COPPERMokwaṇ recipe
Mokwan is pandanus pulp cooked in an earth oven, sun-dried for several days and rolled into a paste that keeps for years.
Ingredients
- 6 ripe pandanus fruit
- 200 ml coconut cream
- 10 pandanus leaves
- 6 banana leaves
How to make Mokwaṇ
- Harvest about 6 ripe pandanus fruits (bob) and break them into individual keys.
- Cook the keys for several hours in an earth oven (um) lined with hot stones and banana leaves; this step has no home-kitchen equivalent.
- Crush and scrape the cooked keys to extract the orange pulp, discarding the fibrous cores.
- Spread the pulp in a thin layer on leaves and dry it in full sun for several days, turning it regularly.
- Cut the dried sheet, roll it and wrap it tightly in pandanus leaves, then tie the bundle; it now keeps for years.
- To serve, slice the paste and work it with 200 ml of coconut cream, or chew it as it is.
- Without an earth oven and several days of tropical sun this cannot be reproduced at home; fresh pandanus keys are simply chewed raw.
What is Mokwaṇ?
Mokwaṇ is a traditional dish from Marshall Islands, baked in the oven, and takes about 3 days and 4 hours from start to finish. It is built around coconut cream. The recipe below uses 4 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Mokwaṇ take?
At 4560 minutes it is slower than 98% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 22 dishes built on coconut cream. The method runs to 7 steps.
Any tips for making Mokwaṇ?
This cannot be reproduced without an earth oven and several days of tropical sun; to serve the paste, slice it and work it with coconut cream.
How Mokwaṇ compares
At 3 days and 4 hours, Mokwaṇ is among the 10 longest of the 586 dishes Copper documents. Hard to find elsewhere: ripe pandanus fruit (1) and pandanus leaves (1).
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on coconut cream, from other countries.
- What is the national dish of the Marshall Islands?
- Traditional food of the Marshall Islands: 12 dishes to know
Copper documents Marshall Islands alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.