Ingredients
The pandanus
- 8to 10 ripe pandanus fruit heads
- Pandanus tectorius
- orange and fragrant
- or the separated keys
- washed thoroughly
For cooking
- water, to boil
- a large heavy pot
- a fine sieve or cloth
- a wide flat pan, to reduce
For drying
- clean flat boards
- or woven mats
- or clean baking trays
- banana leaf, to line
- cloth or netting, to cover
Sometimes added
- grated coconut
- a little toddy syrup, kamaimai
- nothing at all
- for the plainest version
To store
- clean dry cloth
- or an airtight container
- a cool dry place
Directions
- Twist and pull them away from the core. Wash them thoroughly in clean water. Trim off the hard pointed outer tips. The soft fibrous base holds the pulp.
- Put them in a large pot of water. Bring it to a boil and simmer them. Simmer the keys for about an hour. Drain them and let them cool to handle. Use a knife, a shell or a spoon. Work along each of the keys in turn. Discard the fibre once scraped. It should be thick, orange and fragrant.
- Pick out any remaining fibres by hand. Put it in a wide flat heavy pan. Cook it over a low to medium heat. Stir it constantly with a wooden spoon. Cook it until it thickens considerably. That takes about thirty to forty minutes.
- Add grated coconut now if you are using it. Line boards or mats with banana leaf. Spread the paste as thinly as you can. Thin sheets dry faster and keep better. Set them out in full direct sunlight. Cover them with netting or fine cloth. That keeps flies and insects off.
- Bring them in at night, without fail. Put them out again each morning. Continue for three to five days. Longer if the weather is humid. Turn the sheets once they firm up. The sheet is done when it is leathery.
- Press the centre with a finger to check. Any softness means it needs longer. Discard any sheet showing mould. Do not cut mould off and keep the rest.
- Roll or fold the dried sheets. Wrap them in a clean dry cloth. Keep them somewhere cool and dry. They keep for many months that way. Check them occasionally for any dampness. Properly dried tuae keeps six months or more.
Technique
- Tuae exists because coral atolls have no reliable groundwater and droughts kill people. Food that keeps was survival, not convenience. It is also light and energy dense, which made it the classic provision for long canoe voyages by navigators crossing open ocean without instruments. The atlas records that without romanticising it.
- The sheets must be genuinely dry. Incomplete drying allows mould, and some moulds produce toxins that cooking does not destroy. Discard any sheet showing mould rather than cutting it off — mould threads run through what you cannot see.
- Bring the sheets in every night without fail. Night dew rewets them completely, undoing a day’s work and encouraging mould.
- Spread the paste thin, three or four millimetres. Thick sheets stay damp in the middle, and a damp centre spoils the whole batch.
- Cover the drying sheets with netting or fine cloth. Keeping insects, dust and birds off is not an optional refinement.
- In humid weather, a dehydrator or a low oven at 50 to 60 degrees for many hours is safer than fighting the damp with sunlight.
- Pandanus fruit is not sold outside the tropics and there is no substitute. Most readers will read this as a record rather than a recipe, which is more honest than inventing one.
- Do not confuse this with pandan leaf. Pandanus amaryllifolius, used to flavour Southeast Asian cooking, is a different species used as an aroma, not a fruit.
- Tuae is both a finished sweet and an ingredient: pounded to powder it becomes kabubu, which is whisked into water or coconut cream as a staple drink.
Substitutions
- There is no substitute for pandanus fruit, and the atlas will not invent one.
- Baking the keys in an earth oven rather than boiling them gives a smokier, deeper flavour, and both methods are used.
- Grated coconut or a little kamaimai toddy syrup are optional additions; the plainest and most common version has neither.
- A dehydrator or low oven replaces sun-drying, and is genuinely safer in humid conditions.
- Banana leaf lining can be replaced with clean baking paper on trays.
Variations
- Te kabubu is the pounded powder made from dried tuae, whisked into water or coconut cream as a filling drink.
- A version with grated coconut worked into the paste before drying is richer and softer.
- Some households sweeten the paste with kamaimai, the coconut toddy syrup, though the fruit is sweet enough alone.
- Related dried pandanus preparations are made across Micronesia, in Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, under their own names.
- In some islands the paste is dried in thicker blocks rather than thin sheets and stored differently.
- Fresh pandanus keys are also simply chewed straight from the fruit, sucking the pulp from the fibre.
History
Pandanus pulp is cooked, spread thin and sun-dried into sheets that keep for months, the classic provision for long canoe voyages.
Frequently asked questions
What is Tuae?
Tuae is a snack from Kiribati: sun-dried pandanus fruit paste, a chewy preserved sweet for voyages. Pandanus pulp is cooked, spread thin and sun-dried into sheets that keep for months, the classic provision for long canoe voyages.
How long does Tuae take to make?
Tuae takes 1 hour of preparation and 1 hour, plus several days drying of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 10 sheets. It is rated hard to make.
What can I substitute in Tuae?
Yes, within limits. There is no substitute for pandanus fruit, and the atlas will not invent one. Baking the keys in an earth oven rather than boiling them gives a smokier, deeper flavour, and both methods are used. Grated coconut or a little kamaimai toddy syrup are optional additions; the plainest and most common version has neither. A dehydrator or low oven replaces sun-drying, and is genuinely safer in humid conditions. Banana leaf lining can be replaced with clean baking paper on trays.
What is the most important thing to get right in Tuae?
Press the centre with a finger to check. Any softness means it needs longer. Discard any sheet showing mould. Do not cut mould off and keep the rest.
