A Hawaiian Thanksgiving

Our turkey roast and pork shoulder butt were cooked in a Hawaiian imu (pronounced ee-moo). Kailua High School hosts an athletic booster club fundraiser. They invite the public to purchase a $15 ticket to cook meat in the imu. They only sell 350 tickets, and we got one!

An imu is an outdoor underground traditional Hawaiian oven. This is how pigs, fish, and other meat are cooked for luaus. The meats are cooked under heated rocks. Steam is created by the vegetation placed in the imu, from ti leaves, coconut palms, and banana leaves.

The high school asked that we bring our meats in an aluminum tin, not to exceed 25 pounds. We prepared a turkey roast and a pork shoulder butt. Pork shoulder butt is traditional Hawaiian luau food. Hubs plucked ti leaves from a ti tree in our yard.

I called my neighbor and asked if she had any sea salt. She generously shared something so much better. For many years her husband's family has collected sea salt from rocks along the beaches. Think unprocessed, completely organic, straight from the sea. The salt was fine and crumbly, not dry and grainy. We placed the pork shoulder butt in foil, and rubbed it with salt and patted it with butter.
Next we wrapped the pork in ti leaves and closed it in foil.

I hacked some small apple banana leaves from a young banana tree in our yard.


We salted, buttered, and wrapped the turkey roast in banana leaves. We could have wrapped a whole turkey. Instead we prepared two types of meats.
We added four large sweet potatoes in our aluminum tray and we wrapped the whole package in foil for drop off.

Since Kailua is on the other side of the island, on the Windward side, Hubs, Son1, and Uncle T delivered the tray after their fishing adventure. They rented a Boston whaler, bought squid for bait, and grabbed some fishing poles. They only caught some love and family time.
They hurried from the Kaneohe Bay marina to drop off our tray. The drop off time was only 90 minutes long. They waited in a line, and high school students walked up to the car, took our tray, metal tagged it, and handed the Farmer men a claim number. Hubs, being the big fan of The Farmer Files that he is, asked the student to take some pictures of the imu for the rest of us. This is the bottom layer of the imu. The meats are placed on top, and then covered for steaming.
The next morning, Hubs cooked Thanksgiving pancakes before heading out to pick up the Thanksgiving meal. Pilgrim Farmer joined us.

Hubs, Uncle T, and the boys drove to the Windward side to collect our tray after breakfast. They drove all the way home, dropped off the tray, and trekked to the airport to pick up Grandma T. Finally, we unwrapped our meats and potatoes, and served Thanksgiving dinner. I unwrapped the meats, and they literally fell limp, juicy, salted, and mouthwatering to the tray.
These are the wrapped meats just before dinner.
While I was finishing the side dishes, Walking Bear and Grandma T started growling at one another. Better at one another than the cook. Well, we plumb stuffed ourselves til we couldn't breathe. If we ever move back to Hawaii we are cooking our dinner in the imu again. This was the first time we bought an imu ticket.

We took a family walk and enjoyed the Hawaiin trade winds before dessert. This was the first time Hubby's immediate family was together for a holiday in six years. We missed Aunt M but the boys couldn't get enough of Uncle T. We are thankful this year to be together for Thanksgiving.