Lechon is a simple roasted pork of the Philippines and is basically seasoned with soy sauce, salt, and pepper, and is stuffed with lemon grass, bananas, and taro. And a dipping sauce may be used, and is generally made up of vinegar, green onions, garlic, and pepper. Or of coures patis is used on many occasions in homes and backyard parties.
Since I am mostly a home cook, and like to do things on smaller scales, and not huge scales, I won't have you travel to your local hog farm to get a whole hog. Instead, let's get a nice pork tenderloin about 4 lbs. Trim all of the unwanted skin if it's not done so already. Leave nice amounts of the fat if you can, it adds flavor.
Place a couple of large banana leaves on the bottom of a roasting pan, if you can't get banana leaves, just use some foil. On the foil, place 2 bananas, sliced into pieces on to the foil, then place 1 large potato that is cut into cubes over the bananas, then chop 2 oz. of lemon grass and place it over the banans and potatoes.
Place the tenderoin on to a clean surface or large cutting boar. Rub a generous amount of dark soy sauce all over the meat, rub it in so that it is going into the grain of the meat, this produces that dark color when roasted.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over tenderloin, and rub it into the meat as well, the flavors will be stronger when massaging it into the meat.
Place the loin over the bananas, potatoes and lemon grass.
Preaheat oven to 375 deg. F.
Place the roasting pan, uncovered into the oven, roast it for about 1 1/2 hours, check for doneness at around this time, using an instant read thermometer, from the thickest part of the loin, it should read 160 deg. F. A good guage for pork roasting in terms of time, it is usually around 25 minutes per pound, so 4 multiplied by 25 is 100 minutes, or 1 hour and 40 minutes. But always remember that all ovens are different, and that this guideline is just a guideline, and that meat out of the hot oven continues to cook after you take it out. By letting the meat rest for 10 minutes, the temperature should get up to par with the guideline. Also dried out pork isn't too appealing either, if the meat is hot in the center by the thermometer's reading, that's all that matters, if the pork looks a tad pink, it's still okay. But the temperature must be at the 160 deg. F. mark for safety consumption.
Make a sauce by using 1 cup of vinegar, 1/8 cup of chopped green onions, 2 tbsp. of patis (fish sauce) and a few garlic cloves sliced. Be creative, add some lemons to the sauce, or toasted sesame seeds too.
A nice all natural pork tenderloin tied with twine to keep a nice log shape, season these up with the directions from above, and you got yourself a nice Lechon home style.
Since I am mostly a home cook, and like to do things on smaller scales, and not huge scales, I won't have you travel to your local hog farm to get a whole hog. Instead, let's get a nice pork tenderloin about 4 lbs. Trim all of the unwanted skin if it's not done so already. Leave nice amounts of the fat if you can, it adds flavor.
Place a couple of large banana leaves on the bottom of a roasting pan, if you can't get banana leaves, just use some foil. On the foil, place 2 bananas, sliced into pieces on to the foil, then place 1 large potato that is cut into cubes over the bananas, then chop 2 oz. of lemon grass and place it over the banans and potatoes.
Place the tenderoin on to a clean surface or large cutting boar. Rub a generous amount of dark soy sauce all over the meat, rub it in so that it is going into the grain of the meat, this produces that dark color when roasted.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over tenderloin, and rub it into the meat as well, the flavors will be stronger when massaging it into the meat.
Place the loin over the bananas, potatoes and lemon grass.
Preaheat oven to 375 deg. F.
Place the roasting pan, uncovered into the oven, roast it for about 1 1/2 hours, check for doneness at around this time, using an instant read thermometer, from the thickest part of the loin, it should read 160 deg. F. A good guage for pork roasting in terms of time, it is usually around 25 minutes per pound, so 4 multiplied by 25 is 100 minutes, or 1 hour and 40 minutes. But always remember that all ovens are different, and that this guideline is just a guideline, and that meat out of the hot oven continues to cook after you take it out. By letting the meat rest for 10 minutes, the temperature should get up to par with the guideline. Also dried out pork isn't too appealing either, if the meat is hot in the center by the thermometer's reading, that's all that matters, if the pork looks a tad pink, it's still okay. But the temperature must be at the 160 deg. F. mark for safety consumption.
Make a sauce by using 1 cup of vinegar, 1/8 cup of chopped green onions, 2 tbsp. of patis (fish sauce) and a few garlic cloves sliced. Be creative, add some lemons to the sauce, or toasted sesame seeds too.
A nice all natural pork tenderloin tied with twine to keep a nice log shape, season these up with the directions from above, and you got yourself a nice Lechon home style.
yeah! this is so cool!!
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