Roast Suckling Pig

The following post may contain scenes of nudity, violence and coarse sea salt. Viewer discretion is advised.

Since all the talk on Chowtimes about Roast Pork (Siu Yook) it got us thinking At A Wok in the Tuscan Kitchen, so we tried our hand at roasting a suckling pig.....you know how it goes. Go big or go Home.

Once upon a time, a little piglet was trotting along, minding his own business........

This foodie adventure started with sourcing a pig. It was pretty simple, one phone call and it was done.
Most people go and buy already roasted pork from the BBQ shop at Parker Place, not us...."we'd like a fresh whole pig, please." It took only a bit of convincing before they took my $130.00 (that works out to $5.20 per pound). I know, not really a great deal, but we wanted to try cooking this....the stuff you do for blogging.

I was a bit nervous about handling piglet. So I used my charm and just like that, problem solved... the nice butcher man offered to escort little piglet out of the market and into the car for me. He said, he didn't want me to mess up my clothes! Nice butcher man. That is worth the $5.20 per pound, right there!

新年快樂 Happy Year of the Rabbit! 恭禧發財

恭禧發財 Gung Hay Fat Choy!

新年快樂 Sun Nian Fai Lok!

Chinese New Year Celebrations will be in full swing by the time you are reading this. We will be celebrating with friends and family. There will be an abundance of food and perhaps a bit of frolicking!

Here is a fun link that will provide the quick and dirty about Chinese New Year.

http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/

As with most families, the celebrations revolve around food. Ours is no exception. My mom does a lot of traditional cooking….making sure we feast on a bounty of things that will bring luck and prosperity to our family. One of the traditions my mom has always followed is including our ancestors in the celebration. An offering is made to our dearly departed relatives. I admire my mom for carrying on this tradition. It has taught me the true meaning of respect. I have much gratitude for our family’s ancestors. They have laid the foundation for who we are today.

OK onto the food.

Hot Pot or if you want to be a fancy pants.....Fondue Chinois

The Hot Pot....in action  (Fish Paste and Veggies)

This is one of the meals that evokes some really good memories.  Don't you just love it when food does that?

My earliest recollection of this meal would be hanging out at the association hall in Chinatown and enjoying this meal with my dad and all the "village uncles".  They were busy preparing the big feast to bring in the New Year.
Usually on December 26 or 27, the preparations would begin, starting with the washing of the dishes, which had been stored for a year.

After a long day of washing and cleaning they would make this meal outside over huge propane burners made from converted oil drums.  Enormous woks would hold  the boiling broth and all sorts of things would get thrown in.  To be honest, I don't recall what we ate.....usually there was a lot of choy (greens).  I just remember looking forward to this fun meal....hanging out with dad and the boys.  In fact, I think it took some convincing on my part to be allowed to join in this male ritual.

Today we enjoy this hot pot meal much more often than once a year.
We have recently purchased an induction cook top and love it....we think it's an upgrade from the butane burner. It's instantaneous!.....and it seems the house doesn't get as warm as it does with open flames from the butane burner.

A Communal Birthday Celebration

It has become a tradition for 3 dear friends to celebrate their birthday together.  We were all born the same year, all attended the same secondary school (a long time ago!) and all continue to stay in touch...........that has to be good reason for a celebration!

So Happy Birthday Dee and M....here's to many more.

Since our birthdays fall in different months, we averaged the days of the year and came up with "our" birthday as sometime in late August.  Life is busy, but we finally got together and marked this auspicious occasion.

This year's theme happened to coincide with the happenings in the back garden.  So it's no surprise that our lovely wine paired meal was Tuscan inspired. Tradition has been that we celebrate in a grand fashion with a lovely tasting menu paired with yummy wines.  Some of the meals have lasted hours.  This one was no different.  In fact we had so much fun, it turned into a slumber party.  Who said old farts can't party?

We each prepared a course or two each and selected lovely wine pairings to compliment each.

My course was very interactive;  interactive, not out of design, but necessity!!

Have you ever experienced things suddenly breaking down in your home?  Well that happened around here.....and as with most things around here......it happened in a big way.  Over the course of 2 days we lost the dishwasher, microwave and yes, the very well loved and often used pasta roller attachment for the KitchenAid.  With the menu planned and no time to shop, I resorted to hand rolling the pasta for this dinner. Well actually, I coerced my two birthday buddies into hand rolling the pasta for dinner.

In the true Tuscan tradition,

Hand-Rolled Pici with a Hearty Ragu (click on Pici to view the recipe)

With antipasti to nibble on and luscious wines to sip we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. I think we have stumbled upon a new tradition.  The Pici was fabulous and the process was rather amusing.

Check out the video to see the Pici makers in action.   You also get a glimpse of Garden Guru working away in Tuscany.

So that's how 3 friends and a few of their guests enjoyed their birthday this year.  Fun times, good food, yummy wine........great friends!

Life doesn't get much better than this.