lauLau are savory bundles of pork and fish nestled in taro leaves.
Part of the excitement about LauLau comes from a mistaken
impression that preparing laulau is a complicated process,
and must therefore be saved only for special occasions.
That couldn't be further from the truth!.
While you won't be assembling laulau every night of the week,
they're easy enough that you can make them for more than
just birthdays and graduations.
The preparation of the inside ingredients is dead simple,
and if you can wrap a gift, you can bundle a laulau for steaming.
Ingredients:
About 50 luau leaves
24 to 30 ti leaves
3 lbs. pork shoulder or butt. Don't trim any fat!
1.5 lbs. salted butterfish
2 Tablespoons Hawaiian salt
Directions:
Wash the ti and lu`au leaves.
Prepare your ti leaves, then set them aside.
Remove the center stem and
fibrous veins from each lu`au leaf.
If you have tender, young lu`au,
you may be fine leaving the veins intact.
Optionally, dice and reserve
the lu`au stems to use in the laulau.
Cut the pork into 12 pieces and rub with salt.
Cut the fish into 12 pieces.
Start heating a large steamer with water in the bottom.
At this point, your prep work is done.
Stack four to five luau leaves on a flat surface,
with leaf tips pointing in different directions.
Place a piece of pork in the center of the leaf stack,
and then a slice of fish on top.
If you've decided to use the reserved luau stems,
add a tablespoon of diced stems.
Fold the luau leaf to enclose the bundle,
much like you would enclose a burrito or wrap.
You now need to choose a wrapping method,
package style or Ho`okupu style.
Wrap each laulau bundle in the style of your choosing,
then place them in the steamer, stacking if necessary.
Make sure to leave spaces between the laulau
so that the steam can reach everywhere! Steam for four hours.
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