Make a Winter Luau Party for Kids–It’s Easy!

If you’re facing frigid weather and post-holiday doldrums, why not host an indoor luau party for the family? A vicarious trip to a tropical island may be just the thing to lift everyone’s spirits.

The menu is super-simple. The star of the luau party is a pork butt roasted in the oven to simulate kalua pig. For a real Hawaiian luau, you’d have to dig an imu (cooking pit) in your backyard and cook a whole pig over hot rocks!

For the rest of the meal serve baked sweet potatoes and lomi salmon, a refreshing condiment/salad. And for dessert, there’s haupia (how-PEE-a), a stovetop coconut pudding. You can prep the whole meal in just a few hours.

The recipes featured below are fairly authentic, reflective of my own childhood growing up in Hawaii.

Set the Stage

A few decorative touches make a party. My luau party was a spur-of-the-moment idea for our weekly Friday night family dinner. So I just pulled together what I had on hand: sprays of artificial popcorn orchids that I set on vines cut from our garden, and brown Chilewich placemats to introduce natural, earth tones.

Another option if you’re planning ahead would be to use a length of tropical print fabric as a tablecloth, scattered with real or artificial orchids. If you have tall potted houseplants like fig or rubber trees, group them near your dinner table to create an exotic mood.

Another easy recipe from Hawaii: Mom’s Avocado Sherbet

Crank up the heat (if you can afford to!) and have everyone dress in Hawaiian shirts and muumuus if they have them; bright-colored, warm-weather clothes if they don’t. Pretend it’s summer in the dead of winter.

Play Hawaiian music to set the mood.

Oven Kalua Pig

This oven-roasted version is moist and tender. Leftover kalua pig is delicious stir-fried with sliced cabbage, used in sandwiches, or added to fried rice.

• One 4- to 5-pound pork butt
• 2 ½ to 3 tablespoons Hawaiian salt or other coarse sea salt
• 2 tablespoons liquid smoke
• 3 ti leaves, de-ribbed, optional (see note below)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Lay ti leaves on a large cutting board, overlapping slightly. Place pork butt in the center of the ti leaves. Sprinkle the salt on the pork and rub all over the pork, so the entire pork butt is salted. Sprinkle liquid smoke and rub all over.

Wrap the ends of the ti leaves over the pork butt to encase completely. Secure with toothpicks if needed. Tear off a length of heavy duty aluminum foil about 2 ½ times the size of your ti-leaf-wrapped pork. Place the pork on the foil and wrap securely, folding ends of foil to seal so the package is watertight.

(If you aren’t using ti leaves, simply place the pork butt on the foil, sprinkle with salt and liquid smoke and wrap securely.}

Place foil-wrapped pork in a baking pan. Add water to reach 1 inch up the side of the pan and roast for 1 hour. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and roast 3 ½ hours longer.

Remove pork from the oven and remove foil and ti leaves carefully; beware of hot steam trapped in the package. Discard ti leaves. They are not edible. Using two forks, shred the pork.

Serve with additional Hawaiian salt to sprinkle on the pork.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Note about Ti Leaves

Ti leaves can be found at some florists or online. Wash thoroughly with soap before using. Turn the leaf on its back, so the center rib is faced up. With a sharp paring knife, slice along the rib to remove it, being careful not to cut through the leaf. This makes the leaf more supple and easier to wrap.

You can also use banana leaves found in some Asian or Mexican supermarkets, or skip the leaves and just wrap the pork in foil.

Haupia (Coconut Pudding)

This is a bland, mildly sweet dessert. The texture is very soft so it’s hard to cut into squares; you may want to spoon it into small bowls. Each serving is just a few bites–to give you a touch of sweetness to end your meal.

• 6 tablespoons cornstarch
• ½ cup water
• 1 can (14 ounces) coconut milk
• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons sugar

In a medium bowl, combine cornstarch and water and stir with a fork to dissolve cornstarch.

In a medium saucepan combine coconut milk, milk, and sugar. Bring to boiling over medium-high heat, whisking constantly. Slowly add the cornstarch mixture, whisking continuously; turn heat to medium-low. Keeping the mixture at a low simmer, whisk until the mixture thickens and becomes translucent.

Pour into an 8- X 8-inch baking dish. Chill until firm, about 4 hours or overnight. Using a thin, sharp knife, cut into 16 squares. Or scoop into small bowls.

Makes 16 small servings.

Haupia is integral to an authentic luau, but as an alternative dessert–one that might be more satisfying for bigger eaters and those who prefer richer flavors–you could buy coconut ice cream or a tropical fruit sorbet, such as mango or passion fruit.

Lomi Salmon

Lomi salmon is kind of condiment/salad to accompany the kalua pig and poi. The dish is made with salted fresh salmon (sold in supermarkets in Hawaii), tomatoes, onion, and green onions.

While it’s completely inauthentic, I use smoked salmon instead of salted salmon, since salted salmon is not available, readymade, on the Mainland. Shred the smoked salmon by hand and add chopped tomatoes, chopped onion, and sliced green onions. Season with a little salt.

You can skip the salmon entirely and just make a mixture of tomatoes with the onions. The combination of fresh tomatoes with the bite of onions adds a welcome zest to the richness of the kalua pig.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes have a long history in Hawaii. For the purpose of our luau, take any variety, prick with a fork in a few places, and bake whole in the oven with the skins on, in the last hour that the kalua pig is roasting. I just put them on the oven rack to bake, pricked side up, next to the kalua pig. Cut potatoes into large chunks to serve.

Poi for your Luau Party

Poi is an acquired taste. You can order poi from Lelani’s Attic and other online sources. Unless you know you like poi, just order a small amount so everyone can sample some. Or skip the poi entirely.

Poi was considered a sacred aspect of Hawaiian life. So, if the grandkids say, “this is yucky,” and make a face, remind them that it’s okay not to like every food. Most people who experience poi for the first time are not fond of it. But it’s not okay to disrespect another culture by denigrating its revered food.

Umbrella Drinks

I made these drinks on the fly by putting canned pineapple juice and chunks of fresh, hulled strawberries into a blender. It needed some sugar because the berries weren’t naturally sweet. I added ice cubes (make sure your blender is powerful enough to grind them) and blended everything together to create a slushy tropical drink.

To make your own tropical drinks, mix and match juices, such as guava, pineapple, or passion fruit juice, with more conventional flavors like orange or cranberry, tasting your concoction until you’re happy with the flavor and color. For adults, you can add a splash of rum.

To garnish your drink, slit a fresh pineapple wedge and hook it onto the rim of the glass. Skewer a whole strawberry on a toothpick and affix it into the pineapple. Poke a paper umbrella into the strawberry. Add a colorful straw.

If you’d like cut a fresh pineapple so there’s no waste, just as I learned from my mom in Hawaii, here’s a tutorial I did some years ago.

How to Enhance the Luau Experience for Kids

Next week, I’ll show how you can turn your family luau party into an educational opportunity, including a fun craft project even younger kids can do.

Turn your Luau into a Staycation Event

You can also have your luau in the summer in the backyard. Turn it into a staycation event. And check out more ideas for staycations from my later post.

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