Cochinillo (Suckling Pig)

[Xabia Jim]

This recipe used a fresh piglet of about 10 pounds.

The pig was taken out of the fridge to warm in the morning and the oven was fired up 3 to 4 hours ahead of time.

Wash it thoroughly, hang to let dry or towel it dry, particularly the outside.
Salt and pepper the inside liberally.

Create a stuffing if you like:
Coarsely chop two red onions, one apple, and sauté in olive oil in a medium sided pan.
Add ½ head of minced garlic, and 15 whole fresh sage leaves, and stir
Then add ½ bottle of red wine and reduce most of the liquid
Add ½ a loaf of crumbled bread and some toasted pine nuts and stir into the mix.
Now stuff the pig with this mixture.

Coat outside of pig liberally with olive oil, and put in the terracotta dish positioned like the sphinx. We’ve seen it flattened open wide as well but in a larger pan and you can do it on its side but I’d turn it once.

Protect the extremities like the ears and tail with foil. If the legs are exposed, you might do the feet as well. Tying the feet will help keep it together particularly if you’ve roasted it on its side.

Bake in a slow oven for 4 to 5 hours. (less an hour if not stuffed) Rotate your dish around some. I threw a log on the coals initially which adds a nice smoky flavor for me. You can also cover the dish with foil for part of the cooking to reduce this smokiness somewhat. (I had to pull the coals out though because I felt it was too hot. I then cooled down the oven so it was not sizzling.) In Spanish tradition of Segovia, you could cut this with a dinner plate as it absolutely fell off the bone!

You can drain off the juices to make gravy if desired. Keep the pig covered and warm while you do this. Serve with vegetables and potatoes. We did the seared tomatoes, fennel, carrots and mashed potatoes.

Save (freeze) the bones as they will make you a very nice soup stock. I added them to my chicken stock last time and it was a nice variation. I had a lot of liquid so I ‘put it in the fridge to chill and will make a nice rice dish after skimming off the fat!

[Inishta]

Brilliant Xjim..................love the third picture...............it has that 'will the condemned require a blindfold' feel to it.

[Xabia Jim]

....yeah, I didn't want it to see this.....