Passport & Plate - Cassava pone
Trinidad & Tobago | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 2 photos
Ingredients
2 lbs fresh cassava
1 whole dried coconut
1 small yam
¼ lb pumpkin
2 tsp coconut oil + 1 tsp for greasing the pan
½ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup raisins (optional)
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 can of coconut milk
pinch of sea salt
How to prepare this recipe1. Peel the outer skin from the cassava (how to peel cassava http://nomadicnutritionist.com/simple-way-peel-cassava-yuca/), yam and pumpkin.
2. Crack the coconut and drain the water. Remove the coconut from the shell.
2. Grate cassava, yam, coconut and pumpkin into a bowl. It's easiest to use a food processor but it can be done with a box grater, however it will result in a chunkier final product.
3. Add melted coconut oil, coconut sugar, spices, salt, vanilla and coconut milk.
4. Mix all ingredients until well incorporated. It may look a little soupy at this point but don't worry about it.
5. Grease an 11"x7" baking dish with coconut oil.
6. Pour mixture into the greased baking dish.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 ¼ hour. It will be soft when it comes out of the oven.
8. Let cool to harden.
9. Slice and enjoy!
The story behind this recipeMy family is from Trinidad & Tobago. My parents moved to Toronto (Canada) shortly before I was born making me the only one in my immediate family who has never lived in Trinidad. Since all of our extended family was still in Trinidad we made yearly trips back for most of my childhood, which were always a flurry of hopping from one relative’s home to another. While every trip was just a bit different the one thing I knew for sure is that there would be a lot of food. You can’t visit a Trinidadian’s home without being offered something to eat and drink, and refusing just isn’t an option! For me food and family just go together.
There were some dishes that were a given but some were special, saved for a particular time of the year. Cassava pone is one of those special dishes. A sweet cake-like treat made at Christmas. Just about every island in the Caribbean has a slightly different version of pone but they all use similar ingredients: coconut, cassava, yam or sweet potato and spices.
A few years ago while visiting my parents for Christmas I finally decided to ask my mom to teach me how to make pone. I love to bake and certainly love to eat desserts so why I have never attempted to make pone before is beyond me! It can be time consuming (especially if you are like me using a box grater to grate everything) but it is worth it…BUT the next time I’m definitely using a food processor.
As a holistic nutritionist I am always looking for ways to adjust recipes to make them just a bit healthier, and that’s what I did with this recipe the first time I made it on my own. I swapped out the condensed milk for coconut milk, used coconut oil instead of butter (not that there’s anything wrong with butter!) and replaced white sugar with coconut sugar. Voila, my first cassava pone!
