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Mumu
Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea
Not a single dish but the great communal feast of the Papua New Guinea Highlands, cooked in an earth oven where fire-heated river stones are layered with food and buried to steam for hours. Whole pig, sweet potato (kaukau), taro, leafy aibika greens, and banana are wrapped in banana leaves and packed over the glowing stones, the pit sealed with more leaves and earth so the trapped steam slow-cooks everything into smoky tenderness. A mumu is never an everyday meal, it is the engine of Highland social life, prepared for bride-price ceremonies, compensation payments, reconciliations, and the famous sing-sing gatherings where clans display their finery. The pig is the highest currency of status and obligation, and the killing and sharing of it through a mumu cements alliances and settles debts. Whole villages contribute food and labour, and the unearthing of the pit, steam billowing into the cool mountain air, is the climax of the celebration. Despite Papua New Guinea's staggering cultural diversity (over 800 languages), the mumu is a near-universal thread, yet almost completely unknown beyond Melanesia.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kgpork shoulder, in large chunks
- 1 kgsweet potato (kaukau), peeled
- 500 gtaro, peeled and chunked
- 300 gaibika or spinach leaves
- 4 wholeripe cooking banana, peeled
- 400 mlthick coconut cream
- 6 largebanana leaves, for wrapping
- 2 tspsalt
Directions
- 1
Build a fire and heat clean river stones in it until very hot (or use a heavy lidded cast-iron pot and oven at 160C as a home substitute).
- 2
Line a pit or roasting vessel with banana leaves, leaving plenty of overhang.
- 3
Layer the sweet potato and taro on the bottom, then the pork chunks, seasoning each layer with salt.
- 4
Add the bananas and pile the aibika greens over the top.
- 5
Pour the coconut cream evenly over everything so it can steam through the food.
- 6
Fold the banana leaves over to seal the parcel tightly and, in a traditional mumu, cover with hot stones and earth.
- 7
Leave to steam undisturbed for about 2.5-3 hours until the pork is tender and the kaukau is soft.
- 8
Unwrap at the table and serve the meat, root vegetables, and greens together from the leaves.