COPPERFekei recipe
Fekei, made on every island of Tuvalu, is grated pulaka corm wrapped in its own leaves, steamed, then worked with coconut cream.
Ingredients
- 1000 g pulaka corm
- 4 pulaka leaves
- 400 ml coconut cream
How to make Fekei
- This dish depends on pulaka, a swamp taro grown in pits on the atolls; it is not sold outside the Pacific, so it cannot be faithfully reproduced elsewhere. The steps below describe the traditional method.
- Peel about 1 kg of pulaka corm. Raw corms are toxic, so the dish must always be fully cooked before eating.
- Grate the corm finely into a wet pulp; in Tuvalu this is done on a pierced limestone grater.
- Spread the pulp on 4 large pulaka leaves and fold them into tight parcels.
- Steam the parcels in an earth oven or over boiling water for about 1 hour until the pulp is firm and fully cooked.
- Unwrap, break up the cooked pulp and mix it with 400 ml of thick coconut cream from 2 freshly grated coconuts.
- Serve warm alongside fish from the lagoon.
What is Fekei?
Fekei is a traditional dish from Tuvalu, baked in the oven, and takes about 2 hours from start to finish. It is built around pulaka corm and coconut cream. The recipe below uses 3 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Fekei take?
At 120 minutes it is slower than 50% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. The method runs to 7 steps.
Any tips for making Fekei?
Steam the grated pulaka a full hour in its leaf parcels; the raw corm is toxic and only thorough cooking makes it edible.
How Fekei compares
Hard to find elsewhere: pulaka corm (1) and pulaka leaves (1).
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on coconut cream, from other countries.
- Kokoda 🇫🇯 Fiji
- Lovo 🇫🇯 Fiji
- Boka 🇫🇲 Micronesia
- Fish amok 🇰🇭 Cambodia
- Breadfruit pudding 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands
- Mashed taro 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands
Copper documents Tuvalu alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.