Palusami with coconut cream

Palusami is made by wrapping coconut cream and onion in taro leaves and cooking the resulting parcels. It is eaten in Samoa and in related forms elsewhere in Polynesia. Samoan preparations may be cooked in an umu, the traditional heated-stone oven, or steamed on a stove. Chicken or fish is added in some versions, while a coconut-and-onion filling can be served on its own.^[1]

In Latoya Hoeg’s home preparation, several young taro leaves are arranged to hold the seasoned coconut cream, then closed around the filling. Foil supports the parcels while they bake in a conventional oven. She serves them with boiled green bananas. This oven method offers a different setting for the same leaf-wrapped preparation, rather than requiring an earth oven for every serving of palusami.^[2]