Winter Pig Recipes

Steps:

• For the quick like ninja kimchi: Mix chopped cabbage and 3 tablespoons salt in a bowl and refrigerate overnight.
• Rinse the cabbage and squeeze the excess moisture out.
• Mix in the ginger, radish, scallions, cilantro, garlic, fish sauce, sambal, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil and remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons salt.
• Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 15 days before serving.
• For the fried wontons: Tightly roll eggroll wrappers and cut into thin strips.
• Fry in beef tallow in a cast-iron skillet until crispy, about 3 minutes.
• Meanwhile, stir together the granulated garlic, ginger, granulated onion, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle fried wontons with spice mixture.
• For the dojo sauce: Blend the mayonnaise, scallion whites, sambal, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper in a blender.
• For the sweet soy glaze: Simmer kecap manis, pineapple juice, ginger and black garlic in a small pot for 20 minutes, then blend with an immersion blender.
• For the burger: Run pork shoulder through a meat grinder twice.
• Mix meat with scallions, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, crushed red pepper, sugar and 1/4 teaspoon sweet soy glaze. Run through the grinder one more time, then form into 4 to 5 patties.
• Heat a grill or cast-iron skillet. Cook the patties until cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Butter the buns and toast them on the grill or skillet.
• Drizzle the buns with soy glaze and build the burgers with patties, kimchi and wonton strips. Finish with another drizzle of soy glaze and some dojo sauce.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare the pig: Wash it, including the cavity, under cold running water, and towel-dry thoroughly, the way you would dry a small child after a bath - ears, armpits, chest cavity, face, legs, backs of knees.
• Sometimes there are imperfections remaining after the slaughtering and processing of the animal. Use dish towels or sturdy paper towels to rub away any dark spots on the ears, any little bit of remaining bristles around the mouth. Like that yellow, papery flaking skin you sometimes find on chickens, which can be peeled off to reveal tender, fresh skin underneath, a similar bit of crud can remain on pigs' chins and under their belly flaps. Clean this little cutie as if you were detailing your car! The purple U.S.D.A. stamp, however, is indelible. But not inedible.
• Bard the pig with all 20 garlic cloves, making deep incisions all over with a thin filleting knife and shoving the cloves into each pocket; include the cheeks and the neck and the rump and the thighs and the loin down the back and the front shoulders, all areas of the small creature that have enough flesh to be able to receive a clove of garlic. (Sometimes I find I have to slice the larger cloves of garlic in half to get them to slide into the incision.)
• Rub the entire pig in oil exactly as you would apply suntan oil to a sunbathing goddess of another era, when people still were ignorant of the harmful effects of the sun. Massage and rub and get the whole creature slick and glistening. I do this directly in a very large roasting pan.
• Wash and dry your hands. Take large pinches of kosher salt, and raising your arm high above the pig, rain down the salt in an even, light dusting all over. You can start with the pig on its back and get the cavity and the crotch, and then turn it over and get the back and the head and flanks. Or vice versa. But in the end, the whole animal is salted evenly and lightly, snout to tail.
• Arrange the pig in the roasting pan, spine up, rear legs tucked under, with feet pointing toward its ears and its two front legs out ahead in front. Sometimes the pig needs a sharp, sturdy, confident chiropractic crack on its arching spine, just to settle it in comfortably to the roasting pan, so it won't list to one side or topple over.
• Put the potato deep into its mouth, and place in the oven, on the bottom rack, and roast slowly for about 4 to 5 hours, depending on the size of your pig. (Plan 15 minutes of roasting time per pound of pig; if you have a 20-pounder, then you'd need about 5 hours total cooking time.) Add a little water to the roasting pan along the way if you see the juices are in danger of scorching, and loosely tent the animal with aluminum foil in vulnerable spots - ears, snout, arc of back - if you see them burning. For the last half-hour, raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees, and cook until the skin gets crisp and even blistered, checking every 10 minutes.
• Tap on it with your knuckle to hear a kind of hollow sound, letting you know the skin has inflated and separated from the interior flesh; observe splitting of the skin at knuckles - all good signs the pig is done. Or use a meat thermometer inserted deep in the neck; the pig is ready at 160 degrees. Let rest 45 minutes before serving.
• Remove the potato, and replace it with the apple. Transfer the pig to a large platter; nestle big bouquets of herbs around the pig as garnish. Save pan juices, and use for napping over the pulled meat when serving.

Steps:

• Salt and pepper inside and outside of the pig. Combine stuffing ingredients and fill cavity of the pig. Roast pig over charcoal and hickory wood, slowly for about 10 to 11 hours at 275 degrees. *Pig roaster available from Bob Moyer ? (215) 257-2710;

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• In a food processor, combine the sage, rosemary, the 5 garlic cloves, fennel seeds, olive oil, and salt and pepper and blend until a paste forms. (You can also mash these ingredients together with a mortar and pestle.)
• Using a sharp knife, butterfly the pork butt, so it opens up like a book. (You can also have your butcher do this for you.) Rub the inside cut of the meat with the paste. Using kitchen twine, tie the butterflied pork back together to make a compact shape.
• Place the halved garlic heads and potatoes, cut-sides down, on the bottom of a roasting pan to create a bed for the pork butt so it doesn't sit directly on the surface of the pan. Place the pork fat-side up on the bed of garlic and potatoes, drizzle lightly with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Place the pan in the oven and bake for 5 hours, or until the skin is browned and the meat is extremely tender; pour the wine over the pork after the first 30 minutes of roasting and baste the meat with the collected pan juices every 40 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes. Remove the twine before cutting the pork into 12-inch-thick slices.
• IMPORTANTE! After slow-roasting the pork, the garlic should be soft. Spread it on bread for an appetizer. Serve with Oven-Roasted Potatoes. The potatoes make for a nice cook's treat-snack on them while you're waiting for the pork to rest.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• On a baking sheet, place the potatoes, carrots, garlic, rosemary, and sage. Drizzle with the olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste, and toss to coat.
• Roast for 50 to 60 minutes, tossing halfway through, until the potatoes are crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and serve.
• IMPORTANTE! To parboil and pan-roast these potatoes: In a pot, combine the whole potatoes with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the potatoes from the pot and set them aside to cool. Cut the potatoes into 3/4-inch chunks and add to a large nonstick skillet with the carrots, garlic, rosemary, and sage. Dress with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and heat on high until the potatoes are crisp and golden, occasionally moving the potatoes by shaking the pan handle. Avoid stirring with a spoon or spatula, so that you don't break the skin, and the potatoes can achieve a nice sear.