Oka is a family dish for us. It’s been passed down on my Dad’s Samoan side of the family. For me it reminds me of family events, just those beautiful, crisp flavours; the coconut, the lemon juice. We would always have it at Christmas time. We’d have a combination of your traditional turkey and ham but we’d also always have a more traditional Samoan dish such as chop suey and taro and oka. To me that combination of flavours tastes like Christmas.
Prep Time 15 minutesmins
Chilling time 1 hourhr
Total Time 1 hourhr15 minutesmins
Course Appetiser
Servings 8as an entrée
Ingredients
500gfresh white fishfinely chopped (I use snapper or gurnard)
Place the fish in a non-reactive bowl and add enough lime or lemon juice to just cover the fish. Chill for an hour to marinate – the fish will go opaque.
Discard most of the citrus juice and add the coconut cream and coconut milk. Mix in the spring onion, tomato, capsicum and a dash of soy sauce.
Season with salt and pepper and add Tabasco to taste. Garnish with the coriander before serving.
Notes
Pippa Wetzell is one of the 101 NZ celebs who contributed to the new cook book Cooking 4 Change. This recipe is an extract from the book.