Po'e Papaya

Ripe Tahitian papaya mashed with arrowroot and baked in banana leaves until it sets to a glossy, translucent pudding, eaten cold under a pool of coconut cream

Origin: Papeete, Tahiti & the Society Islands

From the journey of Papaya.

Po'e is older than any of the fruit now put into it. The word goes back to the proto-Polynesian poke, to mix or to knead, and it is the same root that gives Hawaiian poi and poke; the dish is a starch and a mashed thing, bound and cooked, which is one of the oldest ideas in the Pacific. What changed is the filling. Banana is the commonest and the one most visitors meet, but pumpkin, taro, breadfruit, guava, and papaya all make a po'e, and a Tahitian cook chooses between them by what is ripe and what the po'e is to be eaten with. Papaya makes the cleanest of them. It is wetter and less sweet than an overripe banana, so it takes rather more starch and a squeeze of lime to hold its edge, and it bakes to a translucent apricot colour that the banana version never reaches. The starch is pia, Polynesian arrowroot, dug and grated and washed out by hand, though tapioca starch has largely replaced it in town kitchens. It belongs to Sunday. Ma'a Tahiti, the Tahitian meal eaten after church, is cooked in the ahima'a, the earth oven, and the po'e goes in wrapped in banana leaves alongside the pork and the breadfruit and the fāfā. It comes out set, is left to cool, and is cut and eaten cold with coconut cream poured over, from a dish in the middle that everybody reaches into. That an American fruit landed by European ships should have joined a dish this old, and be eaten from the common plate at the end of it, is the whole of the papaya's Pacific story in one bowl.

Ingredients

Pudding

  • 1 kg very ripe papaya, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
  • 130 g Polynesian arrowroot (pia), or tapioca starch
  • 90 g caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 pinch fine sea salt
  • 2 banana leaves, softened over a flame, or a lined 20 cm tin

To Serve

  • 400 ml thick coconut cream
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar, for the cream

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Purée the papaya until completely smooth.
  2. Beat in the arrowroot, sugar, lime juice, and salt until there is not a single lump.
  3. Line the tin with the banana leaves, or lay them out and spoon the mixture onto them and fold into a parcel, then pour or set it in the tin.
  4. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until the surface is deep amber, the edges have pulled away, and the centre is set and no longer wobbles as a liquid does.
  5. Cool completely, then chill for an hour before cutting into squares or wedges.
  6. Warm the coconut cream with the tablespoon of sugar without boiling it, pour it over the po'e in the serving dish, and put it in the middle of the table.

Notes

Polynesian arrowroot is sold as pia in Pacific shops; tapioca starch is the usual substitute and behaves almost identically. Cornflour does not, and gives a chalky set. The same method takes very ripe banana, cooked pumpkin, taro, or breadfruit in place of the papaya; the banana version scented with a whole vanilla pod is the one Tahiti is best known for.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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