Takihi is a traditional Niuean recipe for a layered accompaniment of taro, papaya and coconut milk traditionally cooked in taro leaves. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Niuean version of: Takihi.
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This beautifully creamy, sweet yet savoury Niuean treat is made from taro, coconut cream and pawpaw. The kumara referred to in the recipe below is orange sweet potato. It's used to bulk up the papaya and make the dish cheaper to produce where papaya is not readily available or is expensive. I made this for my wife's family in Nigeria (where papaya and cocoyam leaves are abundant) but added minced scotch bonnet chilli to accomodate Nigerian tastes and it went down a storm.
It goes very well with barbecued meat and fish.
Ingredients:
3 large white taro corms
6 ripe pawpaw (papaya)
2 large orange kumara to use in case you run out of pawpaw.
1.5 litres rich coconut cream.
tapioca flour
salt, to taste
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180C.
Peel the taro, papaya and kumara then slice thinly (remove any seeds).
Prepare your baking tray by lining it with foil. Traditionally taro leaves (with stems removed) would be used to line the foil so the food does not come into contact. If you don't have access to taro leaves (or cocoyam, eddo or tannia leaves) then use a large oven roasting bag instead.
Cut open the oven roasting oven bags and continue lining the tray placing them on top of the foil. You will want some of the oven bag lining to hang over the sides of the oven tray to fold over the mountain of assembled Takihi (in the same way that you would use taro leaves.
Now you want to layer in the ingredients. Begin with the taro, making sure that the entire base of the oven tray is completely covered. Now add a layer or papaya, season with salt and scatter over the tapioca before pouring over some of the coconut cream.
Continue the layers until all the ingredients are used up, or until the tray is full If you run out of pawpaw, use the kumara as a substitute.
Cover the assembled Niuean Takihi with the overhanging oven bag liner and foil, then cover the entire top with 2 additional layers of foil.
Transfer to the centre of your pre-heated oven and bake for at least 90 minutes. Once cooked, pull it out of the oven and let it cool for at least 30 min - 1 hour before cutting to serve.
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