Ode to Kalua Pork

C

CathyZ

Well-known member
For all of you that have not experienced the taste of Kalua pork cooked in an Imu in the ground, may I try to capture it for you without waxing too poetic.....

To me, it is the best of the best of the best of flavors in the Hawaiian food repertoire.

Since it is graduation party time and Memorial Day just happened too, Imus around the islands abound. We don't have one in our yard but are lucky enough to have friends whose families have been cooking in Imus for generations. We were given several pounds of Kalua pork Sunday and it is harder for me to stay away from it than to stay away from chocolate!

It is commonplace both to use wild pig or commercially-raised pig. After being dressed the pig is rubbed with Hawaiian salt. The Imu is dug long ahead of time and a fire started to heat up the seasoned river rocks. The rocks are a family treasure and sometimes passed down through the generations. Kiawe wood is used and imparts the most amazing smoky flavor. When the Imu is ready, the pig us put in a chicken wire "basket" and hot rocks put inside the cavity. It is set on and covered with layers of banana trunk and leaves, sometimes Ti leaves, Taro leaves and more Kiawe wood. The Imu is covered with sand or dirt so the pig smokes as it cooks. No steam or smoke escapes until the whole pit is uncovered at the end of the cooking time. Sometimes turkeys and other wrapped food items- Lau Lau, chickens, fish, sweet potatoes- are added to the Imu before it is closed. When it is opened, the pig is removed and the process of shredding and removing the meat is done with rib bones taken from the pig. I have seen people so proficient at this task that my jaw drops in amazement.

Oh the flavor! Just magnificent. No other way to describe it. Juicy, smoky, the wood and the banana trees along with the Hawaiian salt, the seasoned hot rocks and some of our good Kauai red dirt make a flavor like nothing else.

If any of you come to Hawaii, don't miss one of the great culinary treats of the world.

PLT for dinner at our house tonight......pork, lettuce and tomato....with homemade Aioli.

 
This sounds quite incredible. How would you......

suggest using banana trunks? I have them when the bunches are cut off, they fall over and the ducks eat them.
They are sort of moist...come up with an inventive way of using....I'll try it.
Should they be hacked thinish???
I wonder if plantain trunks would work as well?
I love trying new things...Would never be able to get that special smokey flavour though as we have no wood here.

 
Hey, I just hit 800 posts... computer didn't shake, rattle, or roll, as I may have expected. lol

 
They are cut in about 2' hunks and then cut in half or quartered to expose the center

because so much liquid is "stored" in them, it helps steam the pork. Yes! Plantain trees would certainly work.

When we take banana stalks off we cut the trees down (not everyone does) because they die and new shoots come up on the side (I know you know this but others that don't have banana trees might not)

Can you use charcoal to replace the wood? It would work very well. You will still get a very good smoky flavor.

 
Wow. Yum. You do realize, Cathy and Micheal, that to a recovering food torturer, posting this

information is the equivalent of waving a bottle of single-malt Scotch under a recovering alcoholic's nose, LOL.

No, this is primal cooking at its best. It sounds fantastic. I think that in California it requires a special permit to be gotten way ahead of time, and perhaps other states have similar regulations. Would I have to serve poi?

 
This is EXACTLY how to do it! This guy knows his stuff. Joe, you need to try this and

if you decide to do it, heed the rock advice - they can explode if you get the wrong ones or don't season them along the way to get the water out of them.

No. You do not need to serve poi.

If you do a luau let me send you some recipes- chicken long rice, lomi-lomi salmon, chicken hekka, other stuff to consider. Maybe Sandi has favorite recipes too- I won't send a recipe for pickled fish heads though.....I don't save recipes for things that stare back at me.

 
Oh, LOL, I am quite excited about this idea.....

We 'braai' every Sunday. Have done for years as it is a very traditional thing of S. Africans. We do the potjie a lot (the cast iron pot on/in the coals) I have been getting so bored with the whole thing. Always the same dishes, 'specially the potjie potatoes the family love.
The problem is it is always summer here so no break in how we do the cook-outs AND the smell is always the same...of charcoal.
In S.A. we have various woods to burn. The best being the vine 'stokies' from the vinyards....
Anyway NOW I have another way of doing the fire....I am actually looking forward to the next braai.
Tell me how you feel about pork tenderloin wrapped in banana leaves would do. And the spices...what suggestion do you have there, we, of course, don't have Hawaian salt etc. Must it be a dry rub or a marinade in a soya sauce?
Weeee, something new to try!!!!!

 
Cathy, there's not a day that goes by...

that I don't crave a Mixed Plate with Kalua Pig, Lau Lau, and Lomi Lomi from the little stand in Hanalei. Now of course I'm doubly craving it after reading your wondrous description and because lunch is but minutes away. Waaaaa! I guess I'll suffice with Chinese take-out for lunch today.

Oh, BTW, what is the salad with the the tiny octopi and seaweed called? I bought it at the Safeway Seafood counter in Kapa'a, but can't remember the name of it. They also had a yummy spicy Lomi Lomi that had chili and sesame in it that I really enjoyed too (or is that called something else with those additions? LOL)

 
I'm so glad you shared that experience. I've never heard of it. Now I wonder if

it is something that is available all the time, say like jerk pork in the Caribbean, or is it a special occasion food?

 
Generally a tougher, fatty cut is used Joanie- of course it depends on how long

you cook the foods but this method is for long, slow smokey cooking so if you can, use something like pork butt or shoulder not the tenderloin. You need something with fat in it.

Oh use the vine stokies instead of charcoal if you can! Wood is better than charcoal but of course charcoal will work fine.

Hawaiian salt is coarse sea salt- no other ingredients are used but try whatever you like.

For your regular potjie meals, can you adapt some of the slow cooker recipes to work? At least that way you won't have the "same old" every week.

Please explain how you do your braai. I am very interested.

 
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