Umu Pae Rapa Nui (Stone Earth Oven, Curanto Pascuense)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Outdoor earth-oven pit, about 3 feet wide and 18 inches deep, or two heavy covered roasting pans
• •12 to 18 dry dense basalt or lava stones, fist-size to melon-size
• •Hardwood fuel, long-handled shovel, and long metal tongs
• •Clean damp burlap or extra banana leaves for sealing
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the stones

   For an outdoor umu pae, dig a clean pit about 3 feet wide and 18 inches deep, then set dry, dense basalt or lava stones inside and burn hardwood over them for 90 minutes to 2 hours, until the stones hold fierce heat and the fire has settled into coals. For a home kitchen, set the oven to 325F and line two heavy covered roasting pans with banana leaves.

   Never use wet stones or river stones. They can crack hard in the fire. Dry volcanic or quarry stones are the ones you want, and even then you handle them with long tools and respect.
2. 2

   Season the food

   Salt the pork and chicken with most of the sea salt, rub with the oil, garlic, and onion, and let them sit while the stones heat. Salt the fish lightly and keep it cold until the oven is ready. Toss the taro, kumara, breadfruit if using, and green bananas with the remaining salt. Eat what you have: if breadfruit is not near you, more kumara or taro does the work.

3. 3

   Wake the leaves

   Rinse the banana leaves and pass them briefly over a flame or hot dry pan until they darken and bend without tearing. Cut away thick ribs where they fight you. The leaf is not decoration here. It protects the food, perfumes it, and gives the oven something living to work through.

4. 4

   Wrap the bundles

   Wrap the pork and chicken in separate banana-leaf packets, broad and tight but not precious. Wrap the fish separately with a few onion slices and a squeeze of lime. Wrap the tubers and green bananas in another packet, or leave the largest pieces loose on a thick bed of leaves if you're working outdoors. Same law as every earth oven: the sturdy food takes the deep heat, the fish rides higher and gentler.

5. 5

   Build the umu

   When the stones are hot, rake away loose coals, lay down a thick bed of banana leaves, and set the pork, chicken, and tubers close to the stones. Set the fish packet above them, buffered by more leaf. Cover with another heavy layer of banana leaves, then clean damp burlap or more leaves, then earth or sand to seal the heat. Seal it once and leave it alone.

   For the home oven, put the pork, chicken, tubers, and green bananas into the leaf-lined pans with 1 to 2 cups water, cover tight, and hold the fish packet in the refrigerator for later.
6. 6

   Cook with patience

   Let the outdoor umu pae cook 2 1/2 to 3 hours without opening. In the home oven, cook the covered pans for 2 hours, then lay the fish packet on top, cover again, and cook 30 to 40 minutes more. The pork should soften into its own fat, the chicken should pull clean from the bone, the tubers should give under a knife, and the fish should flake in big moist pieces.

7. 7

   Open and check

   Open the earth oven carefully, pulling back earth, cloth, and leaves in order. Check the chicken at 165F or hotter at the bone, and let pork shoulder go higher if you want it soft enough to pull, around 190F. If anything is short, no shame. Move that packet to a covered pan in a 325F oven or onto a covered grill until it finishes. No blame the taro, no blame the cook. Finish the food pono.

8. 8

   Serve from leaf

   Lay the banana leaves open on a woven mat or a wide wooden platter and bring the fish, chicken, pork, taro, kumara, breadfruit, and green bananas together for the table. Squeeze lime over the fish, pass a little salt, and give the first good share to the elders and the ones who fed the fire. This is celebration food, but not fussy. The people are the point.

Chef Tips

• •This is Rapa Nui's umu pae, so I cook it open-handed and send you to Rapa Nui elders and cooks for the deep ceremony. A recipe can teach the food. The people of that island teach the meaning.
• •Fresh fish matters even when it is cooked. Buy ika from somebody who can tell you when it came out of the water. If the fish smells tired, leave it out of the umu and cook the meat and tubers instead.
• •The Spanish name curanto pascuense is useful because people know it, but don't let that name cover the Rapa Nui hand underneath. Say umu pae too. Name the island.
• •No yard for a pit? The covered pan version is honest food. Banana leaf, salt, low heat, and patience carry more meaning than pretending you have stones you don't have.
• •Keeper, not gatekeeper. Potatoes, carrots, and other market vegetables show up on Rapa Nui tables now too. Use them if that's what feeds your people, but keep the canoe crops at the center when you can.
• •Leftovers are good work food the next day. Flake the fish over rice, warm the pork with its juices, and fry slices of kumara or taro until the edges go crisp under your teeth.

Advance Preparation

• •Gather stones and hardwood the day before and keep the stones dry. Wet stone is not worth the risk.
• •Thaw frozen banana leaves overnight in the refrigerator, then rinse and wipe them dry before warming them over heat.
• •Salt the pork and chicken the night before if you want deeper seasoning. Keep the fish unsalted until the day of cooking so it stays firm and clean.
• •Scrub and cut the tubers the morning of the feast. Hold peeled taro in cool water, then drain and pat it dry before wrapping.
• •For the home oven method, the pork, chicken, and tubers can cook 2 hours ahead and rest covered. Add and cook the fish close to the table.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 480g)