The Great Vanuatu Bake Off

VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sat 15 Feb 2014 08:52
I have just found this in our drafts foulder, I think I was having trouble with the photos at the time, perhaps it censored itself
 
Ali here. I was very sad to leave Vanuatu, one of many fond memories was the cookery class at the Back To Our Roots Festival on Ambrym.
 
 
It started with roasting whole breadfruits on a wood fire. Notice the men don't bother with aprons.
 
 
The other main ingredient was coconuts, they were prepared by first removing the husks using a sharpened stick, then spliting them in half and the white flesh scraped out and collected.
 
 
Once the breadfruit was cooked, the burnt outer layer was removed and the centres pounded together using a young coconut (above). This was hard work and the men took it in turns ( poor things), this process lasted about 30 mins.
 
 
A very hot stone from the fire was placed inside an empty coconut shell, handfulls of the shreded coconut were then squeezed over the hot stone, this produced hot coconut cream.
 
 
 This certainly was a very lengthy process with very hungry onlookers.
 
 
The finishing touches, the bread fruit was rolled out and cut into pieces and the hot coconut cream was poured over the top.
 
 
The end result was delicious, we were all very hungry by then.
 
 
Not a piece was left and the chief was left to do the washing up.