Crockpot Lu Pulu Recipe

Lu Pulu, rice, and broccoli salad

Yesterday my Visiting Teachers came by.  As we sat and talked they mentioned how much they admired my garden, especially the taro patch by the front door.  We have perhaps ten different varieties of taro that have been acquired from all over the island.  Most have been planted in what used to be the "swamp" by the front door. The taro is thriving in the wet ground and our entry looks so much better with them planted there. 

Of course, we had to discuss what we do with taro.  I mentioned that I wanted to learn to make pork lau lau. So sad; I don't have salted butterfish on hand, so that was out. Tongan lu pulu was mentioned as another tasty and easy (I LOVE easy recipes) way to use taro leaves. AND you can make it in the crockpot! How wonderful is that?!

So this morning I set out early to gather taro leaves, in the rain no less (the uber frequent rain is the reason we had a swamp by our front door.) I cut thirty leaves out of my mostly young plants and set to work cleaning and slicing. I sliced up the leaves before adding them to the crockpot, but apparently that's not necessary. I layered all the ingredients and let the whole thing cook on low for 6 hours.  We came back from church to the fragrance of cooked luau leaves, corned beef, and onion.  It was lovely.

Taro patch after the scalping

Here's what I learned: although the lu pulu was tasty, it was rather bland for my family.  Next time, I will add soy sauce and maybe a little crushed hot pepper to each layer, even though that takes it out of the traditional realm.  I will also only use younger leaves rather than a mixture of old and new leaves.  The old ones were much tougher and didn't melt into the rest of the leaves the way they were supposed to.  Maybe it's a duh, but I didn't take the longer cooking time for the older leaves into account when I was harvesting. I'll also have to try the traditional method of using NZ corned beef instead of the rectangular canned stuff. This time around I only used two cans of coconut milk; I may increase that to three on the next go 'round.

This recipe is easy, especially when you use bagged taro leaves (also called luau leaves, or lau lau leaves) from the grocery store. I hope you'll try it.

Crockpot Lu Pulu 

Taro leaves (aka luau leaves or lau lau leaves) (I used 30 leaves), either sliced up or simply layered in the pan
2 large onions, chopped (use 2 if you love onions, 1 if you like less) (I used 4 really large bunching onion bulbs because I had them)
2 cans corned beef (NZ corned beef if you are a purist, American if that's all you have)
2 or 3 cans of coconut milk

1. Layer 1/3 of your leaves in the bottom of the crockpot.
2. Sprinkle 1/2 of the chopped onions on top of the leaves.
3. Layer chunks of the corned beef on top of the onions.
4. Pour one can of coconut milk over everything.
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4.
6. End with a layer of taro leaves.
7. Pour your third can of coconut milk, if you are using it, over everything.
8. Cook on low heat for 6 hours.

Serve over rice.

Happy eating!