Luau Palusami – National Dish of American Samoa

Cooking Apparatus

Luau Palusami: Coconut trees and taro plants grow abundantly on the islands of American Samoa. Both coconuts and leaves of the taro plant are used to make the national dish; Luau Palusami.

Directions for Preparing Luau Palusami

Preparing the Coconut Cream

1. Halve the coconuts and use a coconut scraper to remove the white fleshy insides.
2. Place the coconut flesh into the baking tin. Bake until it becomes brown.
3. Pour a cup of warm water onto the brown coconut flesh.
4. Scoop up the mass of wet coconut flesh and place it in a thin cloth or tauaga.
5. Squeeze the cloth and extract the cream into a large bowl.
6. Add salt and onion to taste.

Preparing the Luau Pulsami

1. Stack 4 taro leaves one on top of the other.
2. Use a large taro leaf at the base and 3 smaller ones on top of it.
3. Hold the stack of leaves together and make it into a cone/bowl-like container.
   Once this is done, pour a small amount of coconut cream into the taro leaf container.
4. Close the leaves by folding them shut over the cream. The enclosed leaf container will resemble a ball.
5. Hold the top of the ball carefully so it will not become undone.
6. Place the ball onto a square piece of aluminum foil and wrap the foil around the ball.
7. Twist the foil at the top to seal it and hold it tightly.
8. Repeat this to create ten taro and coconut cream packages, each wrapped in foil.
9. Place them in a baking tin and bake for one hour at 475°F.
10. Unwrap the foil and enjoy the delicious, gooey fusion of taro leaves and coconut cream.

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