Can hangi...

Put down a feed for a community group for Tues night just gone, had 50-odd on the night with a few more who couldn't attend that got doggy bags.

Bit of work to get all the kai brought and organised and set it all up and started cooking just after 1230 for 6 hours in the can. Wow, decent quality aged meat sealed in tinfoil with a slapping of honey, herbs, salt, soy sauce and oil and cuddling it's own juices - damn it was tender. A very good way to do it, as you aren't panicking at the business end of the night trying to cook everything at the same time. Just pull it all out, someone on the carving up and then buffet-style serving (take what you want).

First time I've done that much tucker in one go - usually just 20-odd people size groups and we had two cans going at the same time to get it all sorted for that sized group. Fortunately all came out perfectly, couldn't have gone better to be fair. Interesting one was a mutton roll, I didn't pull it out with the rest as I figured we would have enough so after the gas was shut off I left it in the can on the heat for another hour and a half. By the time we needed it, and it came out of the foil it just broke up and was melt-in-your-mouth quality.

Highly recommended!

Photos or it didn't happen :pacman:

I've got the chopped and modded alloy beer keg set up. I Always poke a couple of handfulls of soil wrapped in some mutton clothe like a tea bag near the top of the kai to give it that dinkum earthy twang.Available to loan out if anyone local wants to borrow it for a go.Find they are good for breaking down tougher joints into finger lickin good

Haha crack me up - the suggestion was to walk around with a bowl of scratchings out of the flower garden - "Seasoning anyone, seasoning?"

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Originally Posted by No good names left

Photos or it didn't happen :pacman:

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Hmmmm, someone did take pictures... Wait one

This looks like the only photo, still dishing up at this stage if I recall right? I was busy giving myself steam singed fingers trying to unload muslin cloth tubes haha...
Attachment 239946

The two plates closest to the end of the table are stuffings, the one on the left is a gluten free version. I'm going to do that again, it was awesome. First time I've done stuffings that that way in a hangi can (wrapped in tinfoil and shoved in next to the meat packages) and for the amount of work the results were very good. And going back up the table in that photo I think it's pork roll, beef bola brisket and then a mutton roll... Me offsider who was doing the other can did an amazing job with the chickens and veges, and my other man did a bloody good job too. Probably total prep time based on three people would have been about 5 hours or so, we did have more helping with the vege prep the night before so that's a bit of a guesstimate as it took a lot less time that that but with a lot more people on the vege prep.

I know you can do a lot more in the cans than I've done, steamed puddings and the like, cakes etc but it's having the idea seeded to give it a go!

Photo or link for cans please

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Originally Posted by Sharki

Photo or link for cans please

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Ok, the other one was an early version of these: https://multikaicooker.co.nz/

Mine is one that's been home made from a 900mm long chunk of 400mm stainless spiral welded pipe with a plate in one end that the water sits on with a set of rods about 200mm up from the plate. Stainless baskets stack on the rods and once loaded a lid keeps the steam in. Mine has a tube that sticks up out of the water, sealed at the bottom and open at the top and you chuck manuka sawdust in it to add the smokey flavour as it's cooking. I modified it to have a permanently attached gas ring and castors to roll it around with a BBQ spark ignitor to light the gas ring. Works bloody well for what it is. I run off around a 1L of water per hour if the thing is only half full, although it seems to run better and use less water the more it's loaded up.

Well done, I'm not usually a fan of hangis as they can be a bit bland but that looks & sounds great

Yes I tend to agree, the workaround I've found is effectively basting with the cuts sitting in their own juices in a bath made of tinfoil or even a deep disposable baking tray with a tinfoil hat so any juices run into the tray and not out. I slap the things with honey (and I mean slap, I used half a honey container from the supermarket on the five cuts we did in this go). Rub with salt, a good handful of mixed herbs and a goodly splash of soy sauce and cooking oil.

Depending on how I'm feeling and what it is I might use a drench of wine rather than soy sauce as well.

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Originally Posted by No.3

Put down a feed for a community group for Tues night just gone, had 50-odd on the night with a few more who couldn't attend that got doggy bags.

Bit of work to get all the kai brought and organised and set it all up and started cooking just after 1230 for 6 hours in the can. Wow, decent quality aged meat sealed in tinfoil with a slapping of honey, herbs, salt, soy sauce and oil and cuddling it's own juices - damn it was tender. A very good way to do it, as you aren't panicking at the business end of the night trying to cook everything at the same time. Just pull it all out, someone on the carving up and then buffet-style serving (take what you want).

First time I've done that much tucker in one go - usually just 20-odd people size groups and we had two cans going at the same time to get it all sorted for that sized group. Fortunately all came out perfectly, couldn't have gone better to be fair. Interesting one was a mutton roll, I didn't pull it out with the rest as I figured we would have enough so after the gas was shut off I left it in the can on the heat for another hour and a half. By the time we needed it, and it came out of the foil it just broke up and was melt-in-your-mouth quality.

Highly recommended!

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good on ya timing timing timing is everything rough cooking spits etc get it right and yummy

We do a multikai three basket cook a few times each year when feeding a big group, can't go wrong. I like the traditional hangi too but there is a fair bit that can go wrong where there is a fair bit of pressure to get it right.

I like putting whole goat legs in the multikai, saves a bit of work breaking them down.
@No.3 definetly recommend giving the steamed pudding a go with the multikai. The only downside of these is that after all the meat and veg, I am normally too full to do the pudding justice.

Looks awesome!

I will tell you all the worst I have ever seen so none of you are ever tempted to try it - went to a cook up at Warkworth ( wont use the maori H word as thats insulting all who have ever put one down properly - well there was baskets - wet sacks - a hole in the ground but that is about where it stops - instead of stones they had chunks of railway iron ( okay but not traditional ) and heres where it went pear shaped - they heated the railway iron with a diesel drip into a half 44 gallon drum and fired it with a vacuum cleaner on blow to get more heat - the whole thing reeked of diesel -

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Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

I will tell you all the worst I have ever seen so none of you are ever tempted to try it - went to a cook up at Warkworth ( wont use the maori H word as thats insulting all who have ever put one down properly - well there was baskets - wet sacks - a hole in the ground but that is about where it stops - instead of stones they had chunks of railway iron ( okay but not traditional ) and heres where it went pear shaped - they heated the railway iron with a diesel drip into a half 44 gallon drum and fired it with a vacuum cleaner on blow to get more heat - the whole thing reeked of diesel -

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Yeah, gotta be a little careful. Know a fella that had to delice his pigs, had some waste engine oil and went hmmm, bright idea cannon went off and whopped the oil onto the pigs. Worked, but when we sorted them out a few days later you could smell the oil taint. He reckoned it was fine, Holden flavoured pork aw. When are we going to get that 'don't like' button?

I was invited to attend the royal funeral of the (then) King of Tonga's second son, Hon. Ma'atu Fatafehi Alaivahamama'o Tuku'aho, on Feb. 25th 2004. Was really fortunate to be able to be right amongst all the paegentry at the service when the locals had to watch from outside the netting fence.

The umus (Tongan hangi) they used for the nights leading up to and after the funerals were huge. The local villages and Nuku'alofa suburbs built massive umu pits about 20m long, 5m wide and 1.5-ish metres deep; by hand. Just one of the sites had 3 of them going and fed over 7000 people on the funeral night. The umus went for about a week leading up to the funeral and a few days after.

They had massive steel and wire baskets (about a metre square and deep,that fitted the holes. They were chocka full of pork, beef, boar's heads, cannon bones (split), lamb chops, and chicken thighs and turkey tails. Plus veges like sweet potato, taro, taro leaves etc. I flagged the thighs because they were so tightly packed that they were still pink in the middle when they came out... Was pretty astonishing how everything just clicked into place.

The side streets were lined with bamboo cages with pigs that were going to be dinner at some stage. All of the neighbouring villages donated pigs, cattle and veges. The slides of the event are in storage so only have a scanned pic of the funeral procession and not the food sorry... Was an amazing spectacle and a priviledge to be asked to attend....

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The catafalque being carried into the burial ground by the Traditional Royal Undertakers (approx 500 pallbearers). The pallbearers were drawn from the Free Wesleyan Church Theological College. The catafalque is only used for members of the Royal Family. The man standing on the catafalque (His name was Lauaki) is the head of the Traditional Royal Undertakers who traditionally accompanies the body. Sorry if this has sidetracked the discussion

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The Prince’s tomb. Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu. I had to buy a tupenu and borrowed a ta'ovala to attend.