Cooked breadfruit for the first time for dinner last night, and it was delicious.
Breadfruit was actually the cause of the Mutiny on The Bounty. Captain Bligh had been tasked with collecting Breadfruit from Tahiti and taking them to the West Indies (where they could be grown to feed the growing population - presumably slaves). But he arrived at the wrong time of year and had to wait 5 months for the breadfruit to be ready - by which time his crew had got used to the Polynesian way of life, and didn't want to leave. Trouble started as soon as he forced them all back on board, leading to mutiny, and the breadfruit never did get to the West Indies!!
The tree has big glossy green leaves and the fruits hang off the ends of the branches, weighing the tree down. The fruit is round, hard and heavy with green scaly skin.
Traditionally it's baked on an open fire, but without that option on a boat I removed the stalk, quartered it and boiled it for 30mins. After cooling I removed the skin and cut out the stringy core. I then cut it into chip sized pieces and fried it in oil and butter, along with some chillies and lots of salt and pepper.
It's tastes somewhere between potato and sweet potato and is highly nutritious. Half a cup apparently contains 25% of your recommended daily fibre intake.
We ate it with a cottage pie style mince I'd made. Delicious.
The other fruit we've been enjoying is Pamplemouse (French for grapefruit), also grown on trees. But these are nothing like grapefruit we're used to - they are more like the size of melons, with green skin, and much sweeter.
I'll send some pics of both. Maybe with global warming we'll be growing these fruits in the UK one day!
Love to all Axx
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Will these fruits be in Archers repertoire?
Breadfruit is on the short list of things that I eat that didn’t previously move around for a living. Looks
Like you’ve arrived at Fakatava Atoll - enjoy!
I’ve just caught up on your blogs. Basically I’ve missed the Pacific! But your words, your photos and Amanda’s amazing drawings really bring it all to life so magnificently! The birds and the fish, the solitude, and the lack of whales! It really sounds like you have taken the sailing itself in your stride, albeit with a lot of heeling over. Love the squid on Amanda’s bottom story! And Bill’s dream about not getting beer into his mouth! As for us, we are just back from 3+ weeks in France. Last Saturday we skied in the morning, and had a bbq in 27 degrees in the afternoon. Here in the UK it’s still bloody raining! Gracie was with us in France for 2 weeks which was lovely, and we managed a quick visit to Tomas near Les Menuires. He has had a fantastic time, and has perfected his back flip (which I really didn’t like watching!). Gracie is now back at Uni and Tom heads off to India after he’s done his washing back here! Good luck for the rest of your trip. Looking forward to seeing you soon and hearing all about it. Kirsten xxx
Hi there, loving the history lesson and cooking lesson! Think I’ll give the breadfruit a miss… sounds like a lot of prep… although clearly fuelling you well! The pamplemousse however sounds like a good addition to my morning yoghurt and granola! Lots of love xx