Recipe # 1 - AIGIR

Hello everyone and welcome to my first recipe post. I was invited by a good friend of mine to go over to her place and learn how to make Aigir. Aigir is a cooking method. It works by the hot stones heating the liquid, pure coconut and boiling the food. I called this dish Plain Aigir because it consisted only of greens commonly found in Papua New Guinea Aibika. Normally you can use chicken as well. I thought it might be a good opportunity to introduce you to the world of PNG food, and I will be posting more PNG recipes in the future. I would recommend having another pair of hands to help with the cooking.

  

PLAIN AIGIR

 

The end product served with bananas 

Description This dish is from the New Guinea Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. I believe it originated from the Tolai people of East New Britain and New Irelandars. Aigir usually is made during big gatherings or during the weekends. As people moved from province to province, the dish has been taught to more people and has become a favorite dish at family gathering or parties etc.. 

 Ingredients 

1. 6 Coconuts (You can try the tins of Coconut milk but I do not know if it will work)

Coconuts can be purchased at markets or check your supermarket. This dish requires a lot of pure coconut milk with no added water so if the coconuts are small buy a lot more.

2. Ginger

3. Salt (Tablespoon) 

4. 10 bundles of Aibika

This is a close up shot of Aibika, there are many types all edible and are found throughout PNG. Aibika is used in many dishes and is a cheap, healthy and tasty variety of greens enjoyed by most Papua New Guineans. 

Equipment 

1. Large pot 

2. One medium size pot filled half way with water 

3. Tongs 

4. Coconut Scraper 

5. Large stainer or muslim cloth 

6. Large dish 

7. Plenty of firewood

8. 8-10 river stones aka mumu stones, (scrubbed clean) 

 

Most of these stones used in Aigir are also perfect for mumu stones. Collected from river beds and stored until needed. 

 Cooking Method 

 1. Make a fire and make sure the top wood is even to support the stones

 

2. Place the stones on the top of the wood as the fire begins to burn. 

 

3. Leave to burn and prepare the food 

 4. Crack the coconut in half and scrape the coconut.

5.  Strain into the large pot. Use a muslin cloth or clean white cotton cloth cut to size which you can put the coconut in and twist to strain and squeeze out the coconut milk (as seen here) or you can squeeze the milk into the pot while someone holds a strainer.

An alternative might be to to used a juicer after you scrape the coconut but I do not know if this will work as I have never tried it. 

5. Get the Aibika and wash thoroughly. Cut off the stem. Place the cleaned Aibika into the large pot, add the salt, throw in the Ginger as well and wait.

6. When fire has died down and stones are red hot, pick up the stones using the tongs (be careful) plunge into the medium sized pot with the water for a couple of seconds,

 

(this is to clean off all the debris from the fire from the stones).

7.  Move aside the Aibika with a fork, you might ask someone to help you) and place the stone at the bottom. 

8. Cover the stone over with the Aibika,  do it over again with the second stone but place away it away from the first stone placing the stones in a circle until you have placed the stones evenly around the pot. 

 9. Cover the pot with its lid and wait for 5 minutes, by this time you should see a lot of steam rising out of the pot.

10.  Remove the lid and turn the Aibika, putting the bottom ones which are cooked at the top and placing the top ones down then close for another 5 minutes before checking, it should be cooked by then. 

11. Taste to see if cooked, then remove the Aibika quickly before it overcooks into a separate dish. If you have more Aibika then put into the saucepan and add more stones into the coconut milk which will cause the coconut milk to boil again and repeat the process.

  

This is what it should look like when cooked. 

If you have a different recipe you would like to send me please do also if you want to get any further information before trying the recipe out, if you do try it out, please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Lastly thank you Doris for letting me bother you during your weekend.

Cheers everyone and happy cooking.