Tribewanted: Vorovoro

As promised to complete this month’s deliciousness, another super sweet recipe from Vorovoro’s Vale ni Kuro…

soOOo straight out of our famous handbuilt oven, this week we bring to you Francis’ tantalising Pumpkin Pie!

Pumpkin Pie (Pai ni Papukeni)
fills a 15cm x 30cm baking tray

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoons butter
3 cups flour
¾ cup demerera sugar
2 eggs
Approx. a quarter of a pumpkin
3 teaspoons baking powder

METHOD:

Firstly turn on your oven to 180 degrees to warm it up!
Throw the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix. Unlike cake mixture, it doesn’t mastter if the sugar’s not dissolved.
Plop in the eggs and stir all together.
Then add the flour and baking powder and give the pie mixture a good swirl.
Grease your baking tray with butter and pour in the gloop so it covers the whole base.

Ready to place in the oven…

...and cook for 30 minutes (English way) until golden. I asked Francis how long she normally cooks it for and she said, ‘we don’t know the time, we just open the oven and keep checking. This is the Fijian way, hahahaha. As long as it looks brown, soft and dry and looks like a cooked cake, you know it’s ready, hahaha’

So whilst the pie is cooking…

Cut the pumpkin into small pieces to fill about 3 cups.
Place in a saucepan, cover with water and let it boil until the pumpkin is soft.
Drain the water and then mash the soft pumpkin with a fork to get rid of any lumpy bits and to make it all the same consistency.

...and a little tip from our Fijian nana,‘to make it sweet, put the sugar in the pumpkin. If you don’t like sweet, you don’t have to. It’s up to you. Fijian way, add a few spoons of sugar, hahahah. Tastes a lot better’

Back to the oven…

Check if the pie is ready. Once it has that golden appearance, take out and leave to cool for 10 minutes.

Once the pumpkin’s been mushed and the pie has cooled down, spread the pumpkin over the pie making sure it covers the base. It should be about 1cm in thickness of pumpkin deliciousness…
and for a real treat, scatter some cinnamon and tea massasla which compromises the pumpkin flavours and adds a warm glow…

The final step and a very important one…

..the icing!

When we make pumpkin pie on the island, we make butter icing (a combination of butter, icing sugar and a dash of lemon) and spread it lavishly over the top of the pumpkin.

To decorate, we sometimes scatter cinnamon and grate chocolate on top to add to the deliciousness…and of course a few Fijian flowers always helps!

Oooh scrumdiliumptious!

SERVING TIP FROM FRANCIS:

‘If you want to be naughty and want to make a sweet pie, use the condensed. Hahaha, here in Vorovoro’s kitchen, no tin allowed. But at home, we buy a tin of condensed milk and add with lemon juice and then pour over the pumpkin. It’s good. Really good. Hahahaha! The tribe love it when they come. Don’t tell Timoci, hahaha’

Thank you Francis for sharing your Pumpkin Pie with everyone and if you would like to make more tasty dishes from Vorovoro, please follow this link: http://www.tribewanted.com/blogs/recipes