005/18 – Balinese Roast Pork (Babi Guling):
As I mentioned in a previous post, I was having a good read of The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen over Christmas and ended up adding loads of the recipes to my list to cook this year! Next up was Balinese Roast Pork – Babi Guling.
The Meat:
This was the Pannage Pork Shoulder mentioned in this cook:
The shoulder was the top part of this joint – mostly the bits within the two lines of tape:
The shoulder was massive (the bit on the left):
So I cut it into 2: 1 for this cook, 1 for the next cook.
Loads of info on Pannage Pork in this cook:
The Prep:
The pork had been de-boned when I separated it so I unrolled it and cut a slit through the meat from one end to the other. The Victorinox boning knife came in handy for this, razor sharp and small enough to cut without hacking the meat!
I combined shallots, Thai chillies, garlic, ginger, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, coriander, black pepper, lime juice, brown sugar and salt in a mortar and pounded it into a smooth paste with the pestle. The paste was fried in a bit of oil in a frying pan. We had eaten bacon for breakfast and the bacon fat was in the pan so I used that to add a bit of extra taste to the mix! After about 5 minutes I removed the spice mix and left it to cool before rubbing about half of the mix into the pocket cut into the meat earlier. The remaining mix was then rubbed around the outside of the meat.
Practicing my Scott Rea butchers knots the meat was rolled up and tied with string at 1 inch intervals.
I fired up a full chimney of Oxford Charcoal Hardwood Blend lumpwood and once fully lit I poured it into the charcoal baskets either side of the grill so the rotisserie could run through the middle.
The Cook:
I set the Rotisserie up and added Apple and Oak chunks from Smokewood Shack – Chosen as the Pannage pigs eat Acorns and Apples 😉
After around an hour I topped up the charcoal, the meat had taken on a great colour and was smelling fantastic!
Glorious!
I kept an eye on the internal temperatures after the first hour of cooking. The book says to cook it to 190f but I was running a bit late for the kids dinner and as the pork was good quality I thought I could take it off a bit earlier so at 65c internal (149f) I took it off and left it to rest for 10 minutes.
My wife made Long Beans with Fresh Coconut and Balinese Yellow Rice from the same book to go with the meat.
Time to Eat:
After the meat had rested I could see no end of juice on the board which is usually a good sign! I sliced it in half and had a look, bit of pink and plenty of juice. It smelt great and I sneaked a bite of the crust on the outside which was fantastic.
I started slicing up the meat.
I chopped the ends so everyone could get a bit!
Served up with the Long Beans with Fresh Coconut and Balinese Yellow Rice.
Summary:
Really nice to cook something a bit different again and the spice mix smelt fantastic. The meat was top quality and tasted great. It was a it was a fairly easy cook and the side dishes worked well with the meat. The crackling was a bit tough in places, hard to say if I overcooked the outside or freezing the meat had an impact. Would be interesting to try it again with the skin removed. The meat itself was spot on but I think it could have benefited from being cooked further as the recipe suggest to help render the fat down a bit and soften the meat a bit. Shoulder is a fairly tough meat so would benefit from the longer cook. I could have done pulled pork with this slab of meat but wanted to try something different and I am glad I gave it a go!
| Cook Difficulty: | 2/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Medium: 3/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Kettle |
| Cook Method: | Rotisserie |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Hardwood Blend |
| Smoking Wood: | Smokewood Shack Apple and Oak |
| Cook temperature: | 250c |
| Cook time: | 90 minutes 10 minute rest |
| Internal temperature: | 65C |
| Notes: | 1: Cook the meat for longer, take shoulder up to 190f even if not pulling it. 2: Try it again with the skin removed. |