Book of Days Tales

The first Friday in November is Arbor Day in Samoa. Like children’s day, arbor day moves around the calendar depending on the location. Arbor days generally fall in the autumn because this is prime time for planting trees. Palusami is a favorite dish in Samoa – made with the leaves of taro root, corned beef, and coconut milk.  Finding the taro leaves can be difficult. I recommend growing them yourself and picking young ones for cooking. Collards will work as a substitute but, obviously, the taste will be completely different.

Ingredients

20 ozs/560 gm young taro leaves
12 ozs/340 gm canned corned beef, broken into pieces
20 fl oz/600 ml/2 ½ cups coconut milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350º F/175º C.

Tear the tips off the leaves (for superstitious reasons) and remove the stems. Roll several of them together and slice them into strips. Repeat.

In a deep casserole or Dutch oven alternate layers of taro leaves and corned beef.

Pour the coconut milk over the leaves and corned beef, cover, and bake for at least 2 hours.  Test the leaves for doneness, and either serve or continue baking until ready. (Depends on the age of the leaves.