Chef Makoa
Ika Lolo (Tongan Fish Baked in Taro Leaves and Coconut Cream)
Tonga's ika lolo, fresh fish folded into taro leaves with ginger, garlic, and coconut cream, then baked until the leaf goes silky and the fish stays sweet under the coconut.
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Lū Pulu (Tongan Corned Beef in Taro Leaves)
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Tonga's lū pulu folds taro leaves around corned beef, onion, and lolo niu coconut cream, then bakes it slow until leaf and meat turn soft, dark, and rich.
Main Dishes
Polynesian, Tongan
Special Occasion
Celebration
Comfort Food
35 min
Active Time
1 hr 45 min cook•2 hr 20 min total
Yield6 to 8 servings
The first time a Tongan auntie put lū pulu in front of me, she didn't explain it like a chef. She just opened the leaf, pushed the cream back into the meat with a spoon, and looked at me like, eat. Tonga's hand was right there: lū, the taro leaf, wrapped around pulu, the corned beef that came by ship and stayed because the people made it useful, generous, and good.
This is not old-before-contact food in every part. The taro leaf is old, the coconut is old, the leaf parcel is old. The corned beef is newer, from the trade and mission and shipping years, and still the islands took it into the kitchen without shame. Keeper, not gatekeeper. The people eat what they have, and in Tonga that can mean lū sipi with mutton, lū pulu with corned beef, and a whole katoanga, a celebration, laid out with enough for one more.
The method is the meaning. Build the leaves four and five deep, because the cream needs a protected place to cook down. Let the parcel stay closed, because the leaf needs time to lose every bit of its bite. Sāmoa's cousin is palusami, the Cooks have rukau, back home Hawaiʻi has laulau and lūʻau leaf. Same gesture, different hand. Don't blur them. Name the island and feed the table.
For the deep ʻumu, the Tongan earth oven, and the ceremony around it, go sit with Tongan elders, with the aunties and uncles who carry that work. In this kitchen version, we bake it covered and slow, and we keep the heart of it: leaf, coconut, salt, patience, kinship. Deep food is not fancy. It's not precious. It's food that remembers who carried it.
Lū is Tonga's taro-leaf parcel family, cooked in the ʻumu, the hot-stone earth oven, and filled in different ways, including lū sipi with mutton and lū pulu with tinned corned beef. The taro leaf and coconut cream belong to the older canoe-crop foodway shared across Polynesia, while corned beef entered island kitchens through nineteenth and twentieth century trade, mission, military, and shipping routes, then became part of everyday and feast food in Tonga and Sāmoa. The dish shows the deep-food and mission-food line sitting in one parcel: ancestral leaf and coconut holding a modern pantry meat, still Tongan in the hand that folds it.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
young taro leaves (lū)
Quantity
36
thick stems and ribs removed
corned beef (pulu)
Quantity
1 can (12 ounces)
broken into chunks
fresh coconut cream (lolo niu)
Quantity
2 cups
or 1 can thick coconut cream
onion
Quantity
1 medium
thinly sliced
sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
banana leaves
Quantity
6
softened over heat, or use parchment and heavy foil
water
Quantity
1/2 cup
for the baking dish
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| young taro leaves (lū)thick stems and ribs removed | 36 |
| corned beef (pulu)broken into chunks | 1 can (12 ounces) |
| fresh coconut cream (lolo niu)or 1 can thick coconut cream | 2 cups |
| onionthinly sliced | 1 medium |
| sea saltplus more to taste | 1 teaspoon |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| banana leavessoftened over heat, or use parchment and heavy foil | 6 |
| waterfor the baking dish | 1/2 cup |
Equipment Needed
- •9-by-13-inch baking dish with a tight cover or heavy foil
- •Wide shallow bowl for building parcels
- •Kitchen scissors for trimming taro leaves
- •Tongs for softening banana leaves over heat
Instructions
- 1
Ready the leaves
Rinse the taro leaves well and strip out the thick stems and ribs so the leaves fold without cracking. Raw taro leaf can bite the throat, so this dish must cook long enough for every needle of oxalate to go quiet. No blame the taro if it scratches. You rushed it.
Use young, whole taro leaves if you can. Frozen leaves are fine too, just thaw and drain them well before stacking. - 2
Season the filling
Break the corned beef into big soft chunks and toss it with the sliced onion, salt, and pepper. Go easy with the salt at first, because pulu, the tinned corned beef Tonga made its own, already carries plenty.
- 3
Cup the lū
Lay four or five taro leaves in your palm or in a shallow bowl, overlapping them like cupped pages, dark side down and edges crossing. This deep stack matters. It keeps the lolo niu, the coconut cream, from burning through and gives the leaf time to melt into the meat.
- 4
Fill and fold
Set a handful of corned beef and onion in the middle of the leaves, then spoon over enough coconut cream to wet everything without flooding the parcel. Fold the leaves over the filling from all sides, then wrap the bundle in banana leaf. If you don't have banana leaf, use parchment against the food and foil outside it. Cook what you have.
Fresh coconut cream is the better hand here, especially for western Polynesian food. A good thick can still feeds the family on a weeknight, no shame. - 5
Bake slow
Set the parcels seam side down in a baking dish, add the water to the dish, cover tightly, and bake at 350F for 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. Don't keep opening it to check. You are not steaming a vegetable. You are melting tough leaf, salty meat, onion, and coconut cream into one another until all of them forget they were tough.
- 6
Rest and open
Let the parcels rest 10 minutes before opening. The leaf should be deep green-black and silky, the coconut cream white-gold and glossy, the corned beef soft enough to press apart with a spoon. Taste the cream pooling in the leaf and add salt only if it asks.
- 7
Serve the table
Serve lū pulu family-style with cassava, kumala, ʻulu, rice, or whatever starch is on your table. Tonga owns this hand, but the cousins sit close: Sāmoa has palusami, the Cook Islands have rukau, Hawaiʻi has laulau and lūʻau leaf. One ocean, one canoe, one root, each island speaking in its own bowl.
Chef Tips
- •Cook taro leaves fully. If the leaf still feels fibrous, bright green, or scratchy, close the parcel and give it more time.
- •Fresh lolo niu, coconut cream, gives the fullest taste. If canned is what you have, use thick coconut cream, not watery coconut milk.
- •Corned beef is already salty. Taste the finished cream before adding more salt, because the coconut pulls salt from the meat as it cooks.
- •No banana leaf where you live? Parchment inside foil is a good home-kitchen stand-in. The leaf around the food is ideal, but feeding people comes first.
- •Leftover lū pulu is good with hot rice the next day. Warm it covered and gentle so the coconut cream stays soft instead of splitting.
Advance Preparation
- •Trim and rinse the taro leaves up to 1 day ahead, then wrap them in a damp towel and refrigerate.
- •Squeeze fresh coconut cream the morning of the meal. It separates and can sour if it sits too long.
- •The parcels can be assembled up to 4 hours ahead and held cold. Bake them covered straight from the refrigerator, adding 10 to 15 minutes to the cook time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 190g)
Calories
385 calories
Total Fat
32 g
Saturated Fat
24 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
50 mg
Sodium
850 mg
Total Carbohydrates
11 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
20 g
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