Breadfruit tray bake with pecans and bananas

I must confess straight off that although today is the first Sunday of lent, there is nothing abstemious about this. The blend of breadfruit and quinoa bringing earthiness, with the sweet of the pecans and bananas and then the freshness of the pawpaws and lime…. mmm….mmm….heavenly. I have given the option of using sweet potato for those of you who cannot get breadfruit.

Makes 2 man-sized portions

200g cooked grated breadfruit (alternatively use sweet potato)

2 eggs

pinch salt

60ml coconut milk

50g (1/3c) quinoa flour

2tsp coconut oil

topping

50g chopped pecans

1 tbsp butter

1 sliced banana

pure maple syrup

I bumped into my friend Mae yesterday at the veg shop, and she was buying a breadfruit and asking how to cook it. It made me think that I should really tell you that breadfruit once picked has a short life. It goes ripe and sweetish tasting really quickly. What I normally do following a harvest from our huge breadfruit tree is to give away all but 2, which I cut into 4 each, and steam until cooked through with skin on. My logic is that most recipes need the breadfruit to be cooked anyway and it freezes beautifully. Even if you just want to add a few chunks to a stew or soup, the pre-cooked version comes out smiling.

The other thing about breadfruit is that it doesn’t mash easily like a potato. You have to grate it, but we know that nothing worthwhile comes easily.

I used my Yorkshire pudding trays for cooking these, but you could use a flat baking tray as the dough is pretty firm and you could shape into rounds, or indeed any shape that makes you happy. In any case, grease the bottom with the coconut oil.

Once you have assembled all the ingredients, place all in the trusty food processor and blitz until smooth. A word of caution, go easily with the blitzing as breadfruit can go sticky and glue-like if given too much roughing up. Share into 4 equal rounds and bake in a 180°C (350°F) oven for 20 minutes depending on the thickness you choose, but remembering that the quinoa flour is raw and does need to cook through.

While the breadfruit tray bake is cooking, heat up the butter in a small frying pan and toast the pecans and soften the bananas. This should only take 5/6 minutes.

When they are cooked, build your beautiful tower starting with the bake, then the toasted pecans and bananas, arrange the pawpaw artfully and pour on the maple syrup.

I served my tray bake with a squirt of fresh lime on the paw paw. A mouthful of all these flavours really was sublime.