Oven Kalua Pua'a

As promised, tonight we prepared an at-home oven-baked version of the kalua pua'a traditionally cooked in an imu (underground roasting pit) and served at lu'aus. I found the recipe in our souvenir cookbook. Interestingly, the author states that Hawaiian women were not permitted to eat pork until 1819. During a lu'au that year, King Liholiho left the men's feast and went to eat with the women instead.

We used a bone-in pork roast to give it some extra flavor, and it "pulled" beautifully after slow roasting for hours in the oven. I removed most of the fat cap from the meat before roasting to make it a little bit healthier. We also used smoked salt to help impart an authentic pit-cooked taste.

The result? Fantastic! We had guests over for dinner, and they were willing taste-testers. Much to our delight, we got a unanimous thumbs up from everyone! We grilled up some pineapple (Hawaii's official fruit) to serve along side, which we basted with honey and lime juice for a little pizazz. Throw in some grilled asparagus, a big tossed salad and fixin's for the pulled pork, and that's a meal!

Here's how I made it:

3 lb pork roast, fat cap removed
1 Tbsp smoked rock salt
3 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp Liquid Smoke
2 cloves garlic, crushed and pulled apart
4" piece fresh ginger, grated

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, rub it all over the pork and let it sit for an hour. Then wrap the pork in foil, place it in a roasting pan (in case it drips) and bake it for 3-4 hours in a preheated 325° oven. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before shredding the meat -- we used two forks and it separated easily. Save the juices in the foil in case you want to add some to the pork once it's shredded. We served it on toasted buns with grilled red onion rings and bread-n-butter pickles.