For the love of pork and crackling 23 April 2007

Prep time: 10-15 mins. Marinate: 0.5 hr Cooking time: 1 hr.

“It says ‘Crunchy.’ ‘Crunchy’ would be a good word to write in your web.”

“Just the wrong idea,” replied Charlotte. “Couldn’t be worse. We don’t want Zuckerman to think Wilbur is crunchy.” – Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

No offense to the lovable Wilbur, but when I read this to Dui during our nighttime sessions of not-so-long-ago, dang it, but I immediately thought of lechon! I remember how during one of our humungous family reunions that we’d have a whole lechon brought in straight from Cebu. All the cousins would be eagerly waiting for the chopping to be done with, all the better to sneak off with some of the crispy skin before it was “officially” served.

While this isn’t Filipino lechon, it’s quite close to it. We cooked this recipe for Mommy’s and Baus’ joint birthday celebration. Birthdays definitely need serious celebrating! We’d stolen off some bits of crackling (which they noticed) before it got to them. But they’d forgiven us when they tasted it too.

Pork, oh pork, how can we resist thee? Especially when you’re nice and crunchy?

You need:

• Pork loin (approx. 7 lbs in weight, on the bone), scored – you can ask your butcher for this part
• Sea salt
• Fresh rosemary, chopped, 1 tablespoon
• Fennel (or anise) seeds, ½ tablespoon
• Garlic, 5 cloves
• Balsamic vinegar, ½ cup
• Bay leaves, 4 pieces
• Olive oil, 2 tablespoons
• Pork bones, chopped
• Celery, 5 outer ribs, roughly chopped
• Carrot, 1 large one, roughly chopped
• Onion, 1 large one, roughly chopped

And…

• 1 large roasting tray
• mortar and pestle
• pan
• sieve

What to do:

1. Lay out your pork on a board and rub some salt and chopped rosemary into the scored lines, trying to get it into the lines by pushing and rubbing.
2. In a mortar and pestle, smash up the fennel seeds, the garlic and the remaining chopped rosemary. Rub this into the meat – not the skin, or it will burn.
3. Place in a large roasting tray with the balsamic vinegar, bay leaves and olive oil. Leave for ½ hour to marinate.
4. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 475 deg F and brown the bones (about 10 mins.). Rub the skin of the pork with lots of sea salt – this helps puff it up and dry it out (so it becomes crispy).
5. Place the pork directly on to the top rack of the oven.
6. Finally, add the browned bones and vegetables to the leftover balsamic marinade, add 2 cups of water and put into the oven directly under the pork. As the pork cooks, all its juices drip into the tray beneath! This liquid becomes your instant gravy! Your pork should also get some nice charred marks.
7. The pork will take about an hour to cook. After 20 minutes, turn the temperature down to 425 deg F.
8. Once the pork is cooked, remove from rack in the oven and transfer to a piece of aluminum foil to save any juices. Allow to rest for at least 10 minutes.
9. Finish cooking any vegetables that you are going to serve with the pork. Make a gravy out of the juices in the tray which was underneath the pork.

For your gravy

1. Put the bones, the liquid and vegetables into a large pan.
2. Add some water to the tray so that all that sticky stuff on the bottom of the tray comes off.
3. Reboil the water and scrape off all the goodness from the bottom of the tray and pour everything into the pan.
4. Bring to the boil, shaking occasionally, remove any oil, grease or scum from the top.
5. Pass the contents through a sieve, discarding the bones and vegetables.
6. You can reduce the liquid and correct the seasoning to taste. We added some red wine to the juices, a little water and allowed it reduce further.

Thank you Jamie Oliver, for your “pork and crackling” recipe in The Naked Chef, pp. 109-110