Umukai (Cook Islands Earth-Oven Feast)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Outdoor earth oven pit, about 3 feet wide and 18 inches deep, built only where local rules allow
• •10 to 14 clean, dry volcanic stones or fire bricks
• •Dry hardwood firewood for heating the stones
• •Long-handled shovel and heavy heatproof gloves
• •Clean burlap, heavy cotton cloth or extra banana leaves for sealing the pit
• •Two heavy full-size roasting pans or 7-quart Dutch ovens for the kitchen path
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Choose the oven

   Set your place first. For an outdoor umukai, choose legal, safe ground with bare earth, good drainage, no overhanging branches and room for the fire to burn down for about two hours. If you are cooking indoors, still keep the leaf, coconut, salt and time. Eat what you have, but understand what you are standing in for.

   For the ceremonial order of a Cook Islands umukai, sit with Cook Islands elders, aunties, uncles or an ariki family who carries that knowledge. The mechanics can be taught here. The deep protocol belongs to them.
2. 2

   Heat the stones

   Build a hardwood fire over clean, dry volcanic stones or fire bricks and let it burn 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the stones are hot all the way through and the fire has settled into a strong bed of coals. Do not use wet river stones. Trapped water can split them, and nobody needs that trouble near food or family.

3. 3

   Season the meat

   Rub the pork shoulder and chicken thighs with the sea salt, pepper, garlic, sliced onion and oil if using. Let the meat sit while the stones heat, long enough for the salt to start drawing in. Lay each meat bundle on banana or ti leaves, fold the leaves close, then wrap in foil if you are using the modern way. The leaf is doing work here: holding moisture, giving its green smell and keeping the meat from taking the fire too hard.

4. 4

   Build the rukau

   Stack the young taro leaves four or five deep in your palm, with the larger leaves outside, then spoon in the diced onion, a pinch of salt and a generous pour of coconut cream. Fold the leaves over themselves into tight parcels and wrap them in banana leaf, then foil if needed. Rukau, the Cook Islands taro-leaf and coconut-cream dish, must cook until the leaf goes dark, silky and fully soft. Raw or undercooked taro leaf can bite the throat, so don't serve it short.

5. 5

   Wrap the crops

   Wrap the scrubbed taro, kūmara and breadfruit pieces in banana leaves, keeping each kind together so you can read them when the oven opens. Taro wants to be tender to the center with no chalky core. Breadfruit should split creamy and sweet. These are canoe crops, not filler on the side. Cook them like kin.

6. 6

   Layer the umukai

   Rake away active flame, leaving the hot stones and coals in the pit. Line the oven with banana trunks or a thick bed of leaves if you have them, then set the taro, kūmara and breadfruit closest to the heat. Place the pork next, the chicken above or beside it, and the rukau parcels higher where the heat is gentler. Cover with more leaves, then a damp clean cloth or burlap, then 3 to 4 inches of earth. Seal every crack. A thin leak steals the oven's patience.

7. 7

   Wait, no peek

   Let the outdoor umukai cook 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours, depending on the size of the pit, the stones and the meat. Don't keep opening it. The sealed earth is the pot now. When you uncover it, the chicken should be at least 165F, and the pork should pull with little fight. If anything is underdone, move it straight into a covered pan in a 300F oven until it finishes. No shame. Feeding people safely comes first.

8. 8

   Use the kitchen path

   If you are cooking indoors instead of steps 6 and 7, line two heavy roasting pans or Dutch ovens with banana leaves. Put the pork in one pan with 1 cup water, cover tight and cook at 300F for 4 1/2 to 5 hours, until it pulls glossy and soft. Put the chicken, taro, kūmara and breadfruit in the second pan with the remaining water for the last 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Bake the rukau parcels covered at 350F for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the leaves are dark and silky and the coconut cream has cooked into them.

9. 9

   Open the feast

   Lift away the earth, cloth and leaves carefully, then open the bundles. The pork should pull in wet, glistening strands, the chicken should be tender at the bone, the taro and kūmara should take a knife with no resistance, and the breadfruit should look dense and creamy where it splits. The rukau should be deep green-black with a coconut-cream shimmer. That is the oven telling you it did its work.

10. 10

    Share the table

    Pull the pork into big pieces and fold some of its salty juices back through. Cut the chicken, split the roots and breadfruit, and open the rukau so the cream shows. Lay everything family-style on banana leaves or in wooden kumete, Cook Islands carved bowls. Feed elders and guests first, then let everybody come in. Deep food is not precious. It is communal. Always enough for one more.

Chef Tips

• •Sourcing first, always. Get pork with a good fat cap, chicken with the bone in, taro that feels heavy for its size and breadfruit that is firm unless you mean to cook it sweet-ripe. Food grown close to the ground it feeds from already has a head start.
• •Fresh coconut cream is worth the work for the rukau. Grate mature coconut, squeeze it through cloth with a little warm water, then use the thick first cream. A good canned coconut cream will do when that's what you have, no need make it precious, but fresh carries a different soul.
• •Taro and taro leaves must be fully cooked. If the taro corm is chalky in the middle, give it more time. If the leaf has any raw green bite left, cook it longer. No blame the taro. It's not the taro's fault.
• •Modern wrapping with foil is common now because people are feeding big families with the tools on hand. Keeper, not gatekeeper. Banana leaf gives the smell and the memory; foil helps hold the seal when you don't have the old setup.
• •Don't turn the whole spread into a museum plate. In the Cook Islands today, deep foods can sit beside rice, corned beef rukau, a grill tray, store-bought bread or whatever the family brought. The old food and the everyday food can share the mat.

Advance Preparation

• •The day before, confirm the outdoor cooking site, gather dry stones or fire bricks, firewood, leaves and sealing cloth. An umukai fails fastest when the setup is treated like an afterthought.
• •Salt the pork shoulder the night before and refrigerate it covered. The chicken can be seasoned the morning of so it stays clean and bright.
• •Thaw frozen banana leaves and taro leaves overnight in the refrigerator, then wipe them clean before wrapping.
• •Squeeze fresh coconut cream the morning of the cook. It separates and can sour if it sits too long.
• •The rukau parcels can be folded a few hours ahead and held cold, but cook them the same day so the leaf and cream stay lively.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 630g)