Kao — dried kūmara for long journeys
Cooked kūmara, peeled, dried in the sun and smoke until hard and sweet like candied fruit. They are taken on expeditions and rehydrated by soaking.
Cooked kūmara, peeled, dried in the sun and smoke until hard and sweet like candied fruit. They are taken on expeditions and rehydrated by soaking.
When you go far, to the shores where the soul takes flight, you carry no oven or embers. Prepare beforehand: cook the kūmara, remove their skin, then entrust them to the sun and the hearth smoke until they harden and their sweetness concentrates. Slip them into a woven basket; they will last from one moon to the next. On the path, soak them in water: they open again as on the first day. This is the bread of those who walk between worlds.
- •Kūmara cooked in hāngī — a large store (base to dry)
- •Sun and hearth smoke — several days (drying and preservation)
Kao — dried kūmara for long journeys
Cooked kūmara, peeled, dried in the sun and smoke until hard and sweet like candied fruit. They are taken on expeditions and rehydrated by soaking.
Why this dish? Hinetītama undertook the greatest journey: descending from Te Ao Mārama to Rarohenga, the underworld, by the path that souls follow at Cape Reinga. The kao, kūmara cooked then dried to keep for whole seasons and accompany long marches, is the traveler's food between worlds.
When you go far, to the shores where the soul takes flight, you carry no oven or embers. Prepare beforehand: cook the kūmara, remove their skin, then entrust them to the sun and the hearth smoke until they harden and their sweetness concentrates. Slip them into a woven basket; they will last from one moon to the next. On the path, soak them in water: they open again as on the first day. This is the bread of those who walk between worlds.
Ingredients (period version)
- Kūmara cooked in hāngī — a large store (base to dry)
- Sun and hearth smoke — several days (drying and preservation)
Ingredients
- Sweet potatoes — 4 large (base)
- Honey or maple syrup (optional) — 1 tsp (accentuates natural sugar)
- Water (for rehydrating) — as needed (rehydration)
Method
- Steam the sweet potatoes until tender, let cool slightly and peel.
- Cut into 1 cm slices, brush very lightly with honey if you want to enhance sweetness.
- Dry in a dehydrator at 60 °C, or in an oven with door ajar at 70-80 °C, 6 to 10 h, turning, until firm and pliable like dried fruit.
- Store in an airtight jar: keeps several weeks.
- To serve as of old, soak for 1 h in warm water to restore a soft texture.
How it was made : Kao was an essential Māori technique for preserving kūmara, which does not keep fresh in winter. Cooked then dried, it became a valuable reserve and travel snack, sometimes offered in trade between tribes. It is the direct ancestor of the Polynesian dried treat.
The contemporary twist : Serve the dried kūmara chips in batons in a small woven basket: an ancestral travel snack revamped as a hiking nibble.
Sources : Hiroa, Te Rangi (Peter Buck), The Coming of the Maori, 1949 · Best, Elsdon, Maori Agriculture, 1925
Hinetītama · Charactorium