Traditional laplap: Vanuatu's grated cassava pudding with chicken and coconut milk, baked in banana leaf

Laplap is Vanuatu's food for every occasion, from Sunday lunch to wedding feast, and every island, every village, has its own. The base is a grated root or fruit, cassava, yam, taro, green banana or breadfruit, spread in a layer over banana leaves or laplap leaves, a local heliconia, covered with meat or fish and coconut milk, wrapped and steamed in the stone oven for hours, until set.

The result is a savory pudding, dense and slightly springy, with the meat in the middle and the taste of coconut and leaf, cut into pieces and served on the leaves themselves. Cassava laplap with chicken is the most common in the markets of Port Vila; green banana laplap, darker and sweeter, is the favorite of many islands; and yam laplap, the noblest, is reserved for ceremonies.

At home, a regular oven or a large steamer does the job. Finely grated cassava, preferably squeezed, is the secret for the mass to set without turning gummy. It is an afternoon's dish, filling and minimal in cost, that feeds a large family.

Recipe card

• Origin: Vanuatu
• Category: Main course, root pudding cooked in leaf
• Difficulty: Medium
• Preparation time: 45 minutes
• Cooking time: 2 hours 30 minutes
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 2 kg peeled cassava, finely grated (or 12 green bananas, grated, for banana laplap)
• 800 g skinless chicken thighs and drumsticks, in pieces
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 500 ml thick coconut cream
• 1 tablespoon salt
• Large banana leaves (or baking paper and foil)
• Spinach or taro leaves for lining (optional)
• 1 whole chili (optional)

Method

1. Squeeze the grated cassava in a cloth to remove the excess water (keep the water for the starch to settle and add the starch back to the mass, if you want more firmness). Mix with half the salt.
2. Season the chicken with the rest of the salt.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Soften the banana leaves over a flame and remove the ribs.
4. Line a large, deep baking dish with foil and then with overlapping banana leaves, leaving overhang at the edges to close.
5. Spread half the cassava in an even 2 cm layer.
6. Distribute the chicken, onion and chili on top and drizzle with half the coconut cream.
7. Cover with the rest of the cassava, smooth and drizzle with the rest of the coconut cream.
8. Close the leaves over the top, then the foil, pressing well.
9. Bake for 2 hours 30 minutes, until the laplap is firm to the touch and the chicken cooked. Let rest 15 minutes, open and cut into squares, serving on the leaves.

Tips and variations

• Poorly squeezed cassava gives soft, gummy laplap: squeeze well.
• Green banana laplap: grate the peeled bananas and follow the recipe; it is darker and sweeter.
• Beef, pork or whole fish instead of chicken are common.
• In a large steamer, cook the package for 2 hours.
• A handful of green leaves (spinach, pumpkin leaves) between the layers is the version of the northern islands.
• Leftovers reheat in the oven or fried in slices in a pan.
• Serve with a fresh chili on the side and grated coconut, as in the markets.

Laplap is Vanuatu on a banana leaf: grated root, chicken and coconut cooked into a savory pudding cut by hand. Simple, filling and unlike anything else.