Palusami recipe

Coconut cream baked for hours inside a parcel of young taro leaves until it thickens and darkens.

4 hours and 30 minutesmedium7 ingredients

Ingredients

• 40 young taro leaves
• 800 ml coconut cream
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 8 banana leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

How to make Palusami

1. Sort about 40 young taro leaves, snap off the thick stems and the tips, and wash them well. Never taste them raw: raw taro leaf holds calcium oxalate that burns the mouth and only long cooking destroys it.
2. Mix 800 ml of thick coconut cream with 1 finely chopped onion, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of pepper and the juice of half a lemon.
3. Stack 5 or 6 leaves in the palm of your hand, biggest underneath, overlapping so they form a cup.
4. Pour about 100 ml of the coconut mixture into each cup and fold the leaves over to close it. The parcel must not leak.
5. Wrap each parcel in a square of banana leaf, or in foil if you have none, and tie it shut.
6. In Samoa these go in the umu, the stone pit oven, and no home oven reproduces that smoke. At home, stand the parcels in a dish with 3 cm of water, cover tightly and bake at 180°C for 3 hours 30 to 4 hours.
7. The filling has to turn from liquid to thick and dark green. An undercooked taro leaf still itches in the throat, so do not cut the time short.
8. Serve hot, one or two parcels per person, with boiled taro root, breadfruit or roast pork.

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