The Philippines is our next destination in our Around The World in 80 BBQs project.
We took inspiration from Mary Berry's 'Easter Food Around the World' program televised in March 2016. During the program one of her guests showcased a traditional Filipino Easter dish, Pork Lechon.
We decided to give this recipe a go, but also compliment it using a Weber Genesis BBQ to help create the juiciest pork with the best crispy crackling!
The ingredients couldn't be much simpler and with veg and potatoes you could easily feed a group of 12 people for around £30 - great value!
WoW BBQ purchased a slab of Pork Belly around 2.5kg in weight and brined it for 24 hours in a lemon grass, onion, garlic and bay leaves.
INGREDIENTS
2.5kg of Pork Belly
For the brine:
Water
Cup of Salt
One large onion
4 lemon grass stalks
2 garlic cloves
6 bay leaves
INGREDIENTS
For the pork:
4 lemon grass stalks
6 garlic cloves, finely minced
4 spring onions
6 bay leaves
Salt and Pepper
EQUIPMENT
To produce this dish we've used the following:
Weber Genesis S330
Q Roasting Shield
Q Roasting Rack
Drip Trays
Gloves
IN THE KITCHEN
For the pork:
Add your brine ingredients into a large deep tray (smash the lemongrass and garlic cloves, roughly chop the onion).
Refrigerate the pork which should be totally submerged in your brine.
After 24 hours, remove the pork from your brine and lay it down on a clean work surface.
Dab the pork dry and season generously with salt and pepper on both sides.
Lay the pork, fat side down and place diced garlic, lemongrass cut lengthways and crushed, 4 spring onions cut lengthways and 6 bay leaves evenly over the meat.
Truss the meat using butchers string.
AT THE BBQ
Preheat the BBQ at a low heat, ideally around 120 degrees celcius.
Place the trussed Pork joint on the Q Roasting Shield with Large Q Roasting Rack into the middle of the grill for an indirect cook and leave for 5 hours (joint was 2.5kg).
Turn the heat up to 200 degrees celcius for the last half an hour to crisp up the skin.
The results of this dish were superb – juicy tender meat with perfectly crisp crackling!
