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Palusami

Young taro leaves filled with coconut cream and onion, wrapped into parcels and baked until rich and silky.

Eaten in: Samoa

Prep: 25 min
Cooking: 1 h
Total: 1 h 25 min
Servings: 6

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About the dish

Palusami is one of Samoa’s best-loved dishes and a fixture of the Sunday to’ona’i from the umu earth oven. Several young taro leaves are cupped together, filled with thick coconut cream with onion and salt, then wrapped in a breadfruit or banana leaf and baked on hot stones. As they cook the leaves soften and the cream thickens into a velvety, slightly salty sauce, so the parcel melts in the mouth. It is served with baked taro, breadfruit, fish and pork. A version with tinned corned beef is also popular, and similar dishes are eaten in Tonga and Fiji.

Main ingredients

young taro leaves
coconut cream
onion
salt

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Palusami

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/palusami

Ingredients

6 servings

30 young taro leaves (or large leaves of spinach, chard or Savoy cabbage)
400 ml thick coconut cream
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
6 squares of aluminium foil (about 30 × 30 cm) or banana leaves

Method

Heat the oven to 180°C and mix the coconut cream with the onion and salt.
Remove any tough stalks from the leaves and stack 5 leaves on each square of foil.
Shape the leaves into a cup and pour about a sixth of the coconut cream into each one.
Fold the edges of the leaves over the filling, then wrap the parcel tightly in foil or banana leaf.
Place the parcels on a tray and bake for 1 hour until the leaves are completely tender and the cream thick.
Carefully unwrap and serve hot with baked taro, breadfruit or fish.