ISLAND PANTRY
Cooking Tonga-style

Nesi Kama covers corned beef, onions and tomato with coconut milk as she makes lupulu, the Tongan version of laulau. Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Akanesi Lelenoa Kama grew up in a home without a refrigerator, but that didn't detract from the freshness and wholesome goodness of the meals the family of nine children enjoyed. That was just the way things were in Tonga more than 20 years ago.

"We didn't go to the store for everything. What we needed we got from our back yard or our neighbors," recalled "Nesi," the nickname she was given in childhood and by which she is still known today. The Lelenoas consumed a typical modern Polynesian diet: fish, taro, bananas and lots of coconut, supplemented by canned New Zealand corned beef and Asian lychees.

Today, Nesi, 44, and her husband, Viliami Kama, and their two children live in Honolulu, but she still exudes the warm openness of her South Pacific background.

Nesi learned to cook as a teenager in her mother's kitchen, where banana leaves became a kind of all-purpose Polynesian "aluminum foil" to wrap whatever was being baked in the oven or in the ground, a common cooking technique in Tongan cuisine.

"We use a lot of fresh coconut in everything, too," she said. Her family made coconut milk whenever it was needed because it does not keep.

Nesi wraps folded lu'au (taro) leaf with aluminum foil to make lupulu.

But it is her ability to update traditional Tongan dishes with the wide range of fruits, vegetables and meats available in Hawai'i that is so interesting. She happily mixes watermelon, cantaloupe and whipped cream into a traditional Tongan fruit ambrosia, ending with freshly grated coconut on top.

"Most of what we had in Tonga is the same as you have here," she said. "We just do different things with it." For instance, Tongans do not mash taro into poi as a staple starch. Instead, raw taro is cut into chunks and cooked in coconut milk. "We do mash up taro, but then we make it into a dessert with burned (caramelized) sugar and milk," she said.

Many Tongans, she said, consider Hawaiian poi an acquired taste.

"We use the noni (a wild fruit) and kukui in medicines just like you do," she said, and she loves to float fresh lemon leaves from the back yard in a hot cup of tea.

Rice is another story. "We love rice now," she said, "but we used to eat it like a breakfast cereal with sugar and milk, or as a dessert."

Among Tongans, green bananas often are cooked in coconut milk, or ripe bananas are cooked and then made into a dessert. Papayas grow wild in Tonga and often are fed to pigs. Tongan papayas are large, with pink insides. Tongan sweet potatoes, too, are larger, with white on the inside. Tapioca root, rarely seen in Hawai'i, is cooked and eaten as a starchy vegetable.

Nesi chops tomatoes and onions, which go into the lupulu filling.

In Tonga, the sanctity of Sundays is strictly observed. This custom has remained strong among Tongans living in Hawai'i. Whether they belong to Roman Catholic, Methodist or Mormon churches here — the three most common denominations among Tongans — they refrain from working on Sundays and spend much of the day with friends and family, and at church.

"In Tonga, you see all the women sweeping their porches and walks outside their houses on Saturday, getting ready for Sunday," Nesi recalled. Sabbath meals are prepared on Saturday for the next day. On Sunday morning, everyone goes to church. "Then we have lunch, and in the afternoon the children go to Sunday school. There is usually a service at 5 in the evening," she said. Nesi, her family, and other Tongans here do much the same thing: Every Sunday at 5 p.m., the Tongan choir performs a capella at St. Augustine's Catholic Church in Waikiki.

Here is Nesi's recipe for lupulu, the Tongan laulau. The other recipes, while not hers, are in the same spirit as her cosmopolitan cooking. Enjoy the new twist on ingredients we already enjoy in other ways.

In making lupulu, it's important to use unsweetened coconut milk. Nesi recommends fresh-made or the frozen Hawaiian Sun brand; most canned varieties are too sweet. When Nesi has no coconut milk, she uses mayonnaise instead.

In making the bundles, you can use foil or banana leaves. The authentic way is to use banana leaves secured with a rib that's been stripped from a leaf and tied around the bundle. If this knack eludes you, make a packet from aluminum foil. Fresh banana leaves are readily available in Chinatown and at markets that cater to South Pacific islanders.

Serve lupulu with baked yams or sweet potatoes, steamed rice, poi, chicken long rice or whatever sounds good. A typical Tongan party platter is made up of baked sweet potatoes and yams, steamed mussels, roasted lamb and barbecued chicken.

Nesi's Lupulu

• 1 (16-ounce) package fresh lu'au (taro) leaves, about 14 leaves
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 (12-ounce) can corned beef (New Zealand brands preferred)
• 1 frozen package coconut milk (Hawaiian Sun brand), thawed
• Aluminum foil and/or banana leaves for wrapping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and remove the stems from the lu'au leaves. Chop the onion and tomato. Thaw or make the coconut milk.

Layer two or three leaves in the palm of your hand. Place a heaping tablespoon or so of onion and tomato into the center of the leaves. Top with about 2 heaping tablespoons of corned beef (one can will make about 5-6 packets). Ladle about 1/4 cup of coconut milk on top of it all. Wrap the lu'au leaves into a bundle and then wrap and secure with banana leaf or aluminum foil.

Place the lupulu in a shallow pan. Bake for about 1 hour. Peek into the bundles to make sure the lu'au leaves are thoroughly cooked and a dark, soft green color. (Raw taro leaves and tubers irritate the skin and throat). Cook longer if necessary. Remove from the aluminum foil and serve hot. Serves 4-6.

This recipe is adapted from "Favorite Island Recipes," Honolulu Gas Co., 1956.

Boiled Taro with Coconut Milk

• 1 (2-3 pound) taro corm
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Water
• 1 or 2 packages frozen coconut milk, thawed

Scrub the outside of the taro corm. (Read taro cautionary note in Lupulu recipe, above.) Place in a pot with enough water to half cover the taro. Cover and boil for about 1 1/2 hours, or until tender. Remove and cool. Peel away the outside skin and chop corm into large cubes. (Cooked taro at this point can be mashed and formed into cakes that are delicious sauteed with butter). Place the coconut milk and the taro cubes into a saucepan and heat thoroughly. There should be enough milk to just cover the taro. Taste during cooking to see if taro needs more salt. Serves 4-6.

This recipe is adapted from "Hawaiian Host & Hostess Book," by Eileen O'Brien, 1964. The four packages of gelatin cause this dessert to resemble Japanese kanten with a very firm texture.

Papaya Dessert

• 2 cups ripe papaya, cut into chunks
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 4 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup cold water
• Whipped cream

In a bowl, mash the papaya with the sugar and lemon juice. Soak the gelatin in 1 cup of cold water. Place the papaya mixture and the gelatin mixture into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. When it has cooled slightly, pour into individual molds or custard cups. Chill until firm. Serve with whipped cream. Serves 2-4.

This recipe is adapted from "Tradewinds Cookery," by Norma A. Davis, 1956. You can use so-called cooking bananas (plantains), or even ordinary bananas that are still green.

Boiled Plantains

• 2 to 4 plantains, peeled, whole
• Salted water
• Butter to taste
• 2 to 4 slices crisp bacon, crumbled

Place the plantains or green bananas in a saucepan and cover with lightly salted water; cook over medium-high for about 30 minutes. Drain. Slice as a vegetable. Butter the plantains and crumble crisp bacon over the top. Salt to taste. (The original recipe calls for pouring a little of the bacon fat over the plantain, something most would hesitate to do today.)