Breadfruit Pie

Breadfruit, glorious Breadfruit. How I love thee, let me count the ways... I love you cooked, roasted and fried, in pies and soups , always by my side... I bet you guys didn't know I was a poet. well there you have it. 

I was trying to find something online to explain what breadfruit is, the first thing I saw said that it has a potato-like taste, so I had to scrap that link. I won't have breadfruit insulted in that manner. Put some respeck on its name. In case you were wondering, "respeck on its name" comes from a viral video of a rapper on a radio show... I actually can spell, though if you knew me in primary school, you might have a different experience. Rough times.

Breadfruit came to the Caribbean, as a cheap way to feed the slaves (correct me if I'm wrong). One of the oldest trees is actually in our very own Botanical Gardens here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the oldest in the Western Hemisphere ( well they say "one of the" but whatever)... plug plug plug. Anyhoo, so the breadfruit, is one of the loves of my life. I've heard people call it "poor people food" I've seen people look down on it, well more for me. I'm not sure I could be in a relationship with someone who doesn't like breadfruit, it's that serious. I'm just saying.

If you saw my social media posts on Sunday, then you'd know what I had for lunch(go have a look). I was asked to share my breadfruit pie recipe. You should know by now that me and this recipe thing, don't really see eye to eye. I can tell you that I make my breadfruit pie the way I make a macaroni pie. starting with a roux. Yep that thing when you mix up the flour with the hot butter in the pot has a fancy pants name.  I sweat my onions and garlic, sometimes thyme, (whatever I have on hand and feel like using,) in butter, the flour, then the milk and nutmeg  and cheese to make a white sauce (bechamel sauce, another fancy pants name). Put nutmeg in your cheese sauces folks, do it, just a little, trust me.

I know people make this pie by mashing cooked breadfruit, I don't particularly like it that way. I cut up a cooking breadfruit ( there is a difference between a cooking and roasting breadfruit, I learnt this the hard way. Try roasting a cooking breadfruit one day, you know, for fun and laughs), water, pot, herbs and spices if you like, and let it cook as you would pasta or potato until it gets to he texture you'd use for a salad. Mix that cooked breadfruit with the white sauce, throw more cheese on top, because CHEESE! that is all. Then you stick that in the oven until it's done. So if you're not West Indian, and don't make macaroni pie, or an American who calls it "baked mac and cheese"  please stop calling it that though... it's similar to, say, scalloped potatoes in texture and end result.

We in this region have way too much produce at our disposal to use the same old imported things every day. Try swapping what you're used to, for something local , you never know, you might like it.

Here's one I made earlier :)