Lechon Love

Blame the Hubby and Heston Blumenthal.   

I offered to cater for the 38th day party of my new niece T, and was in the midst of planning the menu.  I mentioned to the Hubby that I was thinking of having a centrepiece of sorts for the party, but wasn't quite sure what it should be.  We were watching the program "Feasts" by Heston Blumenthal, where he served a whole pig to his guests, complete with "intestines" made out of fancy sausages, when it hit me - of course!  Why not truly celebrate T's coming into the world with a lechon?   

And so the quest was born of finding a Victorian supplier for the much-loved Filipino feast specialty - a whole pig(let) roasted over hot coals and served whole, covered with the most delicious mahogany brown crackling that you can imagine.  It's a lavish dish traditionally reserved for very special occasions, and Filipinos will know well that nothing beats biting into that sweet, succulent flesh and seriously wonderful crackling. 

After Googling and a few phone calls to Apolo's Lechon, plus an almost clandestine rendezvous (worthy of a Tarantino movie) at a carpark marked by a Subway sandwich restaurant in an outer suburb of Melbourne, the 31-kilo and 1 metre long lechon graced T's party.  My brother-in-law was fit to burst with excitement, and so was I - it had only been around 15 years since I had eaten lechon, and the Hubby was chuffed that his idea worked so well.  The party girl T just greeted the whole hullaballoo with a yawn and a little "wah" while in the arms of her Mum - after all, she wasn't even going to get a taste of the pig. Her big brother J was too busy at the swings to give the piggy much thought, but the other kids around were incredibly curious and frankly fascinated.

M was given the honour of dissecting the pig with his beautiful Global cleaver, and with great aplomb and skill too (thank God for his chef's apprenticeship!) despite him feeling quite under the weather.  Thanks, M.  And to everyone's credit, despite some initial shock and feelings of being confronted with seeing where their meal was coming from, everyone dug in and had some lechon, with a few going back for seconds, thirds and even fourths.

There was other stuf to eat too, of course, including my Mum's Bicol Express (a wickedly hot chili dish) reincarnated as a canape on crisp wonton cups, and Thai-style prawn and chicken miang on betel leaves.

A particularly fabulous find at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Markets was Pimientos de Padron  - a chili that I always thought could only be grown in Queensland by Midyim Eco Growers, who had suffered previous poor harvests due to inclement weather. 

Suffice it to say I was beyond thrilled to see the pimientos available to serve at T's party, as I only ever know to serve it one way - sauteed in plenty of olive oil until charred with whole blanched almonds and plenty of salt, then on a platter to be picked at and eaten whole.  Also known as the Russian roulette of peppers, it's said that 1 in 10 Pimientos de Padron is seriously hot, the rest sweet as capsicum.  Absolutely perfect party food when there's lots of brave partygoers and alcohol to wash down the (potential) chili heat.

But back to the lechon - many Filipinos would agree that lechon leftovers are even better than the main event, in the guise of "paksiw na lechon" - an unctuous stew with soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaves, garlic and the leftover special lechon sauce.  Best served with lots and lots of steaming hot rice - yummo!

With remarkably only around 8 kilos of lechon left over (we only did have around 25 adults to devour the beast!), there were plenty of leftovers, and even enough for us to take back to Sydney. Absolute bliss!