Traditional Solomon Islands cassava pudding: the grated cassava cake with coconut milk baked in banana leaf

In the Solomon Islands, cassava pudding is what is taken to church, to the village feast and to the Honiara market, wrapped in banana leaf and sold by the piece. It is the Melanesian relative of the Brazilian cassava cake and the Philippine cassava cake: grated root, coconut and sugar, cooked into a dense, moist and slightly springy cake, with no flour or egg.

The traditional version is cooked in the motu, the stone oven, inside banana leaves; the town version goes into a regular oven on the same leaf, which gives fragrance and keeps it from sticking. Mashed ripe banana in the batter is the addition of many families, and the coconut goes in twice: the milk in the batter and, sometimes, the thick cream on top, at the end, to brown.

It is a sweet of very few ingredients and a surprising result: firm, sliceable, with a clean taste of coconut and cassava. It makes twelve pieces, keeps for days and is as good at breakfast as for dessert.

Recipe card

• Origin: Solomon Islands
• Category: Dessert, cassava cake
• Difficulty: Easy
• Preparation time: 25 minutes
• Oven time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Serves: 12 pieces

Ingredients

• 1 kg peeled cassava, finely grated
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed (optional)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/2 cup thick coconut cream for the topping (optional)
• Banana leaves for lining (or greased baking paper)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Soften the banana leaves over a flame and line a 20 x 30 cm tin, leaving overhang at the edges.
2. Lightly squeeze the grated cassava in a cloth to remove excess liquid, without drying it too much.
3. Mix the cassava with the coconut milk, sugar, salt, banana and vanilla until uniform.
4. Pour into the tin, smooth and fold the leaf overhang over the top to cover.
5. Bake covered for 50 minutes.
6. Open the leaves, spread the coconut cream on top, if using, and bake uncovered for another 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch.
7. Let cool completely in the tin before cutting into squares. Serve warm or cold.

Tips and variations

• Frozen grated cassava from Asian stores works and saves the grating.
• Steamed: wrap the batter in banana leaf in flat packages and steam for 1 hour 15 minutes.
• Fresh grated coconut in the batter gives more texture.
• Grated breadfruit instead of cassava is the version of the eastern islands.
• Cut only when cold: hot, it crumbles.
• Keeps 4 days in the fridge; warm lightly before serving or eat cold.
• A pinch of ground ginger or lime zest are welcome additions.

Cassava pudding is the Solomon Islands' sweet in three ingredients: root, coconut and sugar, baked in banana leaf. Dense, fragrant and made to be cut and shared.