Home-made Christmas cake was a big affair this festive season. Mix of local flours, dried fruits, honey glazed. Served with home made fruit syrup and ice cream. Ovens make it so easy to do a wide variety of baked items for all ages and all occasions.
In the olden days cakes were not just a festive season affair but visitors or even heavy rains got the ovens going. Most baking was done on open fire, greased small pyali ( enamel bowl) or a small pot would be filled with home prepared batter and placed on hot plate or tawa on open fire and covered with big enough pot to cover the baking trays to create an oven.
The flames had to be managed that it did not darken the base, any darkened bits were removed though separately enjoyed! The taste was heavenly, smoky, a bit burnt and oh so rich!
Abundance of bananas, pawpaws, breadfruit or too much cassava uprooted meant time for hot tawa baking. Fruits were all mashed in boiled and mashed breadfruit/cassava or grated cassava, ripe vudi, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon powder were thrown in estimates — there was no measuring cups. Yet each time the cinnamon rolls, bread, cakes all baked on tawa without temperature gauges turned out so delicious and we had to guess which fruits were used in the batter! The baking aroma wafted through homes and invited them for a cup of tea at the right time!
The more enthusiastic and regular bakers developed their own drum ovens and not only baked cakes, pies and breads but also fish and root crops went into these.
Steamed cakes, puddings and of course yummy purini and lolo buns we tried but could never make as good as some of our neighbours. While many people have turned to wheat flour for a base we have been learning from the elders and have been baking using all natural and local flour. Cheaper, easier and healthier. We have many chefs trying these flours as they try and create authentic taste in their baking also giving opportunity for those gluten intolerant to enjoy the treats of festive season.
Corden Bleu and UN food ambassador, New Zealand chef Robert Oliver, has been turning these traditional recipes into great gourmet cakes. His famous Fiji Christmas cake uses FRIEND' Fiji style grated cassava , seven grain satwa, freshly grated coconut, or dessicated coconut, bananas and plantains, coconut milk and uses water used in soaking dried fruits as well as fresh coconut milk to create a rich batter. The very moist sugar and gluten-free cake is topped with local fresh and dried fruits glazed in honey. Robert loves to use plantain or vudi to sweeten the cake and you would not even realise that cake doesnot have any cane sugar! Vudi and bananas also provide a rich texture. He also likes to use dried vudi and pawpaws to create a fruit topping together with some citrus or crunchy pineapple to give it zing as he would say and does so by adding these to some honey that is gently heated on low flame. Local honey is a great binder and I also use it to replace eggs in all my baking. If honey is not available, ripe vudi can be caramalised and other fruits added to it for creating festive topping.
We celebrate each team member's birthday and that means a lot of birthdays each year. Chef Robert Oliver's Christmas recipe has become our favourite birthday cake recipe and each week we trial different flours and fruits to keep birthday celebrator guessing its contents.
We have discovered that cassava and uto flour also make a great casing for tarts and pineapple pie. For giving colour to baking rosella tea is used to colour different layers of batter. Rosella rich in anti oxidants, gives a nice tangy taste and is all natural and chemical free.
At Tukuni restaurant, breadfruit and cassava flours are used to make roti and wraps for those who are gluten intolerant. Tukuni chefs also make pizzas using only cassava flour as a base.
Both these flours mixed together work really well for making fritters, addition to stuffings as well as thickening of soups. Cassava flour is famous in making prawn crackers as well as a range of desserts including vakalolo, pies, cakes, puddings, halwa and pysum.
Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND) a home grown livelihoods organisation is proud to be a medium for rural farmers who are turning regular Fiji staples like cassava and breadfruit into easy to use flour readily available at supermarkets.
These flours are natural, processed through solar drying, are rich in fibres and minerals and are free from all chemical preservatives and additives. The best thing is that most people can prepare these at home and use in a range of sweet and salty dishes to bring a taste of tradition in modern day cooking. Seven grain satwa, a medley of toasted pulse flour is also great mix for baking and stuffings. These Fiji grown crops, processed by rural local communities are brought to you under FRIEND's Fiji Style brand name by our distributing partners Motibhai & Co Ltd to leading stores near you. We wish everyone a prosperous and peaceful 2018 from all our communities, partners and our team!
? Sashi Kiran is the founding CEO for Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND) — www.friendfiji.com. Views expressed are hers and not of this newspaper.
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