Crock Pot Laulau

One of my favorite things to eat from back home is laulau. It is pork wrapped in luau (taro) leaves and which is then traditionally wrapped in ti leaves and steamed till cooked. I could buy some frozen laulau at the Asian store here but it is expensive for such a small serving and the meat is so dry.

I've always wanted to attempt to make my own but I always worried about properly cleaning the fresh luau leaves correctly. If you don't clean the clean the leaves correctly by removing the stem and fibrous part of the leaves, you'll experience an itchy throat when eating the cooked leaves. 

Well I took the chance recently after much convincing from my hubby to just try it and watching a few YouTube videos   The one idea that seemed the easiest to do without me monitoring it while steaming to cook was the crock pot method. 

I pretty much followed this YouTube video with a few minor changes of my own. 

After this was done cooking with the wonderful smell permeating in the air, this came out a WINNAH!  It turned out a lot better than I thought.  Got the seal of approval from the hubby and my brother in law who was over for dinner too.  If only I had a bigger crock put to make more since I was only able to fit about 9 small ones in there.  So with that said here's what I did along with a few changes of my own but I pretty much followed the video.


CROCK POT LAULAU:

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Luau Leaves (Taro Leaves) with the fibrous parts taken out
2 lbs. Pork Butt or Shoulder cut into big chunks
1/2 lbs. Cod (Butterfish)
Hawaiian salt
Shoyu
1/4 c. water
Banana Leaves (Cleaned)

Directions:

1. Thoroughly clean the luau leaves and take out the fibrous parts.

2. Line your crock pot with the cleaned banana leaves with the shiny side facing up.

3. Cut up the pork into big chunks. Mix about a 1/2 tbsp. Hawaiian salt and 1/4 c. shoyu.

4. Grab two leaves into your palm and lay a few pieces of pork and butterfish. Wrap up meat with leaves (view video for better idea).  Repeat with ingredients to fit as much as your crock pot allows (I wasn't able to use all of the pork and fish, so I made a very small batch of kalua pig and just threw the extra fish into the crockpot). Add 1/4 c. water over the laulau

5. Line another layer of banana leaves over the laulau and cover with a sheet of aluminum foil. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.  The video says you could also cook it on HIGH for 4 hours but according to some of the reviews some people complained the leaves weren't cooked well and their throats itched a little.

6. All the deliciousness right here! My house smelled SO good and couldn't wait to eat this up.

ENJOY!!

Portuguese Bean Soup

Portuguese Bean Soup isn't something I make too often. One of the key ingredients for this soup calls for some Portuguese sausage which can be found here in Oregon but is very expensive.

We have a stash of frozen Portuguese sausage in our freezer that we brought home from Hawaii on one of last trips and some from when our in laws visited. Although we have a stash we only bring it out to eat on occasion since we try to make that stash last until the next trip home.

I was craving for some Portuguese Bean Soup and what perfect time to have it since it started getting cold and rainy again. I don't follow an actual recipe since this is something I believe my mom taught me when I was a teenager. So this "recipe" below is basically what I normally use and how I make it. There are other recipes that call for macaroni and/or cabbage, but I never put any of that in my soup. 

For those that don't have access to local Hawaii Portuguese sausage you could possibly use smoked sausage or I've seen Mexican linguica in the grocery store as a substitute. Also, to those new to following me I tend to overcook a lot since I grew up learning to cook for a big family. I never make a small batch and it's always in a big stockpot. So you might have to adjust the recipe a bit unless you want to being this as leftovers for a few days ;p. 

PORTUGUESE BEAN SOUP

Ingredients: 

4-6 smoked ham hocks (I used smoked pork shanks this last time since it was actually cheaper and has a lot more meat)

1 stick Portuguese sausage, diced 

2 pkgs. diced ham

2-3 large potatoes cut into small cubes

2-3 large carrots peeled and sliced 

3-4 celery stalks sliced 

1 medium onion diced

4 small cans tomato sauce 

1-2 cans red kidney beans, undrained

Salt & pepper to taste 

Directions:

Boil ham hocks in a stock pot with enough water to cover it. Keep boiling hock meat and adding water until you're able to pierce a fork through the meaty part with ease. Let cool. 

*DO NOT DRAIN OR GET RID OF THE WATER USED FOR BOILING, THAT IS WHERE MAJORITY OF THE SOUP FLAVOR IS. IT'S YOUR SOUP STOCK!*

Remove meat from hock bone and chop up into smaller pieces. Heat up soup stock, add hock meat & bones and remaining ingredients. Boil over medium heat till veggies are cooked through. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Hope you like this as much as my family and I do. Enjoy!

xoxo,

Adriana