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| Breadfruits in a wheelbarrow at the Portsmouth open air market in Dominica. |
Breadfruit, imported to the Caribbean as a cheap source of food back in the days of slavery, is literally embedded in both the landscape and culture. Breadfruit trees are handsome, often stretching 30+ feet. Its leaves are large, lobed and glossy, fruits, bright yellow-green and pendulous.
I’ve yet to tackle cooking with breadfruit yet myself, mostly due to its large size (the length of its oval shape is often between ¾ and 1 foot and our food storage space is quite limited), long cook times and massive starchiness… Yet, it intrigues me.
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| Gregory was the breadfruit nut “chef” and like many vendors, also sold his own rumpunch, which we did not buy. |
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| About 1 ½ cups of hot, freshly boiled and salted breadfruit nuts cost a mere $2EC, or about 75 cents US. They tasted a bit like creamy chestnuts. Yummy! |
To my delight, Wayne spotted something I hadn’t heard of… breadfruit “nuts” at the Portsmouth open-air produce market. The fruits are produced from a male breadfruit tree, only. To cook the ripe seeds takes about 4 hours of boiling, or 1 hour with a pressure cooker. As I don’t own a pressure cooker, I’ll happily buy breadfruit nuts someone else cooks if I’m lucky enough to find them again.
