DIY Lechon De Leche Ala ToT

 

Who's Cuter? ToT or the little Piggy?

A couple of days ago, my mother divulged that we have a little porker freezing in our freezer. Boy, she wasn't kidding! 

 

So for Sunday lunch ToT decided to take a stab at D-I-Y lechon de leche, or cochinillo, or cochinillo de leche, whichever version this one ended up becoming. It was perfect because the only other thing on the menu was Sinigang na Isda, and that was just about it.

The kitchen has been overused lately, and I didn't want to make a big mess that I'd have to clean up after. 

I especially wanted to give the stove top a rest after all the grilling/cooking I've been doing these past few days.

So I decided to let my oven show off its skills. Well it better have skills, it's a Miele!

What better way than to stuff my little porker inside (it fit perfectly), after stuffing it's cavity with Lemongrass, Tamarind leaves and Onion Leeks. I asked well-respected foodie MarketMan for some tips, and I rubbed the piglet's skin with some olive oil and salt. Looked so peaceful while I set the  oven on ROAST mode.

After about 2 and a half hours, the kitchen was beginning to smell divine. The skin was beautifully browned and crispy. I'm so happy my oven has Convection Roast as an option, because it distributed the heat perfectly. I set it atop a  rack so that the pan would capture its drippings and remove the extra fat... whatever little it did have.

If you take a closer look, the piggy looks a little less cute and a little bit mean. Oh, I forgot to mention that the little piggy isn't just an ordinary piggy, but a Baboy Damo aka Wild Boar! Why, you might wonder, would ToT have little wild boarlets just stashed inside her freezer? Well, it's coz my dad is a frustrated farmer and happened to take care of a litter of wild boars... which now total to over 100. Sheesh!

When chopped, it didn't look like much, but we were a group of 9 adults and 3 kids and we were able to have our fair share of the pork meat, so soft and moist and quite tasty because of the stuffing I placed inside piggy prior to roasting. My mother's only complaint was that there wasn't enough fat, and it was akin to eating diet lechon. I absolutely loved it because the meat had a sweetness to it that you can't find on older pigs because of all the feeds and age.

My favorito part would have to be the ribs! Soooooo tasty because of the lemongrass/onion leek/tamarind leaves stuffing, it had absorbed most of the flavor and was falling off the rib-bones. Needless to say, there wasn't a lot of meat to go around, so this disappeared quickly...

Now I want to do a take-two at my ToT-de Leche! Maybe I can stuff it with a little roast chicken... coz I'm just crazy like that. And also because I just found out my oven came with a wireless ROAST PROBE! Must read manual!

Thanks Market Man!
Thank you Miele. I love you! Now if only I had a rotisserie installed inside...