Kiribati – Buatoro Recipe
Kiribati’s cuisine is rooted in the abundance of the Pacific: seafood, coconut, breadfruit, and rice form the backbone of everyday meals. With that in mind, I wasn’t expecting to find a traditional dessert from this island nation. My first search turned up a recipe for buatoro, shared by a Spanish food blogger. It is authentic, but I only bake desserts if I can find a source from the country itself; stubborn, perhaps, but important to me.
My search then led me to A Pattern of Islands, Sir Arthur Grimble’s memoir of his time in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (the Gilbert Islands are former name for Kiribati) between 1914 – 1933. There, buatoro is described as a “complicated pudding of babai and coconut“. Further digging turned up recipes using spam and pumpkin; far from the coconut and babai I was hoping to find.
The breakthrough came in a comments section, where I-Kiribati people themselves had weighed in. They kindly shared their recipes, correcting the mislabelled versions and describing buatoro as it’s truly known; a simple dessert of babai (swamp taro) and coconut. And really, if someone from Kiribati takes the time to tell you a recipe is wrong and generously gives you the right one, shouldn’t you act on it? Leaving an inaccurate recipe up, continuing claim it’s authentic, feels deeply disrespectful to the nation and its people.
Buratoro is made with two unique ingredients: babai (swamp taro) and kamaimai (coconut blossom syrup). Babai can be difficult to find outside Oceania; taro is the best substitute, usually sold frozen in Asian supermarkets. If taro isn’t available, pumpkin, sweet potato, plantain, or even rice can work. Kamaimai, meanwhile, is much easier to source; it’s sold as coconut blossom syrup or nectar in most health food shops.
Traditionally, the taro is finely grated, but you can also steam or boil and then mash it. I got a bit carried away with the grating myself, I wasn’t feeling well, and the repetitive motion was oddly cathartic. Before I knew it, I’d grated the entire 1kg bag! (You might want to stick to a smaller amount for your first attempt.)
To the I-Kiribati voices who shared their knowledge and corrected the record, this recipe is credited to you. I hope I’ve done both you and buatoro justice.
A Note from My Kitchen
The ingredient amounts reflect what worked best for me and the amount of taro I grated. Feel free to adjust the amounts so the recipe works perfectly for you; you are looking for a pancake batter type consistency.
It’s important to bake with an open mind. These recipes and ingredients are indigenous to their countries and may not be familiar to a Western palate. On my Baking Around the World journey, I’ve discovered ingredients I’d never dreamed of using before, and now love, taro being one of them.
Buatoro
Ingredients
- 1kg finely grated taro
- 1 x 400g tin full fat coconut milk
- 1/2 cup coconut blossom syrup
- 1 cup flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C (160C fan oven)
- Mix all ingredients to a pancake batter like consistency. Line a baking dish with banana leaves , taro leaves , or breadfruit leaves - alternatively you can use foil. Pour the batter into the leaf covered dish and wrap the leaves around the batter.
- Cook in the oven until brown and testing it with a toothpick/skewer comes out clean, which is about 30 - 45 minutes but may take longer.
