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Community Corner

Bring Aloha To Your Next Barbecue With Kalua Pork

Darin Petersen gives a clear Kalua Pig demonstration highlighting key techniques and traditions.

Pacifica has strong ties to the fair State of Hawaii and not the least of these is the number of Pacificans with Hawaiian heritage.

Roots in the islands are not just fed by blood. Many Pacificans have favorite spots on favorite islands and spend as much time as they possibly can there.  and Aloha spirit of Hawaii as well.

Focusing on how food and favorite recipes relate to who we are at our core and how we share this essential part of ourselves, Seed to Feed brings Darin Petersen and his Polynesian side into the foreground this week.

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Petersen shows us how to make an incredibly easy and deeply satisfying Kalua Pig recipe that he serves with delicately crispy cabbage and steamed rice. Simply elegant, Darin's Kalua Pig brings falling-off-the-bone goodness to your next barbecue.

Growing up in the lower working class neighborhoods of Stockton and Modesto, CA taught him the values of integrity and hard work. Bringing his family first to South San Francisco twenty years ago and then Pacifica three and half years ago, Petersen fulfilled his need to be close to the ocean and the strong Polynesian community of the Bay Area. Possessing the mixed bag of ancestry so many of us have, Darin identifies with his Hawaiian and Creole ancestors through food and celebrations of life. 

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Food and dance are a part of any Polynesian family gathering and the Petersen clan is no different. Darin will get some serious guff if he shows up without his Kalua Pig at an event. Four of his five children have been active in the Daly City based Nemenzo Polynesian Dance Company. Alyssa and Anthony, his daughter and son, have won awards both locally and internationally, with Anthony taking first place in solo competitions in Tahiti. Check out the video to see Anthony's performance from backstage.

Whether your first bite of Kalua Pig came from a fancy hotel luau or from a favorite plate lunch spot like Pono Market on the east shore of Kauai, chances are you can still taste that lingering smoky tenderness. Traditionally cooked in an underground oven called an Imu (Surf Spot will have one of these by the way), Petersen's home version is cooked in the oven and requires no special cuts of meat or exotic ingredients.

"A pig and fire", he said with a smile when I asked what ingredients one would need for cooking the pig in the ground.

For cooking in the oven, however, one will need "a pork butt, sea salt and liquid smoke."

Aside from some insights Petersen imparts in the videos, there are two crucial elements to this preparation.

"Low and slow [is the key to success]," said Petersen. Low means temperatures no higher than 225 degrees and slow means 45 minutes cooking time per pound of pork.

If you are in any kind of a hurry, don't bother making Kalua Pig.

Raised by adoptive parents of European decent and with biological heritage that is Portuguese/Hawaiian on his father's side and Scandinavian/Cajun/Choctaw on his mother's side, Petersen believes that food and music are what connects us with our past and each other.

"I would say, other than language, nothing defines our culture more than food and music," he said. "Next time, maybe I will cook something from my Louisianna background."

Kalua Pig

Ingredients

-5-10 chunk of pork butt or pork shoulder

-liquid smoke - mesquite is closest to kiave, the wood used in an Imu,  but hickory will do

-sea salt

-1 head of cabbage in 1 inch chunks

-steamed rice, white or brown

Procedure

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Generously rub the pork with the liquid smoke and then with salt. Place in a large roasting pan and cover tightly with foil. This seal should be very tight as it is simulating layers of Ti or banana leaves.

Place pan in the oven for 45 minutes per pound, overnight works great. The kitchen will smell delicious. Try not to peek as you will release copious amounts of moisture in the steam that escapes.

Remove from the oven and let cool for about 15 minutes. Open and pull the bones and fat out of the pan. Gently break apart the pork in big chunks and then add the cabbage and stir in a bit. Cover and allow to steam with the residual heat for about twenty minutes.

Serve with the rice of choice. I love a little sriracha hot sauce with mine.

Aloha!

Next week Daphne Lagios and her son Hunter take us to Greece with their Spanikopita.

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