporated into recipes.
Fresh produce and seafood is abundant in Fiji and offers so many opportunities. I have a love of fresh food and using what is available.
One of the things I have got into doing is making sauces, pickles, and chutneys out of what is readily available, sometimes fresh out of the garden. We have the best range of Indian pickles made from fresh produce, we have a vast range of Asians making kimchi, mine though are more what my grandmother used to make. Visits to her were always special to us as her pantry was stocked with bottled fruit, jams, and pickles, that she made. We would get spoiled with New Zealand ice cream and our choice of apricots, peaches, nectarines, or pears, that she had stocked up on in anticipation of our visits.
This week for me, it meant turning 10kg of green tomatoes into green tomato chutney. And as my other half cut down a couple of pawpaw trees, while I love a Thai green papaya salad, in fact everyone in the house does, there were way too many so we have green pawpaw chutney as well. I wasn’t letting those pawpaw go to waste.
Tonight we are enjoy a cold sundowner with cheese and crackers topped with our homemade chutneys.
Check it out.
About The Author.
Veronica Thoms is a long term resident of Fiji. In her words: "I grew up in Fiji after my parents arrived on a 3 year contract, as many do... they stayed on. " Her family always cooked, baked, bottled fruit, and so I was baking from an early age. I love anything to do with food, be it reading, cooking, eating, or taking photos. I enjoy many different cuisines, and have found local food adapts well to many recipes. In her professional world, Veronica helps residents with Real Estate.
