Our Thanksgiving in Hawaii this year was uneventful, small, but nice. Our ward's tradition for Thanskgiving is to do a imu, or underground pit cooking, to slow roast the turkey. When they said they were doing a imu we were so lost and felt pretty lost throughout most of the process but it was a fun thing to participate in and I am glad the chances of them doing it again next year are extremely high.
They usually start the imu on Thanksgiving eve but to prevent all the men from showing up to Thanksgiving exhausted, they did it the weekend before. And in the end it worked out great for us because we were going to celebrated Thanksgiving early anyways.
Friday night some of the men dug a hole in the ground and built a huge bonfire. People dropped off their turkeys and chickens and used the time to socialize and enjoy a meal together. I left before it occurred, but later that evening, they cleared the bonfire and put the turkeys in the pit with hot stones and covered the whole thing to trap the heat in. Some of the men in the ward then stayed all night to watch the pit and early the next morning the meat was ready for us to take home.
They say the meat takes on a smoky flavor but I didn't notice it that much. What was very apparent was how juicy and tender the meat was. No carving needed. It was awesome.
Though lets be honest here, it was not as awesome as having someone else cook your turkey for you, especially when it was your first time cooking a holiday meal. Now that was AWESOME!!! Later that day we just whipped up the sides, heated the turkey, and were good to go. Our two friends came over with their daughter and we ate a nice holiday meal outside on our balcony. Simple but sweet.
The pit and the bonfire.
All the turkeys. (Blogger keeps flipping this picture. Sorry!)
The next morning before the turkeys were removed.
Jack still in his pjs.
Getting the turkeys out. It was a really bright morning.
Even Jack agrees that it was super bright.
The pit smoking when uncovered.
Word of advice: don't try this at home unless you are experienced in this method of cooking. Explosions could result. You have been warned.
No comments:
Post a Comment