''Po‘e'' or ''poke'' is a
Polynesia
Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...
n
pudding
Pudding is a type of food which can either be a dessert served after the main meal or a Savoury (dish), savoury (salty or sweet, and spicy) dish, served as part of the main meal.
In the United States, ''pudding'' means a sweet, milk-based des ...
usually eaten as a dessert.
Etymology
The Tahitian word ''po'e'' is derived from the proto-Polynesian root ''poke'' which means "to mix", "to knead". It is still called ''poke'' in all Polynesian languages except in the
Tahitian language
Tahitian (autonym: , , part of , , languages of French Polynesia) correspond to "languages of natives from French Polynesia", and may in principle designate any of the seven indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia. The Tahitian language s ...
and in the
Austral language
Austral (''Reo Tuha‘a pae'') is an endangered Polynesian language or a dialect continuum that was spoken by approximately 8,000 people in 1987 on the Austral Islands and the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The language is also referred to ...
on the island of
Raivavae
Raivavae (Tahitian language, Tahitian: ''Ra‘ivāvae'' International Phonetic Alphabet, /ra.ʔi.va:va.e/) is one of the Austral Islands in French Polynesia. Its total land area including offshore islets is . At the 2022 census, it had a populati ...
where the glottal stop (written as an apostrophe ') has replaced the voiceless velar stop (k).
Preparation
Traditionally po'e was made by cooking and mashing
bananas
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...
into a smooth consistency and mixing together with
arrowroot
Arrowroot is a starch obtained from the rhizomes (rootstock) of several tropical plants, traditionally ''Maranta arundinacea'', but also Florida arrowroot from ''Zamia integrifolia'', and tapioca from cassava (''Manihot esculenta''), which is of ...
flour. The mixture was wrapped in banana leaves and baked in an
earth oven
An earth oven, ground oven or cooking pit is one of the simplest and most ancient cooking structures. The earliest known earth oven was discovered in Central Europe and dated to 29,000 BC. At its most basic, an earth oven is a pit in the ground ...
until set into a pudding-like consistency, cut into smaller pieces and served together with
coconut cream
Coconut milk is a plant milk extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of the milky-white liquid are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food ingredient ...
. Modern versions of the recipe replace bananas with other fruits such as
papaya
The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...
,
mango
A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...
or squash and using
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
[The definitive Cook Islands websit]
Cook Islands Recipes, Poke – Traditional sweetener supplied by Mereana Hutchinson, Rarotonga
/ref> or corn starch
Cornflour, cornstarch, maize starch, or corn starch (American English) is the starch derived from corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the seed, kernel. Corn starch is a common food ingredient, often used to thick ...
as the thickening agent.
See also
* Kulolo – a traditional Hawaiian dessert, made from grated taro and coconut milk baked into a pudding
* Poi – a similar traditional banana dessert, from Samoa
References
External links
Po'e recipe
a
W4E
Pascuense cuisine
Puddings
Fruit desserts
French Polynesian cuisine
Coconut desserts
Polynesian cuisine
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