Horray, the kalua pig turned out great! It wasn’t quite as fall apart as before but still incredibly delicious. Everyone wanted to know how it was seasoned and was surprised it was just the sea salt. Good sea salt!
Kalua Pig
serves 15Ingredients
1 5-6 lb pork butt or shoulder
3 TBS sea salt
2 banana leaves
Instructions
Cut slits into pork and rub thoroughly with sea salt. Wrap in banana leaves. Cook in an imu for 8 hours. Remove carefully and tear apart with forks.
We had a cooler full of Hawaiian Sun, but I also put the guys in charge of making my Pa’ina Punch throughout the day. It disappeared quickly every time.
Pa’ina Punch
fills large punch bowlIngredients
1 large can pineapple juice
1 half gallon orange juice
1 2 liter bottle ginger ale
1 can frozen guava juice
Instructions
Mix ingredients well in a punchbowl.
Chicken long rice (center) is a very traditional Hawaiian dish. It’s a great way to stretch a tiny bit of chicken with really affordable rice noodles. You don’t want them swimming in broth, it’s really more to cook the noodles and give flavor.
Chicken Long Rice
serves 10-20 as sideIngredients
1 skein of rice noodles
3 cans chicken stock
1/2-1 cup shredded dark chicken meat
1 TBS grated ginger
2 green onion stalks
Instructions
Soak long rice in warm water for 45 minutes to an hour. Bring stock to a boil and add chicken, noodles (with water squeezed out), and ginger. Simmer about 10 minutes or until noodles are transparent. Serve topped with chopped green onion.
Ahi poke is such a common dish in Hawaii that you can buy it prepackaged in the seafood section of grocery stores, or from the seafood counter even fresher. Poke means “small piece” and these small pieces of raw fish with seasonings are like the Hawaiian version of the Japanese delicacy sashimi. It is constantly evolving, in fact Sam Choy has a poke festival every year that people submit recipes to. This was one of my auntie’s recipes.
Ahi Shoyu Poke
serves 15Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs ahi tuna raw
1 TBS alaea sea salt
1 tsp inamona (kukui nut)
1/4 cup Aloha shoyu
1 cup limu seaweed
1/4 cup chopped onion (yellow or red)
2 stalks green onion chopped
1 TBS sesame oil
Instructions
Chop ahi into bite size pieces. Add remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well and refrigerate 30 minutes for flavors to blend. Keep chilled.
The history of lomi lomi salmon is uncertain. It’s believed to have started when sailors would come to Hawaii (since we don’t have salmon in Hawaii). They would need to salt the fish in order to preserve it, but Hawaiians probably added the tomato and maui sweet onion to make this salty savory pupu or side dish.
Lomi Lomi Salmon
makes about 4 cupsIngredients
1 1/2 lb salmon fillet
1/4 cup sea salt
2 large tomatoes
1 small yellow onion (maui sweet onion preferred)
2 green onions
Instructions
Coat the salmon in sea salt completely and place in a glass dish. Refrigerate 1-2 days. Rinse the salt off and taste the fish. If it’s tood salty, soak in water for an hour and rinse again. Dry fish and cut or tear into small pieces. Dice tomatoes and onions and mix well, massaging with your fingers.
Closing thoughts…
All in all, it was an incredible success and everything I’d hoped for. I’m so thankful to Foodbuzz and Visa for sponsoring this party and hope you’ve enjoyed sharing in it visually at least. I’m also incredibly tired. It was three days of prep and cleaning, and I’ve spent 9 hours editing photos, and writing the posts and recipes. I have some video too but just didn’t have time to edit it today to get the post up by midnight. But I am planning to get it done by Tuesday! (The video is up!) Now you know how to throw a pa’ina of your own and roast a pig in an imu. Bring a little aloha to your friends and family. A hui ho!
Great paina! Everything looks so ono!!
Lovely! Nice 24 post. This make me want to visit Hawaii now.
wow! great job diana! it looks like A LOT of work was put into your paina!
everything looks so good and it looks like you all had a great time.
Sounds wonderful – I’m sure everyone enjoyed your pa’ina! Great idea for the Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24! I have been wanting to submit a proposal one of these months, but we are typically busy on the last Saturday of the month with a church service that my hubby and I participate in. One of these months I am going to do it, though!
Congratulations on being part of Foodbuzz 24 sistah! How I wish I could have actually been there, as the mention of all the grindz really had me yearning for the sights, sounds and smells of home. That fact that you were able to obtain poi! Arghghghgh! I so want to do a luau here but poi is the one thing that I would never be able to put on the menu
Awesome meal!
Pulling this party together after returning from vacation just 3 days prior earns you extra points! Thanks for sharing your Hawaiian memories with us–great job!
The Kalua pig roast looks like a lot of fun to do and the detailed description and photos makes it easier for me to attempt one of these sometime! Congratulations on the Foodbuzz 24 selection too!
Wow, what a feast! Excellent 24,24,24 post!
Wow! You put an incredible amount of work into this – and it looks like it turned out amazing! Great job!
WOW – what a lot of work! Come throw a pa’ina for me too!
This sounds amazing. Great job.
diana, there are so many things that i love about this post. i love the picture of you instructing the guys how to dig the hole, how you talk lovingly of the pig, how you wrap it in banana leaf. do you think that you could break this down into installments for us? it’s a lot to take in at once, and i think everyone would really love hearing about the details. awesome. really.
I love your blog. I will definitely be trying some of your recipes! You will be getting a backward link from me if you want one!!
Great idea for the 24 submission. Love some Hawaiian food! Funny you had this, and we just posted Hawaiian style sweet and sour meatballs today. Please some some chocolate haupia pie!
This is so cool!!! Good job!!
I absolutely love this post.
Oh, man, Diana! What a party! I wish I was there.
Everything looks terrific. I love that imu you, ahem, Eric and his mom, built. What a project!
And, I’m still waiting to taste your chocolate haupia pie…
Fantastic 24! Some of the same dishes as our Ultimate Lu’au back in May, but some dishes that I wish I had done. I am totally in awe that you dug your own ‘imu.