There are many different kinds of unfamiliar fruits in
Puerto Rico. One of them is called a breadfruit or pana in Spanish. The pana
tree can get up to 25 M (82 FT) tall. They are monoecias meaning the male and female
flowers are growing on the same tree. When
the flowers bloom, the male blooms first. There is also a special liquid in the
tree called latex that can be used to make rubber gloves and some kinds of
paint.
Our pana is the big green circular fruit right in the middle - next to the pineapple and under the bananas.
There are also recipes using panas. You can make curry using coconut milk and spices.
Boiled panas are a famous dish.
We decided to make pana French fries. We started by peeling
the pana. Then we cut it into rectangles. We coated them with olive oil and
salt and cooked them in in a hot oven until they were crispy.
We cooked our pana fries along with sweet potatoe fries.
This is my brother James and me trying the pana fries.
I didn’t think they were very good. We all thought they
tasted sort of like potatoes and bread…..OK but no one’s favorite.
Thanks for writing about your first experience with Breadfruit. I hope you get the chance to try it more than one way. The curry recipe you listed sounded pretty tasty.
ReplyDeleteClaire, this is fascinating. I've read about breadfruit in many books but never had a picture in my mind of what it looked like or how it tasted. Thanks for sharing this. Can't wait to see what else you discover!
ReplyDeleteYour potato fries look tastier than your pana fries!
ReplyDeletefrom Annika