Lap lap
Vanuatu’s national dish: a dough of grated root vegetables (yam, taro or cassava) wrapped in banana leaves with coconut cream and meat or fish, cooked in an oven of hot stones.
Ingredients
- 1 kg cassava or yam
- 400 ml coconut cream
- 500 g chicken, pork or fish, in pieces
- Banana leaves
- 1 onion
- Salt
How to make it at home
- Peel and finely grate the cassava, squeeze it a little and mix it with salt.
- Pass the banana leaves over a flame to soften them and line an ovenproof dish with them.
- Spread out the cassava dough, put the meat or fish on top with the sliced onion and pour over half the coconut cream.
- Close the parcel with the leaves and bake at 180 °C for 1½ hours.
- Open it, pour over the rest of the coconut cream and serve in portions.
The trick: Without banana leaves, use baking paper and then foil: it’s a little less fragrant.