A little friend's kitchen
When the margouillat comes to investigate
A little friend’s kitchen
When Hiro, the margouillat, comes to investigate
A regular part of being in Moorea is going to one of two supermarkets on the island and doing our grocery shopping. The one closest to us has changed names over the years, but I still call it by the old name, Chez Are. Next to the supermarket are fruit and vegetable stands that sell local produce. For example, limes, Fei (plantain bananas), Uru (breadfruit), mangoes, papayas, ginger, Ahia Tahiti (Java apple), star fruit, pineapple, etc. My favourite things to buy are papaya and ginger. But you’re asking yourself what Hiro has to do with this and what a margouillat is. Keep reading to find out more.
“Do you have two big ones?”
I usually buy two large papayas because the smaller ones are best for eating as is. I keep the seeds because you can grind them and use them instead of pepper in your cooking. You want to remove them all if you're going to cook with the papaya. I use them to create jam. My go-to way of preparing them is to cut them in half lengthways, peel them, remove the seeds by scooping them out with a spoon and then chop the fruit first lengthways in slice and then in 1-2cm pieces. Those get put in a pot with a maximum of 1 cup of sugar (it depends on the quantity of fruit you’ve got). When I have some, I add a cap full of rum and a 2cm piece of grated ginger. I don’t usually bother peeling the ginger. If you’ve got some vanilla essence, now is a good time to add it in. I let the fruit cook long enough to get soft, mash them with a fork, and pop them back into the pot. You want to keep stirring and ensure nothing sticks to your pan's bottom. I cook with gas, so I don’t know how long it takes to cook with electricity. You need to feel it with your heart.
“So, what about the margouillat?”
Once it’s cooked long enough, I turn the gas off and put a metal sieve over it to ensure the jam cools down, but no flies can investigate. Then I do other things, like writing or taking photos, editing photos, or if I’m lucky, chatting with friends/family. So, there I am editing some photos, ready to upload them to my website, and trying to fix some website issues when I think, “I think I should check on my jam.”. Why exactly? No idea. I walk to the kitchen and look at the pot, still covered with the sieve but now with Hiro perched on the edge of the sieve. He stares at me, I stare at him, and he stares at me. So, who’s going to make the next move?
“Hiro-man, is that you?”
The next thing I know, Hiro, the margouillat has flung himself Batman-style behind the recycling or to hide behind the fridge as if he was never on the sieve trying to partake of the papaya jam. Cheeky little margouillat!
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So, that’s the story of Hiro and what a margouillat has to do with papaya, a kitchen, and more specifically, making jam. Always remember to put a sieve over your jam; remember, in the islands, there’s always a little Hiro or friends who want to partake in
your food.
For a bonus: here’s the view from the supermarket. Pretty awesome, huh?