Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia · Volume 13, One Reef, Two Flags
Poʻe
Tahiti
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Researched
- 17 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
A baked starch pudding; the Tahitian name possibly means "pearl." Banana poʻe method: oven at 180°C, crushed ripe banana mixed with sugar then flour to a thick batter, baked in a buttered mould 20 minutes, then cut, sugared, and coconut milk poured over. Other varieties use pumpkin, papaya or mapé, and poʻe is served as a side to grilled fish as often as it is served as dessert. [qooq.com]
As tradition built it
About 20 minutes baking at 180°C.
Ingredients
- 6 ripe banana, crushed
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 200g flour
- 15g butter, for the mould
- 35cl coconut milk, to finish
Method
- Crush ripe banana, mix with sugar, then work in flour to a thick batter.
- Bake in a buttered mould at 180°C for 20 minutes.
- Cut into portions, sugar the top, and pour coconut milk over.
Notes
Other varieties use pumpkin, papaya or mapé, and poʻe is served as a side to grilled fish as often as it is served as dessert.
What a modern chef changes
The pudding's own two-stage coconut milk pour reproduced with controlled technique, exactly as this atlas documented for Vanuatu's nalot in OC-06.
Rung 4 and 5
Method
- Purée the crushed banana in a high-power blender before mixing in the flour, for a smoother, more even batter than hand-crushing alone gives.
- Heat a clean sear stone separately and lower it into the finishing coconut milk in a covered pan, reproducing the stone-heated pour that the ahimaʻa version of this dish would traditionally receive, rather than simply warming the milk on a hob.
- Dehydrate a few thin banana slices to a crisp as garnish, a texture contrast not documented in any traditional source and offered here plainly as this chapter's own addition.