Squid Luau Stew

Squid Luau known as Luau He'e in Hawaiian and also as Squid Luau Stew. It is  derived from richness of the stew and changes with the Post-Contact taste in food as much as people don't like to talk about it. Squid Luau comes from the words Squid that is talking not about actual squid the Muhehe that can mean squid or cuttlefish, but about the "He'e" the octopus. The dish is a young taro-leaf based stew that has the consistency of gravy. It is a comfort food for many people in Hawaii as a beloved food in many homes, which it is common for people to add things like Kalua Pork on top. Speaking of Kalua Pork it goes well with its smokey and salty flavor as it is dipped into the creamy and slightly sweet squid luau.

"It's basically the top of our Taro Plants that are cooked down in coconut milk and added in sliced pieces of octopus. That top of the taro plant we call it Luau. So a lot of it is derived from a lot of the parts of the taro plant." -Chef Kealoha Domingo

There are different sorts of Taro Leaf stages like the: Young Leaf (Luau Leaf), Mature, Aging. Not all taro leaves are used or called "luau", and that's for the elements of the taste and the texture and the cooking involves it being young leaves that are also specific leaves on the taro plant. Leaves are a crucial ingredient in traditional Hawaiian cooking and must be treated with respect as they need time to be cooked thoroughly, because of a good reason. Raw taro leaves contain calcium oxalate crystals that can cause intense irritation, itchy throat, and burning in the mouth, and it just gets worse.

In Hawaii, people grew up with Squid Luau along with the other mainstay stews of Hawaiian Tomato Beef Stew and the Beef Curry. So it is a well known stew to many people. This was of course post-contact and it was no longer only Native Hawaiians being the only ones who consumed Squid Luau, since there were various sorts of Luau including the usage of butter, creams and milks with the arrival of the Westerners who had introduced them, by the Mid-20th Century there were many people who had recipes that had made in-authentic Squid Luau as those with strict cultural codes were concerned. Families that would look down upon post-contact ingredients entering their recipes would call it "gross" (not to their taste), "kapu" (against the law), and "haole" (foreign). The reason being that Traditional Hawaiian cuisine, including luau stew, pre-dates butter by centuries.

Octopus, Hawaiians used what was all readily available and staple foods for Native Hawaiians from the earliest Polynesian settlements. The Taro leaves were the source ingredient, coconut was integral for fats and flavor, and squid/octopus were abundant in surrounding waters. As well as many other seafoods, but things that were seen as delicious were a little chewy and were sorta like the equivalent to a steak but of the sea, which is in this case the octopus. It was seen as really delicious and it was good to eat the predator of the reef that went after the crabs, so they ate the crabs, the predator, and had a balance of what they ate. Choice Luaus were made with either Squid, Cuttlefish, or most popular the Octopus.

Due to the social backlash families would get for exposing ingredients that they would add to their Squid Luau or Luau Stews in general they would keep any sort of additions that were changed from tradition as "secret" ingredients. This would be to avoid accusations of "Foreigners Luau" that was not "Precontact Luau" as many other dishes were argued with this idea that precontact is some sort of culinary law. Regardless Hawaiian families would cook to their own Ohana's tastes and that would be where people decided to do what they wanted and eat what they wanted regardless of those who would choose to talk down upon their recipe being for their family and seen as the worst version.

Many of the Oldest recipes from Kanaka Maoli have depended on the techniques of the cooking of the leaves as well as the way the coconut milk was treated to create a gravy like consistency with natural ingredients and plants. While there are many points of view on the matter of Squid Luau there are three particular ways that kept on coming up as a person definition from different groups of people about what their believe to be the rules of Squid Luau: (1) Luau must use young taro leaves and octopus with coconut milk that has its water separated from it, (2) Luau can not have any sort of additional seasonings other than Hawaiian salt and can have water from the coconut milk, (3) Luau is cooked with ingredients of the sea and can be accompanied by a cream like liquid. 

The Old-Style Luau He'e would have bite sized chunks or slices of octopus that was half cooked so that it could add more flavor to the stew. The Luau leaves would be cooked with water and changed twice to make sure that it was properly treated. Some old recipes cook down plants or vegetables to add additional flavor to the mix and it varies, but modern recipes that break the old style use onions that are then cooked into the coconut milk until dissolved, which means it has been cooking for a long while. The octopus is added last as it continues to simmer and cook its own flavor into the stew that is further enhanced by hawaiian salt. It is a sugarless, dairyless, herbless recipe that cuts things down to the essentials.

Sweet Luau
Sugar Luau He'e, was introduced as families seeked out ways to sweeten the recipe to their tastes and tracks back to the days before the war. Creating recipes at this time wasn't because they could, but it was because people were looking for ways to make use of what ingredients they had. Kanaka Maoli that had the ingredients like raw sugarcane juice and leftover rum would use it to boil the octopus half way and it would be placed on the side. The Luau leaves would be cooked with coconut milk with extracting some of the water from the can, so it was important not to shake the canned coconut milk. 

Yellow Sugar Foam, There would be a light yellow foam from the coconut milk if it had made contact with the sugary octopus and if the recipe called for more sugar the foam would be much more noticeable and the sweetness and taste of coconut would intensify. Variations of this included: Sugar Luau, Coconut Sugar Luau, and Cane Luau. It would be seen later in the modern era to be a rule not to eat any sort of Luau that included powdery sweeteners.

Butter Luau
While not well known the families that had access to dairy products would enjoy using butter to make a more fatty flavored stew. Butter was seen as one of the worst things socially to put inside a luau, but the recipes would catch on with chefs who knew the right amount to put inside their Luau and seen as the most Haole way to cook, however that didn't stop a whole lot of people who used butter on the big island, which many expats still have their "secret ingredient" list they hold tightly as to not be outed for using butter as their aunty or uncle who is a luau purist may become very angry. 

Many of these recipes were as old as the 1960's, however they wouldn't be out in the public eye until the 1990s where butter was used in many recipes on cooking shows or behind the scenes in the kitchen like at Sam Choy's Restaurant on Oahu where butter was added to many Hawaiian dishes. In 2017, Post-Internet age there was a huge upset that people had in seeing that recipes involved the forbidden ingredients of Sugar, Butter, or even worse Sugar and Butter, as it shocked many people who had a strong stance against those ingredients. Chef Keoni Chang had crossed the line as he had the utmost confidence that the dish that included both ingredients were equally as progressive and tasty would be enjoyed by home cooks.

Luau was eaten as far as Hawaii history goes by the Hawaiians, and there are many stews that were like that around the pacific like Tonga (Lu Pulu) and Tahiti (Poulet Fāfā). The Hawaiians adapted their own taro-leaf stew to their own version. It is eaten so frequently there would be a large demand for a convenient instant mix to be created, but the closest it got was "Frozen Luau Leaves" and that made it easier to make at home. Luau stew has become a staple in the Hawaii home and not just Hawaiian home, because it is widely available at restaurants and food halls as well as some foodie events. 

There are many variations of Hawaiian Luau that are different depending on the household or hale, and different regions, as well as different islands. It is one of the most common uses for octopus (he'e). In Hawaii the taste is on a creamy and subtle sweetness with unique mixes of salt and butter that was flavored or non-flavored, bulbs (onion usually), sugar, and additions of coconut milk and bouillon-mix. The sauce resembles a layered, thick leaf puree, with seasoning and oceany flavors. Some would describe Hawaiian luau stew as eating pureed greens with cream on it with a bit sweetness. It also depends on how people were preparing the He'e (octopus) like cooking a Kiawe He'e (Hibachi cooked) before it is added to the stew or throw it in a smoker and then a the stew for further flavoring the leaves.

The layered flavor came from areas that had to compete with similar stews like Filipino Cuisines "Laing" (pronounced LAH-ing). The dish was primarily made from shredded or whole taro leaves cooked in thick coconut milk, chili peppers, garlic, ginger, shallots, and shrimp paste (bagoong alamang). It may also include meat (like pork belly) or seafood Dried Small Fish (Dried Dilis). It originates from the region of "Pinangat" in the Bicol Region of the Philippines, which is famous for its cuisine that heavily features coconut milk and chili peppers. So variations that started to become more seasoned with some having fermented-fish paste to compete with dishes like Laing and a look at all sorts of bulbs to make a tastier dish without adding garlic or ginger as well as chili peppers.