Beach Hangi/WFO

[Onefella]

Not sure what category this falls into. It's sort of a New Zealand Hangi but has evolved a bit beyond the original concept. We've been feeding regular crowds of 50 or more with this beach set-up for about 15 years. The pit has a 'log-cabin' structure of railway line inside a steel box buried in beach sand. The 'cage' sits inside the 'log cabin' of heat. The lid used to be some roofing iron covered in beach sand, but after a recent upgrade, is now a removable vermiculite insulated 'door' that fits snugly on top. It's not really a traditional brick oven, but it's definitely a wood fired oven.

What do you think?

[Jed]

Re: Beach Hangi/WFO

Onefella,

So how do you use this Hangi?

Big fire? for several hours? in the pit, then pull the fire, and lower the cage with the leaves and the food stuff in to the pit, and cover...?

Then just before the beer runs out, pull the cage and eat the food?

Looks like a full day event, and a ton of fun!

JED

[Wiley]

Re: Beach Hangi/WFO

Onefella,
Looks great fun...I suspect there're alot of unprotected open manholes in Darwin or someone works for the utilities :-)

So what's to eat in the dutch ovens and under the foil?
Wiley

[Onefella]

Re: Beach Hangi/WFO

Jed, yep, you guessed it. Big fire for about four hours then the 'bake' only takes about three hours. Lots of fun, tons of food. We nearly always over-cater.

Wiley, lol, yeah that pit fence was kindly donated by a friend who used to work for a local Telco.

The dutch oven on that occasion had beef bourginion (sp?) that turned out very well. The wrapped food usually includes large cuts of beef and lamb and pork with chicken and turkey being very common too. Every other kind of meat has been tried at some time or another, including kangaroo, emu, crocodile and camel to name a few.

Vegies usually include the 'standard' ones like potato, onion and carrots, with plenty of other variation including sweet potato, yams, swedes, turnips etc. As you can imagine, leafy vegetables don't do very well and we don't do cabbage. The flavour tends to infuse all the other food.

We have a few 'regulars' that have perfected a few specialty dishes, such as one does a potato-bake in a dutch-oven that is delicious and another does a whole baked 'Jap' pumpkin with a seasoned rice filling. Very nice.

[HangiGuide]

Re: Beach Hangi/WFO

There's a lot more to doing a Hangi guys. For starters you have to look at the soil type for aeration. Volcanic rocks need to be used or else it won;t cook.

As for food, cabbage IS a good addition and also essential for the leaves to line the basket. I also suggest Hangi stuffing, Hangi steamed puddings and a side of Rewena bread or fried bread.

[Onefella]

Re: Beach Hangi/WFO

There's a lot more to doing a Hangi guys. For starters you have to look at the soil type for aeration. Volcanic rocks need to be used or else it won;t cook.

As for food, cabbage IS a good addition and also essential for the leaves to line the basket. I also suggest Hangi stuffing, Hangi steamed puddings and a side of Rewena bread or fried bread.

Well then, I suppose we don't do a traditional Hangi. We just cook lots of food in an in-ground wood-fired oven. No volcanic rocks, no soil, no cabbage, but plenty of banana leaves. Seems to work really well.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Beach Hangi/WFO

There's a lot more to doing a Hangi guys. For starters you have to look at the soil type for aeration. Volcanic rocks need to be used or else it won;t cook.

As for food, cabbage IS a good addition and also essential for the leaves to line the basket. I also suggest Hangi stuffing, Hangi steamed puddings and a side of Rewena bread or fried bread.

Nice hyjack to your site selling the info.....