A Roast Pig and A Bottle of Rum

May 14, 2007 4:58 PM

What are your favorite luau or tiki lounge related recipes?

In a few weeks, I'm hosting a pig roast at my place and I want to have a tiki lounge theme for the decor and the rest of the food. I've got the decor covered pretty well thanks to a major sale at a closing fabric store. I've got the pig taken care of as well. Now, I'm looking for lots and lots of recipes. Some of them will be used that night. The majority will go into a custom recipe book I'm making for the guest of honor. So, point me to your favorite luau or tiki lounge related recipes that I can include in my party. Recipes for appetizers, vegetables, meats, desserts and, especially, fruity rum drinks are all welcome.

Don't limit yourselves to just rum. Don't limit yourselves to one bottle. We won't.

posted by onhazier to food & drink (9 comments total)

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions and tips.
posted by onhazier at 5:01 PM on May 14, 2007

For a dessert, I love Haupia which I can best describe as almost a coconut jello and is served at many luaus. Also, there is a whole section of recipes on AlohaWorld dedicated to luaus. I'd suggest a lomi lomi salmon or poke, and if you're feeling really ambitious some laulau. Hope that helps.
posted by harrumph at 5:16 PM on May 14, 2007

2nd haupia; if you really want to make it feel like a commercial luau, have a huge bowl of hilariously weak mai tais...and a lot of poi that nobody will eat.
posted by crinklebat at 5:27 PM on May 14, 2007

There is a great podcast where they feature different tiki themed drinks.
posted by rancidchickn at 5:36 PM on May 14, 2007

One thing I remember enjoying in Maui was Lomi Lomi salmon. I've seen a few different recipes for it, but it's pretty easy. It's just salt-cured salmon chopped with tomatoes and onions. It reminded me of Mexican "pico de gallo" salsa. (Here's a more complicated version.)

Also, this was sorta surprising to me, but two things that are very common and popular in Hawaii are macaroni salad and...Spam.

Finally, as far as I'm concerned, the only way to make a Mai Tai is the original Trader Vic's recipe - or as close as you can get at home, which would probably be getting some Trader Vic's Mai Tai mix from a local store.
posted by dnash at 6:32 PM on May 14, 2007

I would definitely endorse the lomi lomi salmon and haupia, since both can be made from ingredients you can easily acquire. Outside of Hawaii it's a bit harder to find ingredients like kalo (taro) leaves for laulau or squid luau, or find just-caught ahi (yellowfin) for good poke. dnash's first link takes you to other recipes for luau-type foods - from there, I'd recommend attempting chicken long rice - that stuff's a winner. My own suggestion for an appetizer, if you can get fresh pineapple, would be to cut the sucker up and mix the pieces with some fresh chopped mint leaves. Too simple.

Here's my favorite kalua pig recipe for your book:

Kalua Pig (Authentic):
- 2500lbs Pork (whole pigs w/ organs removed, or recommend using only pork butt [the shoulder])
- 10 gallons 'alaea salt (salt made from evaporated seawater, mixed with red clay); or rock salt

Misc. Items:
- 1 hole in the ground (approx. 10 feet in diameter, 2 feet deep at the center)
- Lava rocks (As many and as large as you can acquire. The rocks should eventually cover the bottom of the hole)
- 4-5 banana trees (at least 10' high trunks). Chop the trunks into 1-2 foot logs, cut in half lengthwise, and separate the layers (it's like an onion). Also, keep the fronds.
- Lots and lots of keawe wood (mesquite) logs, suitable for a large bonfire.
- 30-40 Burlap sacks
- 1 Plastic sheet - 20' x 20'
- Extra dirt or sand, lots of.

Make deep cuts in the pig (or pieces thereof) and rub in handfuls of salt. If you are using pieces 'o pig, place them in sturdy metal trays. Set aside. Now go to your hole. Build a large pyre in the hole with the keawe (mesquite), and throw on the lava rocks throughout, such that they will be in direct contact with the flames. Light the fire and dance around it jubilantly once it has achieved inferno proportions. Administer beer to everyone involved and keep the fire going hot until the rocks begin to glow red, the white: around 4-6 hours. Watch out as the wood collapses under the weight of the stones - you should have a very long metal hoe or pitchfork to move things around and spread the rocks out evenly on the bottom as the pyre begins to diminish in height. Once you have a good mix of glowing hot rocks and charcoal on the bottom, spread the flattened-out banana tree trunk pieces over the flaming coals - around 2-3 layers thick. Place the pig (or trays thereof) on top of the banana trunks; you may have to stack them. If you are using whole pigs, throw some of the hot rocks in the stomach cavity. Cover the pork stack with the banana tree fronds - you shouldn't be able to see any of the pig from above. Soak the burlap sacks in water and then cover the banana fronds - 2-3 layers of burlap should be plenty. Cover this last burlap layer with the plastic sheeting, then bury the whole thing with the extra sand or dirt. If you use dirt, do not pack the dirt too tight. Hose down your new pig oven to create a "crust." You should see the plastic sheeting form a bubble like Space Lab - this is normal. The imu will need to breath just enough (through the sand or dirt underneath) to avoid exploding, but not so much that the bubble deflates. The smoky steam inside is all important - make sure you don't see any spouts of steam emitting anywhere. If you do, stamp it down. Continue to drink beer and let cook for 8-10 hours.

When removing from the imu, take care not to let any sand or dirt fall into the food. Shred the pork and remove any bones. Serve.

Prep time: 12 hours - 12 days, depending on availability of rocks, wood, and big holes.
Cook time: 8-10 hours.
Serves: 1 village, or approx. 5000 people.

Or you can just do this.
posted by krippledkonscious at 8:16 PM on May 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Here are some vegetarian dishes. This is a thread where you can get a PDF of a 1958 article with a couple of recipes from the Hawaiian Room, the Luau 400 and the original Trader Vic himself. In fact, that whole forum should be useful to you.
posted by tellurian at 7:01 PM on May 15, 2007

Did you know for instance that you can drink 50 year old Bacardi?
posted by tellurian at 7:05 PM on May 15, 2007

NOOOOOO not Trader Vic's Mai Tai mix. Don't do it, man.

A real mai tai has as many kinds of rum as you can find and zero pineapple juice. The recipe is essentially, rum+rum+rum, a dash of orgeat (almond) syrup, a splash of triple sec, a splash of grand curacao, and as much lime as you can handle, in a glass with crushed ice.

You can do kalua pork by just wrapping pork shoulder in banana leaves and slow cooking it in the oven.

I was never a big fan of lomi lomi. Poke is excellent if you like raw fish, any type of sushi-grade tuna will do, though ahi is obviously the most authentic. Poke dressing consists of lots of green onions (and/or maui onions if you can get them), soy sauce, oyster sauce (for real, its the secret ingredient), a little sesame oil (the toasted kind), ground toasted sesame seeds, and a very little amount of garlic and ginger. If you want to fancy it up a little, serve on garlic toasts.

Seconding haupia pie, which is stupid easy to make and surprisingly good.
posted by mek at 2:44 AM on May 20, 2007