Oven Roasted Stuffed Porchetta

Sorry I've been gone for so long! I keep thinking I'll write up this recipe or that recipe. But it all seems boring. I know there have been a million people that wrote up their recipe for gyoza or lasagna. How is mine special? This time I'll write something great ... something everyone will look up. I know ... Porchetta!!!!

So our group of school friend decided to have a holiday party with gift exchange this year. And of course I think of this as my opportunity to try a new recipe! And since one of my girlfriends was going on and on about how she wants a porchetta recipe, I decided, why not? Everything is findable on the internet. But not really ... I found maybe two recipes online (in English, I bet there are a ton in Italian!). Everyone was reviewing the famous place in the East Village, NYC called Porchetta ... But no one really making it. Its pretty expensive to buy ... $10 for a sandwich. Luckily the meat used for this roast is an inexpensive cut. These guys are making a killing! I should open a porchetta store ... though somehow I don't think a Japanese making porchetta would be considered authentic to any of my potential customers!


Our holiday dinner was a feast as always!

Oven Roasted Stuffed Porchetta Recipe

Serves 18

1 T butter or olive oil

1/3 fennel bulb, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 shallot, chopped

1 head garlic, chopped

1/4 pound ground pork

1/3 pound chicken livers, soaked in milk 2 hrs, veins removed, chopped fine*

1 bunch sage leaves, chopped

1/2 bunch rosemary, minced

1/3 cup currents

splash of white wine

salt and pepper to taste but should be aggressive

13 pound pork shoulder, bones removed and butterflied with skin in tact

salt

pepper

kitchen twine

2-3 days before planning to roast the porchetta, make the stuffing. Saute fennel, onion, shallot, and garlic over medium high heat until translucent but not browned. Add ground pork and chicken livers and continue cooking until everything is cooked, but not browned. Turn heat to low and mix in sage, rosemary, currents, and white wine until incorporated and not too wet. Salt and pepper this mixture. The flavor should be aggressive. Set aside and allow the mixture to cool.

Take the pork shoulder and score the skin and fat so it is easy to cut the cracklings when it is done roasting. Turn the roast over, and aggressively salt and pepper the inside of the roast, massaging the seasoning into the pork. Then place the stuffing in a nice even layer, leaving a one inch margin so the roast can easily be rolled and tied without the stuffing falling out. Roll the roast up. Using kitchen twine, tie up the roast. Starting from the center, very tightly tie up the roast. Then tie up a couple more times on either side of the center. Additionally tie up the length of the roast.

Allow the roast to marinate for 2-3 days in the in the frig.

The day you are roasting the porchetta, remove the pork from the frig two hours prior to roasting. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place porchetta in oven, skin side up. Allow to roast for approximately 30 minutes per pound (weight after the bones have been removed) until it reaches an internal temperature of at least 160-165F. It could take less time with a large roast such as my approximately 10 pound final weight pork shoulder. It took about 4 1/2 hours, so please periodically check the temperature of your roast. It does not need basting, since there is a large fat layer around the pork and the crackling skin needs to be dry to harden and crisp up. Remove the roast from the oven when it reaches the proper temperature of 160F and allow it to rest at least 30 minutes to let it redistribute all the juices. To slice, remove crackling first, and slice extremely thin. The thinner the better!


*Before this party, I had a bit of a dilemma with the roast. Originally got a much smaller roast, so I told my friend I'd make chicken liver pate so we'd have an appetizer. She answered "ew! I'm so not going to eat it!" I told her she's be surprised, she might like chicken livers and not know it. Most people just don't prepare chicken livers properly. Anyways, at the party she was going on and on about how much she loved the stuffing. I snickered and told her the stuffing is half chicken liver! She doesn't like being proven wrong!

Buta no Kakuni

Buta no kakuni is Japanese braised pork belly. Since Japanese food is considered healthy (we do have the longest average life expectancy in the world) and bacon is made from pork belly, this is the healthy version of bacon. Yay! Healthy bacon! I'll keep telling myself that! I usually make enough so that I can freeze enough for when I want a small portion for my ramen.

On to the recipe ... So let me be honest, I rarely measure anything when I cook. This is just my disclaimer. I will list the ingredients with approximate volumes, but just go by taste. Besides, you might not even like my cooking since all most of you guys are seeing are pictures but have never tasted my cooking. Btw, this is a recipe using a pressure cooker. You can simmer it slowly over the stove, but I don't have any idea how long it will take to cook, maybe 2 hours or so?

Recipe for Buta no Kakuni (Simmered Pork Belly)

Ingredients:
1 package Pork Belly (about 2 lbs)
Thumb sized chunk of ginger, unpeeled, but smashed slightly under knife
2 cloves of garlic, smashed under knife
1 Leek, cleaned of all sand and cut into 3 chunks
1/2 c Soy Sauce
1/4 c Cooking Sake
1/4 c Mirin
1/4 c Sugar
2T vinegar
water

Cut the pork belly into 2 inch cubes. Rinse the pork under cool water. Place the pork belly into a large pot with water filled until its covering the pork. Bring this to a boil, and then turn it down to a simmer for 15 minutes. Skim any of the foam that floats to the top. Drain the pork in a colander and rinse with cool water to rid the pork of any coagulated foam, yuck!

Brown the each pork belly piece on all sides in some oil over medium heat. (This is optional, I was being lazy and didn't do this for the pork belly pictured above. Its suppose to taste better and it keeps it from falling apart as easily.) Place the browned pork belly pieces and all the remaining ingredients into the pressure cooker and cover with water until almost all pieces are covered. The cooking liquid should be pretty dark in color. Taste the cooking liquid (the pork is already cooked so it should be safe), make sure it is salty enough with a touch of sweetness. If not, add more soy sauce and/or sugar. Bring to high pressure and cook for 15 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally. The meat should be pork tender, but not falling apart. If it is not ready, cook it a bit longer. If you like hard boiled eggs in the kakuni, after the pressure is released, place peeled hard boiled eggs into the cooking liquid and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the ginger, garlic cloves, and leeks, do not eat, it was only to flavor the liquid and pork.

Eat with a squeeze of lemon (this cuts the fatty taste) and karashi (Japanse mustard). The kakuni tastes even better if left overnight to absorb more of the sauce. If you make alot, freeze aliquots of 2 or 3 pieces of pork wrapped in saran wrap to use in ramen.