Traditional Hawaiian Cooking — Lau Lau

Aloha from Hawaii!

…where the flavors are absolutely invigorating!

In Hawaii you can enjoy fresh tropical fruits with breakfast, fresh caught fish for lunch and perfectly grilled pork for dinner. Hawaii is known best for its Luaus, where men twirl fire and women hula in an entrancing rhythm to the Ukulele. While there, enjoy the Mainland lau lau, banana leaves stuffed with fish, chicken and pork, then steamed to perfection. This delicious recipe comes from ricascloset.com.

Aloha!

Ingredients:
• banana leaves (can be found at Asian specialty markets)
• spinach
• 6 chicken thighs, boneless
• 1 lb pork shoulder, cut into chunks
• 1 lb cod, cut into 6 pieces
• sea salt

Makes 6 servings
You will need a stovetop steamer for this dish. These can be found in Asian specialty markets and should run about $25-35 and contain 2-3 tiers. If you don’t have a steamer, check out this trick – Here.

Instructions:

Soak the banana leaves in water for 10 minutes. Cut into roughly 10″ widths. You will be using 4 rectangles per lau lau.

Rub the chicken, pork, and cod with sea salt.

Stack two banana leaves on top of each other forming a T shape. Layer a handful of spinach leaves in the center. Stack a chicken thigh, a chunk of pork, and top with a small slice of the cod. Top with more spinach leaves.

It’s now time to close up the banana leaves. Close up the left and right sides, and then the top and bottom. Flip the whole package over. Now close up the next left the same way. You want the excess leaves of each layer to face opposite directions so it cooks evenly.

Use cooking twine to tie the package closed. I use the stringy ends of banana leaves that I carefully peel off the bottom to tie the packages. You have to be careful when doing this because if done incorrectly, it will tear your banana leaves. When in doubt, use twine.

Place the packages into the steamer. Try not to overcrowd. Steam for up to 3 hours. Serve HOT!