Squid Lūʻau

the Hawaiian stew of taro leaves cooked down in coconut milk with squid, thick, dark and faintly sweet

Origin: Waipiʻo Valley & the Hawaiian Islands

From the journey of Taro.

Heʻe lūʻau is octopus and taro leaf, and the dish is one of the fixed points of a Hawaiian plate lunch and of every lūʻau table. English has settled on squid for it, partly because squid is easier to buy and partly because heʻe was translated loosely a long time ago; either works, and Hawaiian cooks use both without much ceremony. What the dish is really about is the leaf. A very large quantity of lūʻau leaf is boiled hard, drained, and then cooked slowly down in coconut milk until it collapses into something between a purée and a creamed spinach, dark green going on black, thick enough to hold the mark of a spoon. The squid goes in near the end and is there for texture as much as flavour. The first boil is not optional and is not a matter of taste. Taro leaves are dense with calcium oxalate, and the standard Hawaiian method is to boil them in plenty of water, throw that water away, and only then begin the dish; the discarded liquid takes a good deal of the irritant with it. Every taro-eating culture on earth has arrived at some version of this independently, which is a reasonable indication of how badly it goes when the step is skipped. The coconut milk is the Polynesian half of the argument and the leaf is the older half, and the two together are the same pairing that produces palusami in Samoa, lū pulu in Tonga, rourou in Fiji, and poulet fafa in Tahiti. Hawaiʻi's version is the one that adds the sea.

Ingredients

Stew

1 kg young taro (lūʻau) leaves, thick stems and ribs removed
2 litres water, for the first boil
600 g cleaned squid or octopus, in 2cm rings and pieces
400 ml coconut milk, the thick first pressing if you have it
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tsp coarse sea salt, or to taste

To serve

6 portions of steamed rice or poi, to serve

Method

Strip the leaves from their stems and cut out the thick central ribs. Wash them well in several changes of water.
Bring the two litres of water to a hard boil, add the leaves, and boil them uncovered for thirty minutes.
Drain them completely and throw the cooking water away. This step removes a large part of the calcium oxalate and there is no substitute for it.
Press the drained leaves gently against the side of the colander to get the water out, then chop the mass roughly.
If using octopus, simmer it separately for forty minutes until tender before it meets the leaves; squid needs no such treatment.
Put the chopped leaves, the onion, and half the coconut milk into a heavy pan and cook over a low heat for thirty minutes, stirring now and then.
The leaves will darken and break down steadily. When they hold the mark of a spoon and no longer look like leaves, they are ready.
Add the remaining coconut milk and the salt and bring it back to a bare simmer. Do not boil it hard or the coconut milk will split.
Stir in the squid and cook for a further four or five minutes only. Squid needs either two minutes or forty; anything in between makes it rubbery.
Taste for salt, which the coconut milk flattens, and serve hot over rice, or alongside poi.

Notes

The thirty-minute first boil and the discarded water are the whole safety of this dish, and the finished stew still wants its full time in the pan afterwards. Frozen taro leaves are widely sold and are what most cooks use; give them the same first boil. A kilogramme of leaves reduces to a fraction of its volume, so do not scale it down thinking it looks like too much. Octopus is the traditional heʻe and gives a firmer, sweeter result, but it must be tenderised by a long separate simmer first. Spinach is not a substitute here in any sense: the dish would cook in ten minutes and taste of nothing in particular.

The Gastrographer

Name: Squid Lūʻau
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Waipiʻo Valley & the Hawaiian Islands
Ingredients: 1 kg young taro (lūʻau) leaves, thick stems and ribs removed; 2 litres water, for the first boil; 600 g cleaned squid or octopus, in 2cm rings and pieces; 400 ml coconut milk, the thick first pressing if you have it; 1 onion, finely chopped; 2 tsp coarse sea salt, or to taste; 6 portions of steamed rice or poi, to serve

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control