April 14, 2008 - 11:45am
Breadfruit, what about it?
I'm coming from outer space again... Breadfruit, a tropical fruit, hangs in big trees, grows to about the size of a volley ball, outer skin green. Where did the name come from, does it have potential in a bread? Any recipes out there?
In my reading....
"The dried fruit has been made into flour and improved methods have been explored in Barbados and Brazil with a view to substituting breadfruit in part for wheat flour in breadmaking. The combination has been found more nutritious than wheat flour alone. Breadfruit flour is much richer than wheat flour in lysine and other essential amino acids. In Jamaica, the flour is boiled, sweetened, and eaten as porridge for breakfast."
Mini O
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Mini O,
Never saw it, never had it, so can't comment from personal experience. A friend who did a stint with the Peace Corps in Samoa said it was absolutely nasty stuff to eat. I'm sure that there are others with different opinions, but that was his view.
Paul
When in Barbados. Tried to make mashed potatoes.... I had one big pot of goo, icky sticky goo with no real flavor. I never thought to dry it or ferment it. Wonder what a sourdough would do to it?
Mini O
Hi Mini O.
Wikipedia says
"Breadfruit is a staple food in many tropical regions. They were propagated far outside their native range by Polynesian voyagers who transported root cuttings and air-layered plants over long ocean distances. They are very rich in starch, and before being eaten they are roasted, baked, fried, or boiled. When cooked the taste is described as potato-like, or similar to fresh baked bread (hence the name)."
The rest of the article is here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadfruit
I dont think I have ever tasted it as I know aot of those tropical fruits are uuuummm a little beyond my pallette. I lived in QLD Australia for 26 years.........We had plenty of opportunity to try these and many other quite uumm interesting tropical fruits, not to mention I worked at a tropical fruit farm and restaurant :S
After I tried Durian.....that was enough for me ;) I'll stick to my bananas and Mangos if I want something tropical ;)
TGB
I love it by the way. Too much has an intoxicating effect. It is forbidden to carry it onto most airplanes due to the smell. To some it smells like rotten onions. Never tried it in bread, never lasted that long...
Mini O
Hi Minnie O.
I love breadfruit and Durian. Where I live, I can get imported, frozen (thawed) Durians, but nothing like the real thing, sitting down at a street-side vendor in Asia and sucking down that luscious, silky, rich Durian flesh!! I could swoon thinking about it! Worth waiting for.
Breadfruit is an English term (obviously), referring to the baked fruit having the look of white bread. They grow in tropical regions.
They are starchy, rather like a taro, but fairly bland in taste (probably why the English called it bread fruit. No French or German person would liken its taste with bread!) Best baked - whole or peeled. Best baked wrapped in banana leaf over hot rocks.
You can use it, I guess, as potato as you would in potato bread.
Ive also eaten it dried over a fire. The pieces are dried over a flame. They taste smoky, like a non-oily, unsalted, potato crisp.
They store for months in a sealed container (to avoid getting it eaten by mice, rats etc). You can soak the pieces in water or coconut milk and add them to curries, stews.
I like it dry, like a cracker biscuit. I haven't tried them with a beer, but It's the sort of thing that goes with beer.
I know Asians make Durian candy. Durian would probably be nice in a sweet bun or cake or a flan tart (torte).
In Hawaii we had an Ulu (breadfruit) tree in our yard that produced copius amounts of the fruits. A unique feature of the trees, is the seeds are sterile, and so propogation occurs only through grafting. This of course means the trees in Hawaii are all direct decendents of the same tree (graft) brought from Polynesia. (As Ms. Wikipedia eluded to above) Cool, huh? We used to boil them like potatoes and eat them with butter. We also seasoned them with olive oil similar to marinated artichoke hearts, and they were great.
Never made them into a flour, so can't tell you about that.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
I ate a fair bit of breadfruit while living in Tonga. One of my favorite dishes was ngou'a. Breadfruit was baked in an earth oven, peeled, and the resulting starch was kneaded into little dumplings. Over this, a sauce of caramelized sugar and coconut milk. The smokiness of the baked breadfruit is perfectly complemented by the caramel.