Miss Piggy for Mockchoc

[Hedonista]

Jan 19, 2010 5:10:04 GMT 2 mockchoc said:

I do have a nice little piggy being raised for a no reason spit roast party too (other than we girls want a party!) at my place though so I'm sure that will be good with hedonists ideas as he's cooked a whole suckling pig before and I haven't.

Mocks, at what weight approx will they be slaughtering your piggy?

[Gyro]

Miss Piggy for Mockchoc

Yeah, seems like a fair exchange .....

[mockchoc]

Glad you edited it to something a little nicer gyro...

Don't know the weight but I'll ask.

Please type the recipe in here when you have some spare time so I'll have it ready when I get the pig?

[Hedonista]

The reason I asked for the size is that here when I get from the supplier I use (a wholesale supplier) they are usually around 8 kilos but when I see them in the supermarkets sometimes intended for home cooking they are much smaller, around 4 or 5 kilos. I prefer them a bit bigger as the meat/bone ratio is higher and they loose nothing in terms of taste or texture. The problem is that they are too big to fit in a domestic oven whole.
I have roasted a small one whole before but what I prefer to do now is to use bigger one and hack off the back legs and head and roast the body including the front legs at a high temperature in one over (I use my Weber for this) and then slow roast the legs in another oven blasting up the temperature at the end to crisp off the skin. I don't usually bother with the head as there is not much meat there but sometimes roast it separately as a party piece and stick it someone's plate as a surprise!
Using my method for an 8 or 9 kilo pig, I would roast the body and haunches starting at at 250ºC for 20 minutes then down to 200ºC for about 90 minutes, checking occasionally and once the skin is blistering it is done. For the legs also start at 250ºC and then down to 120ºC for about 3 hours blasting at 250ºC at the end until the skin starts to blister.

The recipe is really simple. Make a paste from about 6 cloves of garlic, 6 whole star anise ground to a powder, a bit of ginger and some dried chili flakes and add about 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and around 4 tablespoons of light soy sauce. Rub this all over the cavity and leave to marinate for an hour or two at room temperature. Before roasting rub the skin with sesame oil.

Another important thing is to make sure that all of the meat you are roasting is at more or less the same height in the over to ensure even crispiness. When I have removed the back legs, I prop it up with an empty beer can or something else and chop off the bottom of the front legs to achieve this.

Using the same mix as the marinade, make a dressing by adding some palm sugar or honey to the paste mix with some extra soy. Once you have the meat roast, I find it is best to remove all of the skin after leaving it to rest (it come off very easily) and leave it, crispy side up on newspaper while preparing the rest. Once the skin is off, brush the dressing all over the meat. You can then either chop it up into pieces with bone or remove all the meat from the bones and place it on platters (add more dressing to taste) and then decorate the platters with pieces of the crispy skin. If there are some bit of skin that are not quite crispy give them a blast before you remove the skin from the pig with a hand held gas burner.

I like to serve it with Filipino style garlic rice and some stir fried vegetable in oyster sauce.

Umm, all this posh nosh i've been eating this week I could really tuck into a nice rustic dish like that!

[Gyro]

Ha, Mockers, I only edited because I got the quote thing wrong in the first place. You know me; such a nice guy .....

[Ethel Mertz]

Jan 21, 2010 14:55:36 GMT 2 Hedonista said:

what i prefer to do now is to use bigger one and hack off the back legs and head and roast the body including the front legs at a high temperture in one over

Have fun, Mockers.

[Hedonista]

Ehel, it is quite easy to hack through it as the bones in a young pig are quite soft. The legs come of very easily with a big sharp knife and a few knocks with a mallet. The head can just be cut off.

[mockchoc]

Ethel I have men about to do any of that sort of thing. I probably could do it but would take me twice as long.

hedonisttraveller, I should have mentioned if I didn't already that we'll be using a proper spit roasting machine so a whole bigger pig will fit and and half a goat on the other.

I'm drooling now after reading the seasonings you mentioned for it! It reminds me of the roast suckling pig I always get when I'm in any China Town.

Will do that, thank you.

Just emailed my friend to find out the weight. I forgot to ask the other day.

[shrjeff]

anthony bourdain keeps pushing the cheek meat as one of the tastiest parts... also the brain, so splitting the head after cooking makes sense, too...

[mockchoc]

I've cooked beef cheeks so I'd try the pigs cheeks.

Brains would have to be cooked seperately. Thinly sliced and fried till crunchy with a sauce then maybe I'd manage them... maybe.

[Hedonista]

Jan 24, 2010 6:26:12 GMT 2 shrjeff said:

anthony bourdain keeps pushing the cheek meat as one of the tastiest parts... also the brain, so splitting the head after cooking makes sense, too...

I have eaten the cheeks but they are really tiny on a suckling pig. I often cook the cheeks of full grown pigs though, very slowly braised or casseroled and they are delicious. But you are right about the brains, I have never though of that when coling a suckling pig. Next time I will split the head open and slice the brain up and fry like Mockers says.

[mockchoc]

I'm full of good ideas

Wish I had your energy and enthusiasm at home although tomorrow I am going to attempt making my first batch of mozzarella finally. So we'll see how that goes.

[mockchoc]

Looks like I have to wait till the piggy is not oinking anymore to tell you.

I asked but didn't really get an answer.