Umu Pork Belly

The umu is Samoa's oven and it sits above ground, not in a pit — that's the first thing people get wrong. Dry wood burns down under a mound of basalt stones until the rocks glow, the spent wood is raked away, the food goes onto the hot stone wrapped in banana leaf, and the whole mound is covered until it's done. It's the engine behind to'ona'i, the Sunday meal after church, and building it is a job that starts before dawn.

This is a smoker adaptation and it should be called that — no stones, no leaf buried in ash. What carries over is the logic: hard dry heat, a wrapped parcel, and enough time that belly fat stops being fat and turns to custard. Kiawe stands in for umu wood better than most because it burns hot and clean, and the smoke is mild and a little sweet, so it sits behind the coconut and salt instead of on top of them. Real banana leaf does the rest of the work.

Ingredients

• 4 lbs skin-on pork belly, cut into 2 slabs about 2 inches thick
• 2 Tbsp coarse sea salt (alaea if you have it, kosher if you don't)
• 1 tsp coarse black pepper
• 1/2 cup coconut cream — the thick top of an unshaken can, not the watery bottom
• 4 banana leaves, plus foil as backup
• 1 bunch green onions, whole
• 1 Tbsp shoyu (optional, in the cream)
• Butcher twine

Cook Sequence

1. Cross-hatch the skin 1/4 inch deep, into the fat but never into the meat. Salt all sides heavy and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight — dry skin takes smoke, wet skin steams.
2. Fire to 275-300F indirect with two kiawe chunks on the coals. Wait for thin blue smoke; billowing white means the chunk is still off-gassing and it will taste like an ashtray.
3. Belly on naked, fat side up, 90 minutes. You're after set color and a tight skin, about 160F internal.
4. Pass the banana leaves over open flame a few seconds a side until they go glossy deep green and turn pliable. Skip this and they crack down the spine when you fold them.
5. Build the parcel: leaf down, green onions, belly on top, coconut cream poured over, fold tight and tie. Seam side down back on the grate.
6. Ride it to 200-205F, about 2 more hours. Probe through the fat — done feels like pushing into nothing at all.
7. For crackling, unwrap and lay the slab skin-side down over direct coals for 2-3 minutes. It goes from bronze to burnt fast, so stand there.
8. Rest 20-30 minutes in the leaf, then break it into thick fingers by hand and spoon the coconut-pork liquor from the parcel back over the top.

Round Out the Plate

• Taro with Coconut Milk — closest thing to talo on this side of the water
• Coleslaw — acid, because four hours of belly fat needs it