Lechon Paksiw

Okey, it is "leftover time". Just a few days before Christmas, our family went to a Filipino Community Christmas party. It is common to expect a lechon in gatherings like this with the lechon still presented in whole. However, with the size of the attendees, it was worth having the lechon chopped into serving pieces to expedite the cue or to leave decent pieces for the people at the end of the line. The head and the hocks were something we set aside because they were too much to worry about in terms of presentation, etc.

At the end of the night, no one was willing to take these parts home. I guess it is either they are so "pigged out"(pardon me) or for some, they are are just confessed "don't-know-how-to-cook" beings. Of course I took them home. Little do they know that these are the most coveted parts of a lechon back in the Philippines. I cooked these parts the next day and froze them, making sure that they are packed into serving sizes good for 4.

Ingredients:

Hocks chopped into small piesces.

Head

1/3 cup of soy sauce

2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped

about 10 pieces of peppercorns

5 bay leaves

1/3 cup of vinegar

5 tbsp of sugar

1 bottle of Mang Tomas All Purpose Sauce

2 cups of water

In a huge saucepan, put everything in and cover. Bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until pork is tender. Usually for the head, I let it get cooked first until you can actually separate the flesh from the skull. Slice the fleshy parts and put them back in the pot, discarding the bones and skull. Adjust taste as soon as pork is tender.