Mainland Pork & Butterfish Laulau
(lau-lau)
Sunday Ohana Suppers
A good laulau is a beautiful, elemental thing: fat, salt, earth, and smoke, buried in the ground until it surrenders. But digging a fire pit in your Midwestern backyard on a Tuesday is madness. This is the ultimate diaspora hack. We trade toxic-when-raw taro leaves for sturdy Southern collards, wrap them in foil, and pressure-cook them with fatty pork and salted fish. The result is a savory, gelatinous, impossibly tender package that tastes exactly like a Honolulu Sunday supper, engineered for the brutal reality of an American weeknight.
Before you start
Generously rub the fish chunks with half the sea salt and refrigerate for at least one hour.
This quick cure firms the flesh and provides the essential umami backbone of the dish.
Massage the remaining sea salt and the liquid smoke into the pork chunks.
Since we aren't using an underground kiawe wood fire, the liquid smoke is the secret weapon to replicate the homeland's exact olfactory profile.
Ingredients
- pork butt1 1/2 lb
- black cod or king salmon fillet1/2 lb
- collard green leaves24 large
- coarse sea salt1 1/2 tbsp
- liquid smoke1/2 tsp
- purple sweet potato1 med
- water1 1/2 cup
Method
- 01
Dunk the collard leaves in boiling water for one to two minutes until just pliable, then immediately shock them in cold water and pat dry.
Collard greens are the premier mainland substitute for taro leaves, and blanching them makes them much easier to fold without snapping their spines.
- 02
Layer four to five collard leaves on a twelve-inch square of heavy-duty aluminum foil in an overlapping star pattern.
Place the largest, sturdiest leaves on the bottom and smaller ones on top to build a solid foundation.
- 03
Place three to four chunks of seasoned pork, one chunk of salted fish, and a few cubes of sweet potato in the dead center of the greens.
- 04
Fold the collard greens tightly over the meat to create a sealed, round package.
Ensure no meat is exposed, then bring the edges of the foil up and around the bundle, crimping it tightly at the top to lock in the steam. Repeat to make six individual bundles.
- 05
Stack the foil bundles on a wire rack inside an electric pressure cooker with one and a half cups of water.
Seal the lid and cook on high pressure for 55 minutes, followed by a 15-minute natural release. This flawlessly mimics the intense heat and pressure of the traditional underground imu in a fraction of the time.
- 06
Carefully unwrap the scorching hot foil and slide the steaming, dark green bundle into a shallow bowl.
The pork should shatter with a fork, its rendered fat melting perfectly into the tender greens. Serve immediately with a mandatory scoop of sticky white rice and a splash of chili pepper water.
Notes
A note on the butterfish.
In Hawaii, 'butterfish' refers to salted black cod (sablefish), not the miso-marinated stuff. If you can't find black cod, grab the fattiest king salmon or thickest white fish you can get your hands on.
Don't have an electric pressure cooker?
Place the foil bundles in a deep roasting pan or Dutch oven. Add one inch of water to the bottom, cover the entire pan tightly with a lid or foil, and bake at 350°F for three and a half to four hours.
From Cook Hawaiian in America.