King of the slow cookers
As a chef I have been lucky to learn, over the years, to cook food in many different ways. I have made pizza in a traditional wood fired oven, cooked pig on a spit, baked whole fish in salt and cooked food in extremely modern ways with Combi ovens and hot water baths but one method has always been on my list to try.
Famous Hawaiian dish
Many people, I am sure, have heard of kalua pork, the famous Hawaiian dish made by cooking a whole pig underground with hot rocks. Since I first learned of this intriguing technique I have been dying to do it for myself. Although many people recreate kalua pork in their oven or BBQ, I was interested in tasting the real deal done in the authentic manner.
The name for the earthen oven that Hawaiians build to cook their pig is an Imu. An Imu is built by digging a large hole (big enough to accommodate a whole pig) in which a big fire is built to heat up a bunch of rocks that the pig lies on and is filled with, then covered in banana leaves and buried to slow cook until it is ready. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Not quite, like many things, there is much more to it than there appears.
Imu pao in the making
ACNM style
So here we are in Hawaii and the challenge was on! Unfortunately I couldn’t dig up my friends lawn but in true ACNM style I found a way to adapt and overcome.
On the property was an old unused fire pit that I decided to rebuild and use as my Imu. In fact an above ground Imu is called an Imu pao. Since it would be just Nat and I at our luau for two, I cooked a piece of pork shoulder and a few other goodies, so my Imu pao was considerably smaller.
Banana and ti leaves
With the fire pit done I needed to secure a few other items to get cooking. The banana and ti leaves would not be a problem to source from the property along with some fresh banana stocks, but the proper stones for the oven would take some doing. Thankfully our new friend Jill, a local Hawaiian girl, directed us to a place to find what we needed.
Vasiculur basalt rocks or lava rocks (pohaku in Hawaiian) that are filled with tiny holes (puka) are the real deal (be sure not to use rocks that are from a river bed because they will contain water and will explode when heated). We heard stories of people using the wrong rocks which caused a bit of an explosion and sent red hot chunks flying through car windows.
Kupuna are called upon
Traditionally, Hawaiians are very serious about their imus. Kupuna (elders) are called upon to find the correct rocks, bless them and the area where they are taken and bless the building site. We were told of an ancient Imu on the island where if a rock cracks and breaks elders are called to return it to where it was originally found and choose a new rock to replace it.
Getting closer to luau time, we had our proper rocks and our Imu pao ready for action. Starting early in the morning I built a very large fire on the rocks using a mix of woods including Hawaiian Kiawe which smells incredible when it burns and adds to its authentic flavour. The goal was to get the rocks as hot as possible, preferably white hot, in order to start cooking. This means a good two to three hours of burning until your fire has burned down to just coals and hot rocks.
A large steamer
In fact, an Imu is a large steamer not a bake oven. The steam from the wet banana stumps and the wet banana and ti leaves slowly steam the food within, imparting a unique flavour and resulting in a juicy delicious product.
Traditionally the pig would be accompanied by taro root, banana, sweet potato, breadfruit, lomi lomi, lau lau and any other vegetables at hand. For our luau, besides the pork, I had made some chicken lau lau and a batch of Hawaiian style beans ( with pineapple and Maui onion).
The day before, I prepared the pork by rubbing it with Hawaiian sea salt and then wrapping it in banana and ti leaves. I also made up the lau lau (recipe in a future post) and prepped the beans so everything was ready to go.
Kalua pork wrapped in ti leaves
Chicken lau lau being prepped
Over the bed of rocks
With the rocks super hot, the next step was to lay on some banana stumps that had been smashed up, over the bed of rocks. The food was then placed on top of the stumps and covered in wet banana and ti leaves tucking everything in tightly to seal in the heat and steam. A wet piece of burlap (we used a towel) is layered on to add to the steaming with a few more banana leaves over it and then we covered the whole Imu with a tarp and sealed the edges down to the ground so no steam or heat could escape. All that was left to do was wait 8 to 12 hours for everything to slowly steam to succulent perfection.
Banana leaves and the towel peeking through
Everything is sealed in with a tarp
After 8-12 hours everything is uncovered
Kalua pork and chicken lau lau on banana stalks
Chicken lau lau and Hawaii style beans
This definitely was not microwave cooking and it took a hell of a lot of work cutting banana leaves and trunks and tending the fire, but in the end the taste of authenticity was all worth it.
Check out our video of how it all went down.
imu style cooking (Enhanced) from Nathalie on Vimeo.
You hooked me with the title and slipped in a very nice twist. Great post guys… now save a dish-full for me. *grin*
I know you’re a fan of slow cookers 😉
Well that was quite a project and even building your own imu – and sourcing your materials, how wonderful to strive for real authentic cooking. I typically just love going to the parties on the island when the food is done and it is an all day affair, great job.
Thanks for stopping by Noel, we agree that arriving when everything is ready would be nice too 🙂
Looks like a great meal — and sounds like you also got some exercise in the process:-)
absolutely, we worked for it 🙂
Kudos to you for building your own Imu! That is totally something I’d also be interested in doing although I suspect I l would have missed the part of the instructions about selecting the correct rocks and would have ended up with the exploding ones. Looks like a tasty meal!
The rock selecting was definitely a little nerve wracking.
I love food wrapped in banana leaves.
It’s amazing how much flavour the food takes on.
How fun! Preparing and cooking in traditional ways is one of our favorite ways of connecting with a destination – good for you for taking it on – on your own. Next time – luau for four? Build it and we will come! 😉
Luau for four sounds like fun 🙂
That was an ambitious project, but I bet it was well-worth the effort. The video was a good addition to the post so we could watch and listen. I can taste that pork roast from here… Yum!
It was worth it, nothing better than slow cooking.
This was definitely a meal of dedication!
Being in Australia I’m familiar with the Hangi that is done in NZ so you had me looking it up to see where this method of cooking underground originally derived from and I was taken on a merry dance including your Imu and the Polynesian Umu –
Fabulous for big get togethers when feeding the multitudes 🙂
Always fun to learn the history of where things come from.
Sounds like something best not done using the trial and error method — exploding lava rocks indeed. I also admire your dedication and patience — the antithesis of fast food@
Definitely a slow food project, but worth it.
You make me want to go back to Hawaii right now! We didn’t have the chance to eat the kalua pork on our recent visit. But I certainly remember eating it on previous visits and loving it!
What’s not to love, deliciously tender, flavourful pork 🙂
I’m sure it tastes as good as it looks, so well worth the effort! What a great experience all the way around.
Absolutely, learning by doing, there’s no better way!
We’ve eaten the kalua pork several times during vacation trips to Hawaii and remember it as being absolutely delicious. I had no idea the process was so labor intensive and found it very interesting to read about the imu and how the traditional pig is prepared.
It’s definitely a full day event but worth it!
Love your authenticity, your story, great images! The flavor a jump out thru the screen-
Really interesting post. Although I would love to see food cooked this way as it sounds fun, it’s doubtful I would participate as I barely use a microwave at home. Hawaii is one of the few places that I love eating I very rarely eat any fruit at home, but absolutely love it there!