Cooking in an Earth Oven‘Putting down a Hangi’

Cooking Pits and HangiThe Menu, the Quantities and Essentials for Hangi

Cooking

Earth Pit/Hangi Timelines

• The ingredients will need to have been prepared before hand

• You will need an open piece of ground that you can dig the pit in

• You will need at least 2-3 people to dig the pit and manage the earth oven

The Menu

• Meat – pork, beef, lamb, chicken• Vegetables – potato, kumara (sweet potato),

pumpkin and cabbage• Stuffing

Typical menu has 2 or 3 meats, potato, kumara, pumpkin and cabbage with stuffing –

Earth Pit Cooking - Hangi

• Everything is prepared before hand– vegetables are peeled and seasoned– meat is seasoned

Depending on the numbers – the preparation of the food is carried out the night before

The Earth Pit

• Numbers that you are cooking for determines the size of the earth pit you dig

• should be at lease 1m (wide) x 2m (long) x ½ m (deep) … it needs to be deep enough to contain the hot stones/irons and wire baskets

The Earth Pit

• You will need hangi stones and/or irons– A fire is lit beside the pit to heat the stones/irons

up till they are white hot– this can take up 2 hoursthe irons can be any solid heavy metal iron that can hold heatthe stones are large heavy rocks

Meat – the Quantities

• You can get your local butcher to do most of the meat preparation for you– 1 x chicken piece per person (2 if they are smallish)– 1 x Lamb chop per person– 1 x Pork piece per personAlternatively you can get your local butcher to provide bolar beef roasts and pork roasts per person but this means that the meat will have to be carved once cooked

Vegetables

• 1 x 10 kilo bag of potatoes /50 people (1 medium potato per person

• 1 x large kumara/4 people OR….1 medium kumara/2 people

• 1 x Large Crown Pumpkin /10 people• 1 x Large Cabbage/6-7 people

Calculate the portions when you are purchasing the vegetables …. You will need extra cabbages to line the hangi baskets with

Vegetable Preparation

• Potatoes and Kumara are peeled and sliced into portions

• Pumpkin is sliced into portions (not peeled)• Cabbage is quartered with the heart cut out• Season all the vegetables with salt, pepper,

herbs

Don’t make the portions too small – they have to cook for 3 hours and they will turn to mash

Stuffing Preparation

• 5 x loaves of bread/40 people• 1 kilo margarine• 4 x carrots (medium)• 4 x white onions (large)• 250 gms herbs (mixed herbs/oregano/basil)• SeasoningUsing a food processor – crumb the loaves of bread, grate the carrots and ‘pulse’ the onions till they are chopped (but not finely)…Melt the margarine in a microwave till running… mix all the ingredients together…till well mixed

Final Preparation of the Vegetables

• Once the vegetables are peeled, seasoned and ready to cook…. they need to be placed into wet ‘mutton’ muslin cloth or cheese cloth for cooking

• This is not vital – but makes the packing of the baskets and serving later easier

• One end is knotted – the food loaded into the cloths and the ‘sack’ is knotted closed

Even the stuffing is placed in the mutton/muslin cloth for cooking

Packing the Wire Baskets

• You will need approx. 1 x cabbage (outer leaves) for each hangi basket – but this depends on the size of each basket

• wet the cabbages till they are soaked and pull the leaves off the whole cabbage and line the inside of each basket with a good layer of cabbage leaves…this helps to steam the food to give it that lovely smokey flavour

Packing the Baskets

• Put the Meat in First– Place the meat at the bottom of the baskets - in a

layer

• Usual custom is to place the beef and pork in one basket – chicken in another

Place the Vegetables in Next

• Place the vegetable ‘sacks’ either on top of the meat or beside it

• Heavy vegetables like potatoes, kumara and pumpkin go in next

• be mindful of not making the thickness of the food in the basket too thick or you risk the meat not cooking properly underneath

Finally Place in the Stuffing & Cabbage

• Place the lighter stuffing and cabbage in last – at the top of the baskets

these don’t need as much heat as the meat and vegetables to cook

Cooking foil can be placed over the top of the basket – but it is not vital

Earth Pit Preparation

• Once the stones/irons are white hot you can ‘put down’ the hangi

• the stones/irons are very carefully removed from the fire and placed into the pit

• the white hot stones/irons line the bottom of the pit – it is good to have a good thick layer .. then toss water onto the stones/irons so that they are ‘steaming’

The Stones/irons are extremely hot so extreme care should be taken at this stage when handling..It is usual to have barrels of water close by at this stage

Putting ‘Down the hangi’

• Place the hangi baskets (that have all the prepared food in them) directly onto the hot stones/irons

• A layer of wet soaked hessian sacks are placed quickly over all the baskets and tucked around them (but not onto the hot stones/irons if at all possible)

Putting ‘Down the hangi’

• Heavy Tarp cloth is placed over the top of the wet hessian sacks and onto the surround ground

• The whole lot is ‘sealed’ into the earth by a good thick layer of soil

• The hangi is left to cook for at least 3-4 hours

Variations on ‘Putting Down a Hangi’

• You can wrap the meat into oiled cooking foil – and use foil to line the hangi baskets

• You can use additional herbs in the meats and vegetables to give an alternative flavour

• You can also put seafood into the hangi – but this does not take as long to cook and should not be cooked with meat

Lift the Hangi to Serve after at least 3 hours

ENJOY