The challenge
I asked my husband what he wanted for his birthday. I told him I'll try my best to make it happen. I may have been way over my head when I said that because he requested for me to prepare lechon pork belly. Of course, I'm not one to back out on a request from the birthday boy. Not after asking him for what he wanted and making him think I can make it happen. So, challenge accepted! That was weeks ago. I'm so glad I asked really early, I had ample time to go around the google kitchen library for recipes. I was able to pick the technique that's easiest for me to follow, and the one I am most comfortable with. I would want the birthday celebrant to have the best lechon pork belly I could make.
The Quest for the Perfect Slab
Now that I've had enough time to look for recipes, I took my time looking for the perfect pork belly slab. I wanted it as fresh as possible so I purchased it on the day before his birthday. Just enough time to marinate the pork overnight for the flavors to stick. But mainly so that I still have enough time to undo any mistakes I might do but still keep the freshness. I found a recipe where the pork does not need to be marinated overnight. My brother supports that method too, but I'm a believer that flavor should be infused into the meat before applying heat when cooking.
I did not want to go to the wet market because I feel a lot more comfortable going to the local supermarket's produce section. And so I did. Only to find out they don't have the pork slab I was looking for. It's a good thing there's another supermarket nearby. I jumped from one supermarket to another, thus extending my outside hours for my shopping. I actually almost did not want to go there but it's a good thing I did. I found the perfect pork slab. And the merchandiser was extra helpful.
One of the materials needed for the lechon pork belly is the kitchen twine. I thought I might just use one of my white yarns by my brother advised me that I should really use the kitchen twine. I still think I should have gone ahead and used the yarns but since the merchandisers in the supermarket were really nice, they gave me enough kitchen twine for the pork belly. My yarns are safe. LOL
My speculations, my expectations
One of the best experiences I remember when my husband and I went to Cebu was the famous Cebu lechon paired with the puso rice. Of course, I'm not expecting to make one as good as that, but at least I know what it should taste like. That's why the recipes make sense to me and I was able to pick the easiest process. My worry is that the recipes I read were all based on the conventional ovens, not for fan-forced ovens like the one I have. Of course, I'll just have to worry about it when I get there. There may be parts of it that I should just play by ear, follow my gut feel.
Ingredients
Pork belly slab
apple cider vinegar
salt
pepper
onion
garlic
lemongrass
Procedure
I followed this recipe with some little modifications. The pork belly slab I purchased was only around 1.6 kilograms. This recipe was intended for a 2kg pork belly slab. So that's just a few adjustments with the measurements on all the other ingredients.
The first thing I did was stab the pork skin all over. On all the recipes I read for this dish, stabbing or pricking the pork skin is necessary to make it crispy once you're done cooking. The videos made it seem easy, but there's no easy way to prick a pork skin. Not with a fork, not with a knife. And so I just went berserk with the knife on the pork skin. I was not sure how to go about it, I just went ahead anyway.
Once the pork skin has been pricked all over, the next step is to rub the entire slab with rock salt and vinegar. First, the pork skin, just massage the salt and vinegar all over the skin. Then turn it over and do the same thing on the other side. Once the salt and vinegar have been rubbed vigorously, the next step is to just lay the lemongrass, onions, and garlic. I laid it in a way that it will be easier for me to roll the slab and tie it with the kitchen twine. (Which by the way really looks a lot like my mercerized yarn stash.)
Rolling the pork slab was a really tricky part. The spices inside the slab should be aligned properly so they won't slide out on the sides. I put the lemongrass slightly protruding on the sides so that it can be easily pulled out once the lechon pork belly is done. It was kinda sad for the lemongrass that it was only there for the process, and not for the show and taste. But it tasted really nice on the pork. I loved it.
So I was done with the massaging, aligning, and rolling, the next step is to tie the pork slab securely. It is important to tie it securely, but not too tight because the pork will expand as it cooks. So tie it just nice and easy. Not too tight but not too loose.
Let it sit uncovered in the fridge overnight. I used apple cider vinegar so every time we open the fridge, the aroma teases as as if calling on to us to stuff it inside the oven right away. But it had to wait until it's time.
Once that's done, the next step is to stuff it into the preheated oven. It takes 6 hours to cook so patience and multitasking is required. The temperature though needs to be increased gradually. We started at 82 degrees Celsius for 3.5 hours. Then we went up to 160 degrees Celsius for 2 hours. And then we went up to 220 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes.
The Result
Thinking about the Cebu lechon we ate when we went to Cebu, my dish was really far from that dish. Although, for a first-time oven user like me, I'd say I nailed it. The taste was as expected, the texture was perfect, the crisp was on point. There are some notes that need to be remembered but all in all, I'm patting myself on the back on this dish. My husband was happy about it. Happy birthday, indeed!
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