Samoa Cuisine

Many of the Samoa recipes are a very lovely treat, you would enjoy eating ‘now and then’. Based very much on combining local root vegetables (like taro and potatoes) with coconut and either fish or meats like pork.

However the recipes do tend to be full of carbs and calories but are very enjoyable.

Similarly the western culture of 3 meals per day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) is only loosely followed and there is a history of simply eating when hungry.

The beauty of the cocoa rice recipe is that it can also be used whenever you fancy eating. OK, mostly it’s used for breakfast or dessert but if you get hungry mid-morning it’s very simple and quick to make.

How to make Samoan Cocoa Rice (Koko Laisa)

Ingredients:

• 300 g uncooked rice – (1.5 cups)
• 700 ml water – (3 cups)
• 240 ml coconut milk – (1 cup)
• 100 g sugar – (1/2 cup)
• 50 g cup cocoa power – (1/2 cup)
• 0.5 tsp Orange extract (or 1 orange leaf, see below)

Equipment

• 1 Saucepan
• 1 Mixing bowl

Instructions

1 – Boil the rice

• Pour the rice and water into the saucepan and bring to the boil
• Boil until cooked – about 15 to 20 minutes

2 – Make the flavour

• Pour the coconut milk into the mixing bowl
• Add the sugar and cocoa and mix until there are no lumps. Finally add the orange extract

3 – Finalise the cocoa rice

• Pour the contents of the mixing bowl into the saucepan
• Stir and simmer for 5 minutes until nice and thick.
• Serve and enjoy

Recipe note – the orange leaf

The original Samoan recipe tends to use an orange leaf, which are simply not available in supermarkets. The alternative (as in this recipe) is to use orange extract, although you could also use Orange grate or even orange juice.

The country recipe challenge.

This recipe is part of my country recipe challenge, where I am trying to find 1 recipe from each country in the world.

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