HAVE you tasted charcoal breadfruit or uto? That heavenly smell, smokey taste, a soul food and so easy to cook.
The whole uto goes onto charcoal (tavu), turned when well cooked, its cooled, beaten with a spoon before its peeled and everyone fights over a piece! No additional sauce or seasoning – simply delicious fruit!
It looks like a fruit anyway though breadfruit is a staple. Well, it is a “bread” for us!
Boiled, lovo, grilled or tavu, it’s a great snack or a meal. Breadfruit is abundantly in season right now!
Because of climatic conditions there is unusual fruiting, in twos and threes. Elders say abundant fruiting of breadfruit indicates an imminent disaster and in the olden days was a sure sign to get prepared. After cyclones, breadfruit that falls to the ground used to be stored in drums of water until processed for food.
Breadfruit is hailed as a means of food security in such times. Elders share that breadfruit preserves well and used to be fermented, apparently a practice that was common around the Pacific. Breadfruit used to be placed in a dug hole and lined with grass and leaves and would ferment and keep well for months. We tried placing breadfruit in an ice cream container and buried for six months, breadfruit retained its flavour and smell and tasted good. We are told that in the days gone by fermented breadfruit could stay for months for food security, it used to be baked in coconut milk for a healthy staple.
Fermented foods is now hailed as health food and great for gut ailments. In the olden days this was a great food preservation method and surely it must have been great for gut ailments too!
Not only was breadfruit fermented but so were other root crops and coconut gratings once the milk was squeezed out used to be fermented in the seawater. In the Lau Group, kota or fermented coconut is still used in a range of dishes.
Coconut gratings, root crop as well as breadfruit are now all turned into gluten-free flours through drying process for modern day bread making.
Plantain is another common crop. As a staple, it is often boiled. Ripe ones make beautiful desert known as vudi vakasoso and the extra ripe ones get fermented for a range of deserts.
Breadfruit and plantain grow abundantly in our rural communities however access to market for these highly nutritious food has been a challenge.
Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND) is a homegrown NGO that supports building capacity of the communities and often helps in set up of sustainable livelihood projects as a first step in its social, economic and health empowerment work.
Seven years ago about 20 rural communities of the Northern Division identified the two commodities as possible income-generation options. Breadfruit and plantains are considered sun-kissed fruits and high in nutrition.
We had to find quick and cheap ways of value addition to minimise cost for the farmers.
A bit of research showed a high demand of these products as gluten free flours.
Both the commodities have high preference in baking because of its sweeter taste and lighter baking properties.
FRIEND started trials and worked with chefs at resorts to try and find various uses for these flours. The French chefs loved these for their gluten-free rolls! Texture and taste of these two flours quickly made them popular ingredients in gluten-free baking. A quick market test indicated a high demand in both Australia and New Zealand bakeries.
The challenge was supplying them tonnes required! Community consultations revealed a lot of interest from farmers.
Now farmers are growing breadfruit and plantain plantations as part of their integrated fruit orchards which will act as food security as well as sustainable source of income from value addition.
Both plants grow well organically and orchards will mean that Fiji can supply greater volumes required by the market. Seedling generation is also easy for the communities.
FRIEND has been running training programs on drying and flour making around Fiji and more than 50 communities in the North have been trained in step by step of processing, hygiene, packaging as well as use of solar dryers. Both plantain and breadfruit are processed green and dry easily.
Communities are encouraged to prepare their own flour for food security as well as sustainable income. Rural women have been coming up with great recipes for earth-oven baking, steaming or using the hot plate. Both flours make great topoi, babakau, pancakes, lolo bun as well as roti and of course the full range of cakes and pies.
Elders have also been sharing that these homemade flours make great baby weaning foods and can possibly be a key factor for improving nutrition among children. Ministry of Health figures show poor nutrition tops the list of cause for child mortality and 40 per cent of our children have micro nutrition deficiency.
Each season different flours can be prepared — coconut, breadfruit, kumala, cassava or plantain. All these flours work well in bakeries for wraps, roti, pancakes, breads, cookies, pies and cakes and each chef comes up with their own mixes.
Other than cassava flour, plantain and breadfruit flours are now easily available in supermarkets through our distributing partner Motibhai & Co Ltd who have been supporting FRIEND in its vision of sustainable livelihoods in our rural communities.
Those who are gluten intolerant can now enjoy healthy Christmas cakes from a range of these home grown flours now readily available on our shelves!
