Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia · Volume 05, The Highlands, the Sepik and the Reef
Galip nut relish
New Guinea Islands
Illustration
- Time
- 15 minutes
- Researched
- 1 source cited
Galip cannot currently be bought in Britain (see Sourcing in Britain), so this recipe is included for completeness and for the day the UK supply chain ACIAR and Frangipani Foods are actively building actually exists, using macadamia as the honestly-flagged substitute in the meantime.
As tradition built it
Makes about 300g. About 15 minutes.
Ingredients
- 250 g galip nut kernels (or macadamia, as an honest substitute, not an equivalent)
- to taste salt
- a little a little water or coconut oil, to loosen
Method
- Roast the nuts in a dry pan or a moderate oven until deeply coloured and fragrant, 8 to 10 minutes, watching closely since a nut this oil-rich burns fast once it turns.
- While still warm, crush roughly with a pestle, or pulse briefly in a food processor, to a coarse, oily paste rather than a smooth one.
- Season with salt, loosening with a little water or coconut oil if the paste is too stiff to spoon.
- Serve alongside grilled fish or pork, in the manner of a Sepik or coastal condiment.
What a modern chef changes
Roasting and grinding kept strictly in the right order, and the paste's texture given real thought
Rung 5
Method
- Roast the nuts fully before they go anywhere near a blade, never after, since grinding an unroasted nut only distributes a flat flavour evenly rather than creating the deep, buttery compounds roasting itself develops.
- Grind in a high-power blender in short pulses rather than a continuous run, stopping the moment the paste turns coarse and glossy: pushed further, the nut's own oil will split out and the relish turns greasy rather than emulsified.
- Finish with a few drops of lime juice stirred through at the end, which a traditional preparation does not call for but which cuts the richness of an oil-heavy nut relish in a way this chapter judges worth the small departure.