Coconut Soup!

Our friends Rachel and Marcus Meier, have a family tradition of making sauerkraut. Rachel recently blogged about the fun they just had as a family, canning 60 jars of it! It's a great read! You can check it out at rachelmeier.blogspot.com

The Meiers like sauerkraut and the Loux's like coconuts. My Mom recently moved in with us about 7 months ago from the Marshall Islands. Anytime any of our family members comes to the states they bring island food with them. Our girls miss coconut and bread fruit the most. They can still get sushi and sashimi (raw fish) in the states so they're hapy about that.

When my mom arrived from the Marshall Islands, she brought with her, tons, and I mean tons of cut up "U" from a bunch of young coconuts out there. When coconuts are not fully mature with their hard white meat, they have a large, round ball of spongy coconut meat in the middle of them. This is what is used to make some Marshalese favs! Our girls were so excited when "Grandma" showed up with this yummy treat, and they couldn't wait for the big day when I made fresh hot coconut soup, otherwise known as "IQ." There is also a cold dish made from the same ingredient called "Lukor."

My kids were begging me to make these Marshalese dishes for them. So, I set out on what was to be a big adventure in cooking. You see, these dishes have always been made for us by the awesome Marshalese people that are our friends and family. I had never once attempted to make them myself. So, with fear and trembling I grabbed the recipe cards and went for it. I knew I had to succeed or my kids would be so bummed! They all waited with anticipation, saying things like "How's it going Mama?" and "Oh, I can't wait!" The pressure was on!!!

As I began mixing all the ingriedients for these two dishes, I noticed that the batch of IQ and Lukor was getting larger by the minute. I knew this was going to make a lot! I began picturing Jesus feeding the 5,000 and wondering if I would be doing the same with this coconut soup! I was really getting nervous. My mom and I began laughing hysterically. It was quite a sight to see! The kids started coming up to me wanting to taste the end result. I prayed and I prayed hard. "Oh God, please do whatever you need to do to change the end result and make it what it's suppossed to be!" It was finally time for all the taste
testing to begin. My heart began to beat a little faster as I lifted the spoons to each of our kid's mouths! I started hearing the words, "Oh wow this taste great!" and "Yum!" I felt such relief and was thanking God that my big day of experimentation turned out a success! The kids love this stuff and we've frozen a bunch of it just in case the 5,000 do show up :). HA! Quite another story for the memory books! P.S. Hey Marcus and Rachel, we'll trade ya a bowl of coconut soup for a jar of kraut! :)