Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia · Volume 13, One Reef, Two Flags
Rukau
The Cook Islands
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 55 minutes
- Researched
- 17 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Close kin to Tahiti's fafa, both descending from the same wider Polynesian taro-leaf-and-coconut idea; no source consulted makes this comparison explicitly, and this chapter offers it as its own observation rather than a sourced ethnographic claim. Two named methods from one Rarotonga cook. As a wrapped parcel: leaves washed, central vein removed, cupped to form a well, filled with diced onion, optional sliced meat or fish, salt, pepper, coconut cream poured in, then gathered and wrapped in foil or tied with string; baked upright at 350°F/177°C for 45 minutes or more, tested for tenderness. As a baked casserole: layers of rukau and diced onion in a 9x13in dish, two cans of coconut cream poured over, baked 45 to 55 minutes until the leaves are fully wilted and the cream is bubbling. [www.ck/food/0202.htm, Mereana Hutchinson, Rarotonga]
As tradition built it
About 45 to 55 minutes baking (casserole method).
Ingredients
- as needed rukau (taro leaf), washed and de-veined
- as needed onion, diced
- 2 cans coconut cream
Method
- Layer washed, de-veined rukau leaves with diced onion in a 9x13in baking dish.
- Pour two cans of coconut cream over the layers.
- Bake 45 to 55 minutes until the leaves are fully wilted and the cream is bubbling.
Notes
A second traditional method wraps individual portions: rukau leaves cupped to form a well, filled with diced onion, optional sliced meat or fish, salt, pepper and coconut cream, then gathered and wrapped in foil or tied with string, and baked upright at 350°F/177°C for 45 minutes or more, tested for tenderness.
What a modern chef changes
The parcel method chosen over the casserole for a cleaner presentation, and the coconut cream given the reduction rukau's flat cream base is otherwise missing.
Rung 4 and 5
Method
- Build the wrapped-parcel version rather than the casserole, one portion per parcel, for individual plating and a cleaner ratio of leaf to cream than a communal dish gives.
- Reduce the coconut cream by a third in a separate pan before it goes into the parcel, concentrating its flavour so the finished dish does not read as diluted the way a straight can, baked, tends to.
- Finish under a hot grill or briefly on the Big Green Egg's direct side once unwrapped, to lightly catch the top of the leaf and cream, a texture contrast the fully sealed foil parcel cannot give on its own.