My culinary throwdown: Breadfruit!

Late last month I was doing my Sunday morning Farmers’ Market run when I found breadfruit on the table of one of the regular vendors. I got really excited and stopped in my tracks. It was the first time that I can recall seeing breadfruit for sale, although I see a couple of trees here and there, and read an article in the Advertiser about 5 years ago now about cooking with it. I love breadfruit, except I don’t really know how to cook it. If I cooked it successfully while on my own in St. Lucia, I sure don’t remember how I did it. I stared at it for a minute, and then challenged myself to a culinary battle a la Iron Chef. Cook that breadfruit!
I didn’t have a clue what breadfruit was until my Peace Corps time. After all these years, I still can’t believe my luck. I was randomly picked to stay with one of the best families on the island for eight weeks and Tidou, my homestay mom, was one of the best cooks on the island. True! Her sons proudly told me this, and it was later backed up by friends who loved her cooking, too. But the real proof of course, was getting to sample her food. Let’s just say that to this day I still miss it! (One of my other favorite culinary experiences? The Rasta shack on the road by Castries Harbor. 100% vegetarian and infused with Jamaican and Caribbean flavor. My my, I’m swooning just thinking about it. Oh to have been blogging back then – I would have pictures to share.)
I stumbled upon a Hawaiian produce magazine online that had a breadfruit article. Here’s something interesting about breadfruit ('ulu) history in the West Indies: History buffs will recall that the HMS Bounty was transporting ‘ulu from Tahiti when Captain Bligh’s crew, upset with conditions on the ship and unhappy about playing second fiddle to the 1,015 plants that crowded the vessel, staged the famous mutiny. Less well-known is that Bligh was commissioned to collect ‘ulu a second time and successfully introduced almost 700 trees to the West Indies in 1793.
Back to my challenge. I brought the breadfruit back home and put it on the counter for a few days. When I got around to cutting it open, it was soft and mushy. Not at all like I remember it. This wasn’t starting off well. I looked at a few Internet recipes and decided I would peel, cut into large cubes, and boil for 15 minutes like potatoes. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Challenge result? Fail. My cooked breadfruit was gooey, starchy, and barely edible. Not at all like the “al dente” breadfruit that I remember in stews and as side dishes. Through Facebook, I’ve been able to reconnect with my homestay family. I think I need to ask Tidou for a few of her recipes. Or just go visit and never leave her side while she cooks.