Aotearoa and Australia · Volume 01, Fire, the Stone Trap and the Reef Garden
Sop sop
Torres Strait, Cape York
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 3 hours
- Researched
- 22 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Yam, the Torres Strait's own staple starch, stewed. Evelyn Billy, a Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal woman who grew up between Townsville and Injinoo, Cape York, and now runs a shopfront and food van supplying Townsville boarding schools serving Indigenous students from remote Cape York and Torres Strait communities, names sop sop among her signature dishes. ABC News No source consulted for this chapter gives a full, quantified recipe, and this chapter reports the dish honestly at the level of detail its sourcing supports rather than inventing precision.
As tradition built it
Reported at the level of detail available
Serves 6 to 8 · 3 hours
Ingredients
An outline, not yet a recipe: the tradition's method with its ingredients named but not weighed. Quantities are being added from sources inside the tradition, lead dishes first.
- 500g yam, peeled and cut
- 1 litre coconut milk
Method
- Yam peeled, cut and stewed slowly, commonly with coconut milk, until tender.
What a modern chef changes
The yam's cook staged with controlled equipment
Rungs 2 and 6
Method
- Cook the yam sous vide at a controlled temperature for an even, fully tender result a stovetop simmer cannot guarantee across an uneven root.
- Strain the coconut milk through a chinois for a clean, grit-free sauce before finishing the stew.
- Finish briefly in a Big Green Egg run indirect, reproducing the gentle, enclosed heat of a slow stovetop simmer with more even, stable temperature control.
Notes
In the spirit of Evelyn Billy's own stated mission to see Torres Strait food properly represented.