Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia · Volume 13, One Reef, Two Flags
Poke
The Cook Islands
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- Not statedNo source states a time and the atlas has too few comparable dishes to estimate one.
- Researched
- 17 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Cook Islands poke is a starch pudding, and this needs stating plainly and repeatedly to avoid confusing a reader who has met the Hawaiian dish of the same name first. Very ripe banana boiled 30 to 60 minutes in its skin until deep pink or purple, cooled, then mashed with arrowroot starch, roughly 1 cup banana pulp to 2 cups arrowroot in the recipe found, until no longer sticky, baked at 350°F/177°C for about an hour, tested with a skewer around 30 minutes, until smooth and wobbly "like jelly." Served with a separately made, thickened hot coconut cream poured over spoonfuls of the baked banana. Explicitly a starch dish, not a dessert in the Western sense. Named variations use maniota (arrowroot or cassava), kanaka, uto (coconut sprout), pawpaw, lime, mango, orange, breadfruit or pumpkin in place of banana. [www.ck/food/0109.htm, Mereana Hutchinson, Rarotonga]
As tradition built it
About an hour baking, plus 30 to 60 minutes boiling the banana.
Ingredients
- 1 part very ripe banana pulp, boiled 30 to 60 minutes in its skin until deep pink or purple, then mashed
- 2 parts arrowroot starch
- to serve coconut cream, thickened and served hot
Method
- Boil very ripe banana in its skin 30 to 60 minutes until deep pink or purple. Cool.
- Mash with arrowroot starch, roughly 1 part banana pulp to 2 parts arrowroot, until no longer sticky.
- Bake at 350°F/177°C for around an hour, testing with a skewer from 30 minutes, until smooth and wobbly.
- Serve with hot, thickened coconut cream poured over spoonfuls of the baked pudding.
Notes
Named variations use maniota (arrowroot or cassava), kanaka, uto (coconut sprout), pawpaw, lime, mango, orange, breadfruit or pumpkin in place of banana.
What a modern chef changes
The starch-to-liquid ratio treated as a controllable variable, and the coconut cream properly thickened.
Rung 4
Method
- Weigh the banana pulp and arrowroot rather than measuring by cup, since the tradition's own ratio is given loosely and a controlled ratio is what actually decides whether the finished pudding sets to a clean wobble or turns gluey.
- Bake in individual moulds rather than one large dish, for an even, fully set texture edge to centre and a cleaner plated portion.
- Thicken the finishing coconut cream with a touch of the same arrowroot rather than reduction alone, matching the starch already inside the pudding for a more integrated final dish.