Photos

When we were invited to a friends of ours to their wedding, we are previlage to have a taste on their traditional food. "Hangi".

The hangi is a Maori method of cooking food over warmed stones set into the ground. Meat and root vegetables take from two to three hours to cook using this method.


Facts Information from Suzy's world a children education program

Hangi is a special way of cooking food under the ground using red hot rocks and steam.
Volcanic rocks which are light and easy to heat get heated on a pile of burning wood.
When the rocks are hot they need to be carefully rolled or lifted into a pit in the ground and the wire baskets of food quickly put on top.
The baskets get covered with wet sheets and the wet sheets get covered with wet sacks. Then the sacks are covered with dirt.
The water in the wet cloths turns into steam when it gets heated by the heat in the rocks and because the steam can’t escape through the dirt it heats and cooks the food.
It takes about 7 hours to cook a hangi from start to finish but the food is delicious!

Did You Know?

Maori have been cooking hangi for hundreds of years.
The best kind of wood to use in a hangi is wood like Manuka or tea tree because of the way it burns and because of the lovely smoke flavour it gives to the food.
The meat should be in the first basket and you can use meats like chicken, fish, shellfish, pork and lamb.
Vegies like potatoes, kumara, pumpkin, and corn on the cob can all go in the top basket.
You can even cook steam pudding in a hangi too!


You can find more information about Hangi in here or here