Belated Christmas greetings to everyone! This is my maiden voyage in the world wide blogosphere so please bear with me.
OK, here goes...One of our main dishes for Christmas Eve dinner (Noche Buena) was a whole roast suckling pig that I baked in my 30 inch wide oven. What inspired me to make home baked lechon? It was my craving for lechon de leche. Unfortunately, I do not know of any place in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut that sells lechon de leche. And, if I ordered a regular sized lechon for our christmas eve party of about 20 family members, it might be too much for us. Moreover, I wanted the challenge!
So, two weeks before Xmas, I practiced making lechon that I planned to serve at my husband's yearly fraternity christmas party, with the thought that whatever the result may be, there will be more than enough intoxicated people at that party to finish a whole pig=).
My next challenge was where to get a fresh whole suckling pig. I went to our local Asian grocery store but they did not have fresh whole pig that day and they required at least 2 days to pre-order the whole pig. Then I asked my husband to drive me to the nearest Western Beef Grocery Store in the Bronx as suggested by a good chef friend of ours but the pig they had was frozen solid and I needed to start prepping my pig "ahora mismo" as the party was to be the following day. The Western Beef butcher was willing to mechanically(or electronically?)thaw out my pig but 2 hours was too long a wait for me. I had to be back in White Plains ASAP. My last resort was to purchase my pig from "The Source": Hunts Point Market--the Largest Wholesale Meat Distributor in the tri-state area. I knew from reading other foodie blogs that Hunts Point was located in the Bronx. Thanks to my handy dandy iPhone, I was able to google the address for this market. All I knew as we were on our way there was that this is the place where all the food of NY,NJ, CT stores & restaurants get traded & distributed so they must have my whole suckling pig. But I was not even sure if Hunts Point sells to the retail market. Then again, I & my husband just followed our instincts and followed the GPS directions to Hunts Point. And get there, we did! After paying the entrance fee of $3.00, we asked the toll person where we could get whole pig and he kindly directed us to go to the Berlin Denmar Meat Suppliers. I was a little hesitant to go into the warehouse at first because it looked like there was no one around. You just see ginormous refrigerated trailer trucks and muddy floors. But I was desperate. So I bravely went up the concrete steps to the Berlin Denmar Office and was surprised at the sudden onslaught of the sound of forklifts and shouting butchers warning me to be careful. They all wanted me to step aside so I do not get injured. It actually felt like I was in Bacolod's Banago Port during peak hours except here, the "stevedores" were Caucasian and Hispanic but they were all very friendly, very helpful and they all spoke English. After describing to them what I needed, they brought out the smallest pig that they had for that day--a 30 pound white pig that I paid about $70 for, at $2.39 per pound. I paid cash for my pig but it is possible to pay with any major credit card here. I felt so giddy after that "acquisition"--it felt like I just bought a crocodile skin Birkin bag at half the price! Hunts Point is a frugal foodies' paradise where one can get the best and the most rare and exotic ingredients at wholesale prices. I will definitely go back there.
But,my food adventure (or misadventure?!?) does not end here because when I got home, I found out that my pig cannot fit in my oven if i were to bake it whole. So i cut it in half and placed it in two racks and prayed for perfectly baked crispy lechon skin. I think my prayers were answered as evidenced by my attached pictures and the oohs and the ahhs I garnered after placing the cooked lechon on the serving table!
Moral of the Story: If I could do it, you could do it, too!! If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to leave a message for me. Your feedback is most welcome!
OK, here goes...One of our main dishes for Christmas Eve dinner (Noche Buena) was a whole roast suckling pig that I baked in my 30 inch wide oven. What inspired me to make home baked lechon? It was my craving for lechon de leche. Unfortunately, I do not know of any place in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut that sells lechon de leche. And, if I ordered a regular sized lechon for our christmas eve party of about 20 family members, it might be too much for us. Moreover, I wanted the challenge!
So, two weeks before Xmas, I practiced making lechon that I planned to serve at my husband's yearly fraternity christmas party, with the thought that whatever the result may be, there will be more than enough intoxicated people at that party to finish a whole pig=).
My next challenge was where to get a fresh whole suckling pig. I went to our local Asian grocery store but they did not have fresh whole pig that day and they required at least 2 days to pre-order the whole pig. Then I asked my husband to drive me to the nearest Western Beef Grocery Store in the Bronx as suggested by a good chef friend of ours but the pig they had was frozen solid and I needed to start prepping my pig "ahora mismo" as the party was to be the following day. The Western Beef butcher was willing to mechanically(or electronically?)thaw out my pig but 2 hours was too long a wait for me. I had to be back in White Plains ASAP. My last resort was to purchase my pig from "The Source": Hunts Point Market--the Largest Wholesale Meat Distributor in the tri-state area. I knew from reading other foodie blogs that Hunts Point was located in the Bronx. Thanks to my handy dandy iPhone, I was able to google the address for this market. All I knew as we were on our way there was that this is the place where all the food of NY,NJ, CT stores & restaurants get traded & distributed so they must have my whole suckling pig. But I was not even sure if Hunts Point sells to the retail market. Then again, I & my husband just followed our instincts and followed the GPS directions to Hunts Point. And get there, we did! After paying the entrance fee of $3.00, we asked the toll person where we could get whole pig and he kindly directed us to go to the Berlin Denmar Meat Suppliers. I was a little hesitant to go into the warehouse at first because it looked like there was no one around. You just see ginormous refrigerated trailer trucks and muddy floors. But I was desperate. So I bravely went up the concrete steps to the Berlin Denmar Office and was surprised at the sudden onslaught of the sound of forklifts and shouting butchers warning me to be careful. They all wanted me to step aside so I do not get injured. It actually felt like I was in Bacolod's Banago Port during peak hours except here, the "stevedores" were Caucasian and Hispanic but they were all very friendly, very helpful and they all spoke English. After describing to them what I needed, they brought out the smallest pig that they had for that day--a 30 pound white pig that I paid about $70 for, at $2.39 per pound. I paid cash for my pig but it is possible to pay with any major credit card here. I felt so giddy after that "acquisition"--it felt like I just bought a crocodile skin Birkin bag at half the price! Hunts Point is a frugal foodies' paradise where one can get the best and the most rare and exotic ingredients at wholesale prices. I will definitely go back there.
But,my food adventure (or misadventure?!?) does not end here because when I got home, I found out that my pig cannot fit in my oven if i were to bake it whole. So i cut it in half and placed it in two racks and prayed for perfectly baked crispy lechon skin. I think my prayers were answered as evidenced by my attached pictures and the oohs and the ahhs I garnered after placing the cooked lechon on the serving table!
Moral of the Story: If I could do it, you could do it, too!! If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to leave a message for me. Your feedback is most welcome!
Herewith is my precious recipe for home made Lechon.
Ingredients:
1 whole suckling pig 15-20 pounds
salt & pepper
evaporated milk
2 packages pandan leaves tied into a knot
lemon grass-diagonally sliced in 2 inch lengths
2 onions-peeled & halved
2 heads of garlic-crushed
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 pack sinigang ng sampaloc mix
(tamarind powder)Basting mix: melted Star Margarine or butter with 1/2 cup atchuete (annato seeds)& salt
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit. Wash suckling pig thoroughly. Pat dry with paper towel. Cut pig crosswise in half (to make it fit in a standard 30 inch wide oven) and place each halved carcass on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.
Baste evaporated milk all over the pig, inside & out. Season inner cavity liberally with salt, pepper & sinigang mix. Stuff inner cavity with onions, pandan leaves, garlic & lemongrass. Wrap both ears, and the pig's tail with aluminum foil to prevent it from burning or getting overcooked. Baste the skin with butter/atchuete mixture then place in oven for about 2 hours, basting with the same mix, occasionally (approximately every 30 to 40 minutes or whenever you remember). Bake until internal temperature of pig reaches 160 degrees fahrenheit. Change oven setting to "broil" on a high setting or "Convection Roast-450 degrees F" to make the pig skin crispy. Watch roasting pig closely during this stage making sure skin does not get burned. If necessary, move cookie sheet around to expose as much pig skin to the oven burners as possible. At this point, baste the pig skin every 5 to 10 minutes being careful not to injure/burn your hands/arms. Broil until skin all over pig creates a hollow sound when tapped with tongs. Take the pig out of the oven and let it rest for about 5 minutes before serving. Transfer roast pig onto a serving dish lined with romaine lettuce. Place small red/green apple in roast pig's oral cavity. Carve & serve with lechon sauce or vinegar with garlic and patis (fish sauce).
Baste evaporated milk all over the pig, inside & out. Season inner cavity liberally with salt, pepper & sinigang mix. Stuff inner cavity with onions, pandan leaves, garlic & lemongrass. Wrap both ears, and the pig's tail with aluminum foil to prevent it from burning or getting overcooked. Baste the skin with butter/atchuete mixture then place in oven for about 2 hours, basting with the same mix, occasionally (approximately every 30 to 40 minutes or whenever you remember). Bake until internal temperature of pig reaches 160 degrees fahrenheit. Change oven setting to "broil" on a high setting or "Convection Roast-450 degrees F" to make the pig skin crispy. Watch roasting pig closely during this stage making sure skin does not get burned. If necessary, move cookie sheet around to expose as much pig skin to the oven burners as possible. At this point, baste the pig skin every 5 to 10 minutes being careful not to injure/burn your hands/arms. Broil until skin all over pig creates a hollow sound when tapped with tongs. Take the pig out of the oven and let it rest for about 5 minutes before serving. Transfer roast pig onto a serving dish lined with romaine lettuce. Place small red/green apple in roast pig's oral cavity. Carve & serve with lechon sauce or vinegar with garlic and patis (fish sauce).
That is an ingenious way of cooking crispy lechon! I would really really like to try that for Aiden's upcoming baptism. It looks like a lot of work but I guess it is all worth it when you know you have satisfied cravings of family and friends in the US, right?
ReplyDeleteHow 'bout quick, simple 15-minute recipes for busy moms like us, juggling work and family.
ReplyDelete