Saturday, January 29, 2011

Homemade Hangi.

I LOVE hangi. No one in my family knows how to make a real NZ earth oven, so when ever there is a fundraiser selling hangi I'm there...first in line! When I was a little girl it cost $5 a parcel. These days its more like $7-9. I think it must be one of the only items that hasn't inflated too much comparatively. I only get one about once or twice a year...so when I found a recipe for an at home one I just had to give it ago.

So if you love Hangi as much as me...here's the easiest way to make it, all in your slow cooker.

Ingredients I used..this time.
Cabbage, sliced fairly thick
potatoes, kumara, pumpkin all cut into roughly the same size
Chicken pieces, skin on.

Method:
Lay foil on bench surface, two strips over lapping to make sure there is enough width and length to cover all food in a nice tight package.
Layer cabbage down first, then vegetables, finally chicken on top. Gather foil up from sides and form a nice tight parcel to prevent steam from escaping. If needed get more foil to ensure all food is covered nicely.
Place parcel in warmed slow cooker with 2 cm of water at the bottom. Cook on high for 5-6 hours. Or Low for longer according to your slow cookers requirements.


The layering

Nice tight parcel into slow cooker

All cooked and entire house smelling of hangi...mmmm

Even the young food critics liked it.

It worked a treat for a first attempt.The chicken was falling off the bone, the veges were delish. Missing was the stuffing (My favourite part) and some other type of meat (pork or mutton)...and of course the smokey flavour. So next time I will try and incorporate these.

Give it a go at yours xx

4 comments:

TSMC said...

Hey Jax - great Idea, I'm totally doing this. My suggestion for the smoky flavour (I've seen this done as a solution to making the smoky flavour of Jamaican food haven't actually done it myself!).
Build a little fire with herbs and little twigs in a deep roasting tray. Burn it until it is just smoky embers.
Before you put all the kai in the foil, first place it on a wire rack on top of the roasting pan with the embers, then cover the WHOLE thing (food, pan, wire rack,etc) tightly with foil for 5 - 10 mins so the food soaks up the smokey goodness.
Then just remove the kai and do the slow cooker layer thing as per normal. Let me know how it works out.

jacksta said...

Great idea Sans.

PaisleyJade said...

Mmmm - I love hangi and never thought of doing it in a crock pot!!

manu said...

thats a great idea. We live in the UK and in WInter the ground is always frozen. We want to put a hangi on for our welsh friends but we cant find any of the right kind of rocks, so im going to borrow a few slow cookers and give it a go !