Tonm tonm

Ingredients

The breadfruit

• 1large mature breadfruit
• firm and green, not soft
• about 2 kg
• peeled and cored
• cut into large chunks
• water, to boil
• a good pinch of salt

The okra sauce

• 500 gfresh okra
• trimmed and finely chopped
• or grated
• 2 tablespoonsoil
• 1onion, finely chopped
• 4 clovesgarlic, crushed
• 1Scotch bonnet, whole
• left unbroken
• a sprig of thyme

For the sauce body

• 300 gbeef or goat
• cut small, optional
• or 200 g smoked herring
• soaked and flaked
• or crab, for the classic version
• 1 litrestock or water
• salt and black pepper

Sometimes added

• a squeeze of lime
• a spoonful of epis
• Haitian green seasoning
• a little tomato

To serve

• a shared bowl of sauce
• individual mounds of tonm tonm
• cold water, to drink

Directions

1. Take small lumps if you are new to this. Never give large lumps to a small child. Oil your knife and your hands beforehand. Oil dissolves the latex where water does not. Cut it on a board you do not mind marking. Peel it with a sharp knife rather than a peeler. The skin is thick and knobbly.
2. Cut it into quarters and remove the core. Cut the flesh into large chunks. Drop the chunks into water as you go. That stops them browning while you work. Put the chunks in a large pot of water. Add a good pinch of salt to the water. Bring it to a boil and then simmer.
3. Simmer it for about thirty minutes. It should be completely soft right through. Drain them well but keep some cooking water. You will need it to adjust the texture. Pound the hot breadfruit while it is still hot. Cold breadfruit will not come together properly. Pound it until completely smooth and elastic. It should stretch when pulled rather than crumble.
4. Add a little hot cooking water if it stiffens. This takes real effort and some time. Work in batches with a little hot water. Process it until smooth and elastic. Wash the okra and dry it completely. Wet okra is slippery and hard to cut safely. Trim the stalk ends off each pod. Chop it very finely or grate it coarsely.
5. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft. Add the garlic and the thyme sprig. Add the meat now if you are using it. Brown it well before adding any liquid. Soak smoked herring first to reduce the salt.
6. Add the stock or water to the pot. Add the whole Scotch bonnet on top. Leave it completely unbroken in the pot. A burst one makes the whole pot very hot. Simmer until the meat is tender. That takes about thirty minutes for small pieces. Cook it for only five to eight minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.
7. Add a squeeze of lime at the very end. The sauce should be loose and clearly slippery. Take a handful of the hot dough. Shape it into a smooth round mound. Put one mound on each person’s plate. The dough is very hot at this stage.
8. Put the sauce in a shared bowl in the centre. Wash your right hand before eating. Eating is done with the right hand. Pinch, roll, dip, and swallow. Do not chew, which is the whole instruction. Make sauce ahead and pound the dough fresh.

Technique

• This is a swallow food. The lump is pinched, dipped and swallowed without chewing, and the slipperiness of the okra sauce is exactly what carries it down. That is a learned skill and it carries a genuine choking risk for anyone unpractised — take small lumps, never give large ones to a young child, and keep water on the table.
• Do not try to reduce the sliminess of the okra. In almost every other okra dish you would; here it is the working principle of the meal. Grate rather than chop, and cook it only five to eight minutes.
• Use a mature, firm, green breadfruit, not a soft ripe one. Ripe breadfruit is sweet and will not pound into a dough. Breadfruit also leaks a sticky white latex that water will not shift — oil your knife and hands first, and use a board you do not mind marking.
• Pound the breadfruit while it is still hot. Cold breadfruit will not come together, and the finished dough should stretch when pulled rather than crumble.
• A food processor or a stand mixer with a dough hook will do the job, though a processor cuts where a pestle crushes and the texture is not quite identical. Do not use a stick blender — the dough is stiff enough to jam it.
• Leave the Scotch bonnet whole. Unbroken it perfumes the pot; burst it makes everything fiercely hot.
• Breadfruit was brought to the Caribbean from the Pacific deliberately, as cheap food for enslaved people — the Bounty was on a breadfruit mission when its crew mutinied. The pounding, the mortar, the swallowing and the okra all come from West Africa with the people who were enslaved in Saint-Domingue. Haiti’s revolution founded the first Black republic in 1804, and France then demanded an indemnity that the country paid for over a century. A dish carrying that technique carries that history.
• Make the sauce ahead and pound the dough at the last minute. Tonm tonm goes hard and rubbery within a couple of hours and does not reheat well.

Substitutions

• Crab is the most traditional addition to the sauce; smoked herring is the everyday one and beef or goat both work.
• The sauce can be made entirely without meat or fish, seasoned with epis and a good vegetable stock.
• Frozen chopped okra replaces fresh and works well, since it goes in only briefly at the end.
• Cassava, yam or green plantain can be pounded the same way where breadfruit is unavailable, though the result is a different dish and should be called by its own name.
• A habanero replaces a Scotch bonnet closely.
• Bought epis from a Caribbean grocer saves making the green seasoning from scratch.

Variations

• Tonm tonm with crab sauce is the Jérémie version and is considered the finest.
• West African fufu, made from cassava, yam or plantain, is the direct ancestor of the technique and is eaten the same way.
• Some households serve it with a sauce of smoked herring alone, which is cheaper and very common.
• A version of the sauce with tomato and epis stirred through is richer and slightly less austere.
• Breadfruit is also boiled and eaten in chunks, fried as chips, or roasted whole in the fire across Haiti.
• Related pounded breadfruit dishes are made across the Caribbean and the Pacific under many names.

History

A Grand’Anse and Jérémie dish pounded in a wooden mortar, closely echoing West African fufu practice.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tonm tonm?

Tonm tonm is a main from Haiti: pounded breadfruit swallowed in lumps dipped in okra sauce, not chewed. A Grand’Anse and Jérémie dish pounded in a wooden mortar, closely echoing West African fufu practice.

How long does Tonm tonm take to make?

Tonm tonm takes 30 minutes of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Tonm tonm?

Yes, within limits. Crab is the most traditional addition to the sauce; smoked herring is the everyday one and beef or goat both work. The sauce can be made entirely without meat or fish, seasoned with epis and a good vegetable stock. Frozen chopped okra replaces fresh and works well, since it goes in only briefly at the end. Cassava, yam or green plantain can be pounded the same way where breadfruit is unavailable, though the result is a different dish and should be called by its own name. A habanero replaces a Scotch bonnet closely. Bought epis from a Caribbean grocer saves making the green seasoning from scratch.

What is the most important thing to get right in Tonm tonm?

Take small lumps if you are new to this. Never give large lumps to a small child. Oil your knife and your hands beforehand. Oil dissolves the latex where water does not. Cut it on a board you do not mind marking. Peel it with a sharp knife rather than a peeler. The skin is thick and knobbly.