Karate Pig Recipes

MOJO CRIOLLO ROASTED PIG

Steps:

• Make marinade: peel and mash the garlic cloves. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Let stand for a minimum of 1 hour. Strain marinade and then inject the marinade into the pig. Let marinate overnight, in the refrigerator, for best results.
• Open the pork by the belly, but do not cut or poke holes into the upper or side skin. Place the grease tray inside the Caja China. Tie the pig in between the grids, on its back, and place in the grease tray. Close the Caja China with the ash pan and charcoal grid. Allow 4 inches of separation between the roast and the ash pan. We recommend the pork be at room temperature at the time of roasting.
• Prepare the charcoal: we recommend Kingsford Charcoal because it lights faster, burns evenly, and lasts longer. Never use instant charcoal. Start with 14 pounds of charcoal for Caja China Model #1 and 16 pounds for Model #2. Place the charcoal into 2 piles of equal size, on each end of the charcoal tray. Never place charcoal on center of tray. Add lighter fluid and light.
• When the charcoal is lit for 15 minutes, distribute it evenly throughout the tray. Once this process is completed, roast pork for 3 hours, without opening the Caja China. Add more charcoal after 1 hour and distribute evenly throughout the tray. After 3 hours, wearing heavy-duty silicone mitts, remove the charcoal tray, ash pan, and dump the ashes. Then turn the pork over and cut into the skin, every 4 to 6 inches. Place the ash pan and charcoal tray, filled with new charcoal, back into position and continue the roasting process. Check the skin after 20 minutes, slightly opening the box by 1 of the corners. You can continue this process until the skin's crispness is to your liking. For a pig this large, it will probably require a full hour on its second side.
• Remove the pork from the Caja China. Deposit the contents of the grease tray into a container, let cool, and discard with trash. You can slice the pork with a plate; it is not necessary to use a knife.

ROASTED STUFFED PIG

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;

ROAST PIG

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.

WHOLE ROAST SUCKLING PIG

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.