Roasted Pork on a Spit

Copyright 2012 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

Roast Pork or Lechon is a traditional food served during family outings and whenever there is a special occasion be it with families or even at work. My cousin have requested that we roast our own pig long before I even booked my ticket to fly home. I was all for it since I have not tasted it for years and I have been craving it for some time now. For this party with my friends and former teachers, we bought a 70-lb live pig which was butchered at around 3 in the morning so that it will be ready for lunch that same day. Word of advice, never befriend an animal destined to be killed for its meat or you will suffer. 

Copyright 2012 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

The pig came the day before and it was the sweetest pig ever. It was a small sow who had the best temperament and even allowed us to stroke her lovingly. Knowing we will be eating her the following day, I stayed away from her the rest of the day to avoid bonding with her some more. I wish I could keep her as a pet. For reals! Darn!

Anyway, I woke up the next day and my little piglet was already cleaned and was ready to be slow-roasted under a bed of hot coals. Prior to roasting, it was stuffed with lemongrass, banana leaves and a sour fruit we call "batwan" in our local dialect. It is a main ingredient usually in sour broths and in roasted meats but it seems to be mainly used only in the region I grew up in. Now, the roasting part is really an art form. It takes forever to roast the pig on the spit turning round and round so that it cooks evenly. It also gets basted with cooking oil and a can of evaporated milk to give the skin a really yummy taste. I'm enclosing a video of my cousin-in-law roasting the pig although he got a bit conscious when he realized I was filming the process. It took them about 4 hours to fully roast the pork and while we were about to serve it, we realized that we forgot to buy an apple to stuff in its gaping mouth. Necessity being the mother of invention, we opted for a ripe mango fruit.