Pumpkin Damper
This is what I call the ‘cheat damper’; it sneaks in a serve of vegetables without you even realising it. I’m not a great vegetable eater, but I love root vegetables. The pumpkin here gives you a vibrant natural food colouring as well. This is a huge Island favourite and I’ll always remember making it with my dad.
Makes 1 full-sized damper, serves 4 (or 2 Island kids).
Ingredients 7
500 g japanese pumpkin (squash), peeled and cubed
40 ml vegetable oil
450 g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
80 g butter, at room temperature
250 ml water
1 sheet banana leaf, 50 cm (19 3/4 in), see my tips
To Serve
golden syrup butter, to serve
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Method 10
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F).
Coat the in the and roast in the oven until soft, almost mushy. Keep the oven on after removing the pumpkin.
To a bowl, add the and and mix together by rubbing between your hands until fully combined.
Add the cooled cooked and mush together.
Add the , a little at a time, and mix with your fingers until you have a nice sticky dough.
Place some on your work surface, then knead the dough until you have a bread dough consistency. Roll into a log, then set aside.
Before using your , you need to release the oils to make it flexible and bring out the flavours. Hold the banana leaf over an open gas flame and move it across the flame in sections until the oils seep through the entire leaf. If you do not have a gas flame, place it in a dry non-stick frying pan for a few seconds on each side.
Place the dough in the centre of the . Wrap it, folding over each end, and roll it up like a burrito. Then wrap in aluminium foil using the same method.
Place on the oven shelf and cook for 50–60 minutes.
Serve with .
Mabu Mabu's tips
Island people make the best damper, but we do it very differently to how most Australian kids make it on their school camps. Damper is the only kind of bread I grew up with. You don’t get freshly baked loaves off the barges – we just had flour and tins of butter. It was always made simply but ‘Island-style’: wrapped in banana leaves and steam-baked in the kup murri (underground oven). This is the first thing my dad ever taught me to cook. It’s loads of fun to make and relies on simple kitchen staples. Damper also saved my business during the 2020 COVID lockdowns, when I started doing damper workshops via Zoom. These days, I’m known everywhere for my damper.
