Pierre DeRagon Personal Chef Services

13/09/2024

13/09/2024

27/06/2024

HOW TO DO AN HORS D’OEUVRE RECEPTION
and live to tell the story…..

Before you read any further I must clarify something. This party was done, but not posted, two years ago in June 2022 and for some reason I just didn't post it. I wanted to let you know because I did not make a miraculous recovery from the life-altering surgery I had in February..

June 2022:

This past weekend was a busy one. In fact, the entire week before the weekend was a busy one. I probably over-extended myself but the two events that transpired were both labors of love.

Saturday was a bridal shower for 35 women that was given by the aunt of the bride and Sunday was a buffet dinner for 15 guests. Both hostesses were wonderful to work with. The shower hostess was a very talented floral designer and elected to do all the flowers but coming from North Carolina she had her work cut out for her. She did it beautifully.

The shower was an hors d'oeuvre event, which I love doing but they’re not done very often. With time passing between hors d'oeuvre events I forgot how much work they are and how much detail is critical to the success and beauty of the food.

Plus, it has to taste great.

I became very caught up in the preparation of the shower food primarily because of the empathy that developed between me and the hostess. This was an event from her heart and done completely out of love by an aunt for her niece. I understand that completely, being very close to my nephew and my niece. Very shortly after we began speaking about the shower and the food I became very passionate about the event and the food's success. I understood what she wanted and she understood what I was going to do.

Steady as she goes…..

You MUST be organized and you MUST be methodical. An hors d’oeuvre reception is a ton of work because everything is so small and so detailed and usually has so many components and steps in just one hors d’oeuvre.

Plan ahead! List each hors d’oeuvre and each step that is necessary to bring that hors d’oeuvre to completion. Then set objectives for each day for completion of different cooking and assembly steps….. and meet them.

I started shopping and prepping for this shower a week before the event, simultaneously shopping and prepping for the shower and the buffet dinner I catered the day after. This was a double whammy, but if you are organized and methodical you’ll make it!

I didn’t shop both events all at once – there was no way there would have been room in my cooking space to store everything. So, I shopped early every morning, buying what I needed to prepare for that day. This may sound like a waste of time but you have to adapt your method and ex*****on to the environment you are working in.

Prepare in advance…..

With hors d'oeuvres, you make as much in advance as you possibly can and freeze it, bearing in mind that the bulk of putting it all together takes place the day and night before, and the day of.

Oi.

For example……

08/04/2024

LOBSTER-STUFFED BEEF TENDERLOIN WITH A LOBSTER BEARNAISE SAUCE - Part Trois

Now the fun starts!

First, BUTTERFLYING THE MEAT.

After the whole tenderloin is butchered and trimmed the next step is to butterfly it. Butterflying means we're going to transform the tenderloin from a whole, solid piece of meat to a thinner, flat, rectangular (as much as possible) piece of meat using a knife.

There are two methods (that I know of) to accomplish this. The first method is one I don't like and avoid using. The piece of meat is laid out on a cutting board and you make the first cut in the middle, down its length, parallel to the board almost through to the other side. See the photograph.

This leaves a hinge in the middle which is used to fold the meat open like a book. Then, if necessary, you use a tenderizing mallet to beat the meat on each side of the hinge until it's flat and of uniform thickness. You can help it along by making slashes in the meat.

I don't like this method.

SPIRAL BUTTERFLYING

The method I like is called spiral butterflying. The end result is a flat, evenly thick piece of meat that isn't subjected to pounding the living daylights out of it.

It is more difficult than the book and beat method but the result is much better. The visuals are courtesy of The Ladies Home Journal and show a boneless pork roast being spiral butterflied. Same dif.

You make a 1/2" deep cut above the underside of the roast that runs the whole long side. Then you just keep cutting inward above the underside of the roast, pulling back the meat as you cut and unrolling it like a carpet. See the photos.

ASSEMBLING THE STUFFED ROAST

Now that you've butterflied everything and mercifully that's over with, and you've made your mushroom duxelles the day before you are ready for the next step:

LOBSTERS

Again, like beef tenderloin - $$$$$! But it is so worth it.
Depending on the length of the tenderloin you will need 5 - 6 lobster tails removed from the shells. But before you lay down the tails you need to do some prep work to your meat.

First, season with salt and pepper what is going to be the inside of the rolled beef tenderloin -- the smooth side is the finished outside -- with alot of soft butter. Then lay down a layer of Prosciutto di Parma.

After the Prosciutto, schmeer a healthy thick layer of Mushroom Duxelles and then lay down the lobster tails. Season them with salt. There are two things to keep in mind when laying down the lobster tails:

1) you want the lobster tails to land in the center when you roll up the roast. In order for the tails to do this they need to be placed OFF-center. Please see the photograph and note that the tails are placed slightly below center.

2) you want the lobster to be of even thickness the length of the roast. To achieve this you must overlap the tails thick end over thin end, rather than thick over thick or thin over thin, which would give you super thick then super thin lobster inside your roast. You can see how to do it if you look closely at the photo.

Then, the final steps are approaching!

08/04/2024

LOBSTER-STUFFED BEEF TENDERLOIN WITH A LOBSTER BEARNAISE SAUCE -- Part Deux

Now that the tenderloin has been butchered, trimmed and cleaned it's time to begin getting the dish's various components together; and there are many.

The first is Mushroom Duxelles. The word "duxelles" (pronounced "do͝okˈsel" -- the s is silent) has no meaning in the culinary world other than its application to this preparation and boy, is it yummy. The good news is that you can make it a day in advance.

The purpose of the duxelles in this dish is to add a layer of flavor as well as a visual layer of interest when the dish is sliced. Making the duxelles is very easy and the recipe is below.

Mushroom duxelles can be used in many different dishes but it is most notably used in Beef Wellington, a retro preparation of beef tenderloin encased in puff pastry that ultimately went by the wayside, and with good reason: the "buck" far outweighs the "bang".

Mushroom Duxelles

Ingredients
* 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 2 medium shallots, coarsely chopped
* 2 pounds mushrooms, crimini or button
* 2 sprig fresh thyme
* 2 sprig fresh thyme, leaves picked
* 2 bay leaf
* 1 cup dry sherry
* 6 tablespoons créme frâiche (**Vermont Creamery makes very good, very thick créme frâiche. You can get it at Giant, Wegmans and Whole Foods)

Directions

Sauté the mushrooms and shallots with a few sprigs of thyme in a large frying pan on medium high heat with oil. Let them caramelize (note how dark they are in the photo); watch constantly and stir occasionally. Towards the end turn down the heat and add the dry sherry. Let the sherry cook down to practically nothing, then salt the mushrooms.

Let everything cool then put the mushrooms and shallots in a food processor and pulse until they are very finely chopped.
Transfer the mushrooms back to the frying pan and add thyme leaves and bay leaf. Add the créme frâiche and cook slowly to a very thick paste.

Season the mixture with salt and pepper. You can go rather heavy with the salt -- mushrooms can tolerate heavy seasoning and it will help season the dish, overall.

08/04/2024

LOBSTER-STUFFED BEEF TENDERLOIN WITH A LOBSTER BEARNAISE SAUCE

I posted this years ago but I thought it was worth another look. If you are having a dinner party, have some knife skills, are feeling adventurous and want to serve a showstopper main dish then this is it.

As usual I didn't take quite enough photographs because I get wrapped up in what I'm doing and as I progress through the process I just forget to take pictures. I think, though, that there are enough here to make it clear. Plus I borrowed some from other sources.

First, a whole beef tenderloin. Yikes - $$$$!! But this is for a special, special, special occasion. As much as possible -- and this can be difficult -- you want to find a good solid tenderloin that is of uniform thickness. The nature of the tenderloin is to be at its thickest in the center -- the Filet Mignon-- with its thickness tapering off towards the tail.

Really shop around, though, and see what you can discern underneath the thick plastic packaging you always find tenderloins in Your best bet is to go to your local butcher if, indeed, you have one close by. If the butcher knows what he or she is doing and you have a good relationship with them they will go all out for you. Cultivate your butcher.

However, if you are a DIY person, which I am as much as possible, you can butcher your beef tenderloin yourself. Bear in mind, this doesn't mean killing a cow and dismembering it.

Butchering the tenderloin just means you're going to purchase a whole tenderloin, clean and trim it, and cut it into whatever portions you want, if any.

In the case of this recipe you're going to use the whole thing except for two parts that you need to remove: 1) the chain, which is a long sinewy (yet delicious) piece of meat that runs the whole length of the tenderloin, and 2) the "muscle-on roast" which is a thick and very meaty piece that is attached at the very top of the thick part of the tenderloin. The chain is terrific for steak sandwiches or beef stroganoff and the muscle-on roast can be its own little tenderloin roast, ideal for two.

When you get the tenderloin lop off the chain and the muscle-on roast, packaging them up, and finish trimming the tenderloin of any silver, gristle, and other unusable flotsam.

You're now in for some pretty tricky stuff that's going to take a couple of posts to explain, so STAY TUNED.

10/02/2024

CHOUX PASTRY, PROFITEROLES, GOUGERE, CREAM PUFFS

Whatever you decide to call them, all the words above work together to make light, crispy pastry shells that will hold a multitude of different sweet and savory fillings.

Choux (pronounced Shoo) Pastry - is the soft pastry dough you mix to make profiteroles.

Profiteroles -- are the baked shells you create by filling a pastry bag with the choux pastry and piping them onto a sheet pan then baking them.

Gougere -- Gougere is a specific name for profiteroles with cheese - usually Gruyere -- mixed into the choux pastry. In short, cheese puffs. They can also be filled. The filling usually is a bechamel sauce has finely grated Gruyere cheese and Parmigiano Reggiano incorporated into it, making it a Mornay sauce.

Cream Puffs -- are profiteroles that are filled with a sweet pastry cream or a sweetened whipped cream. You can make your profiteroles bite sized or large like we often see in retail bakeries.

I love the versatility of profiteroles because you can make them any size you want, any shape you want, and fill them with anything you want -- a sweet pastry cream, sweetened whipped cream, a savory cream-based filling, chicken salad, egg salad, ham salad..... just about anything.

You want to fill them right before service as much as possible so they don't get soggy.

They're also great because you can freeze them after baking. They freeze really well.

The attached recipe is Ina Garten's so it's easy, no fuss, no muss. The photos show the process of making them and product show different ways you can serve them.

DON'T BE AFRAID or intimidated! Anyone can make these!

02/02/2024

MAKING PAELLA

I love making Paella and started about 12 or 13 years ago when a very defeated bride contacted me to cater her wedding to be held at Mulberry Art Studios, in Lancaster, just a few weeks later.

I don't remember the exact circumstances of my hiring or why it happened so late in the planning process but she very much wanted to serve Spanish Tapas.

Time clouds memories but as I recall a close relative told her to just be happy with anything she could get and that got my dander up. She wanted Tapas and, by gum, she was going to get it. This was not a small wedding, mind you. It was about 130 guests and there were only a few weeks before the wedding to get myself together.

At the top of the "food I would love to have at my wedding" list was Paella and I had never made it before. So, as is my custom when I get inspired, I took a leap into an open grave. Not only would I make one, I would make four; four different varieties and with each type hailing from a different part of Spain.

I dove into study and became more and more excited as the wedding drew closer. I hit paydirt when I found what I thought -- and still do -- was the best Paella recipe ever. Memory escapes me as to where I found it but the finished product was astounding.

Valencia claims itself as the land where Paella was first made but who knows for sure. The rice used most for Paella is Bomba rice, and locally it is most readily found at Mandros Imported Foods at the corner of Charlotte and Lemon Streets in Lancaster.

Bomba rice is unlike any other. Paella is first and foremost a rice dish and the rice has to be the star of the show. Everything else you add to it, and believe me, you can add just about ANYTHING to it, is window dressing. While regular old rice cooks at a 2:1 liquid to rice ratio, generally, Bomba rice requires much, much more liquid to achieve an al denté but tender state.

While risotto rice such as Arborio or Carnaroli holds as much as three times more liquid than regular rice, Bomba rice holds as much as three times the amount of Arborio or Carnaroli to reach a proper cooked state. Therefore it is a long, slow cooking process that requires patience and very gradual addition of the liquid.

The liquid to cook the rice is also key. The recipe I use for the liquid, or stock, which is mostly for a seafood Paella, is wonderfully flavorful with chicken stock as the base, lobster shells, ancho chilies, tomato paste, brandy, onions, carrots, fennel, garlic, basil and saffron added. I start with 2 gallons of stock and reduce it to 3 quarts. It cooks for hours and is strained.

Just to give you an idea of the volume, it takes 3 quarts of stock, sometimes more, to cook 2 1/2 cups of Bomba rice to bring it to an al dente but tender state, which will fill a 17" wide shallow Paella pan. You add the stock, ladleful by ladleful, with most of the stock absorbed by the rice before the addition of the next ladle. And you don't stir -- you POKE -- and you shake the pan so that the stock is spread throughout the rice.

But even before the rice and the stock is the sofrito. Ah.... the sofrito. Never, never, never, never, never does it come out of a jar. EVER. It is an unctuous mixture of finely diced/chopped ancho chilies soaked in a small amount of boiling water, onion, garlic, red bell pepper, and roma tomatoes that is slow-cooked in a sauté pan until it is deeply caramelized.

If you haven't fallen sound asleep by now, it's time to start cooking.

You ladle about three ladlesful of stock into a face-meltingly hot Paella pan so that it almost comes to an immediate rolling boil. The average size of a Paella pan is 17" round, which will feed about 10 people and is made of carbon steel.

Then the sofrito is added, all of the rice is added all at once and stirred (the first and only time it is stirred), and then the heat is turned down to a simmer while shaking the pan vigorously to evenly distribute everything. Then comes the ladling, poking, shaking, ladling, shaking, poking, ladling....

By the time you are ready to add "the goodies" you're about two hours into it.

But, of course, what do you cook it on???

In Spain, the traditional cooking method is over an open bed of hot, hot, coals that are repeatedly stoked during the cooking process. You can also cook it on a stove top, which I have done many times, but you need the whole stove top and you also need to continuously rotate the pan for even cooking. I have also cooked it on a gas grill, which is very successful because of the even dispersement of heat over the bottom of the whole pan and because you can easily regulate the heat.

The premier clearinghouse of all things Paella making is La Tienda. They sell Paella burners, which are propane-powered, and consist of two concentric rings mounted on a stand with evenly-spaced holes punched in each ring. The flame comes out of the holes and is adjustable. This prevents having to constantly rotate the pan.

To cook four pans at one time I bought a La Tienda Paella burner and managed to scare up three more propane powered burners that would serve the purpose.

When the rice is just about done then the goodies are added, which can be just about anything -- chicken, chorizo, lobster, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, vegetables -- as you can see from the following photos.

I truly hope some of you cooks out there in Facebookland will take the plunge and make this remarkable dish for your guests.
You will be the toast of the town, or at least your guests!

14/01/2024

RECENT WORK, A Dinner for Eight
November 2023

My usual remedy for not posting in a while is to just give a smattering of work I've done over the past months. And so you will see below.

My trusty assistant, Kasey Tritch, and I prepared a luxurious multi-course dinner for a family of eight.

This dinner was HUGE with three hors d'oeuvres, an amuse bouche, a starter, a fish, then a main dish with a side, salad, and dessert.

27/12/2023

DINNER FOR TWO

Lobster a l'Americaine

This was a six course French dinner for a charming couple staying at an AirBnB in Newbury, Pennsylvania. The couple was observing their first wedding anniversary and they didn't skimp on the celebration dinner. My favorite dish that I prepared for them was Lobster a l'Americaine, shown below.

Don't be deceived by "Americaine" because the dish has nothing remotely to do with American food. Sauce Americaine is a mainstay of French cookery and it is said that the dish was invented by a French chef who had worked in the United States at one point in his career.

Regardless, the sauce, which is the leading player while the lobster is actually in a supporting role, is totally delectable.

If you have the opportunity, watch this wonderful video with Jacques Pepin and Julia Child, preparing Lobster Soufflé a l'Americaine.

https://www.pbs.org/.../julia-child-cooking-master-chefs.../

There was so much food that I opted out of cooking the classic cheese soufflé that is part of the dish but it was not missed!

The little lobster "bug" you see is the creation of Chef Pepin. I merely copied it. It consists of a portion of a lobster leg, skewered by a toothpick, two small portions of the end of the lobster tail, and the lobster antenna.

27/12/2023

A DINNER FOR TWO

For the same dinner I prepared baby lamb chops that were seared then roasted. The lamb was served with Marchand de Vin, a sauce of sweated shallots, red wine and demi glace. This mixture, totaling about three cups of liquid, was reduced to about 1/4 cup followed, of course, by a ton of butter whisked in.

With the lamb chops I served Pommes Gratin Dauphinoise, a luscious potato gratin. They didn't get brown, like they're supposed to, which vexes me.

24/09/2023

A SURPRISE WEDDING CELEBRATION
August 26,2023

In June we were engaged by a very nice couple in Wyomissing, PA, outside of Reading, to cater an afternoon buffet party.

Momentary digression:

I grew up in the Kutztown, Pennsylvania, area so Reading was a big part of my life. For 10 years I was hauled into Reading nearly every Saturday morning of my life for piano lessons and then we would go downtown afterward to shop. In those days, downtown Reading was a happening, thriving place before malls and large department stores outside the city killed it.

In late November, a major stop was Kresge's, very similar in spirit to Woolworth's, where Mama would buy her candied fruit for her annual fruitcake-baking marathon. Most people think of fruitcake and gag but Mama's was different. She would make alot of them in a big tube pan in preparation for mailing them to friends all over the country. As each one was made she would take them to the basement, stack them in a large garbage can lined with garbage bags and pour booze all over them. There were many, many booze pourings and the fruitcake was really delicious. Of course, the cakes on the bottom that received the largest dose of booze over a period of several weeks were the best.

Back to the present:

Wyomissing, just across the Schuylkill River from Reading, is a beautiful residential area where the crème de la crème reside. It is replete with modest but lovely homes and huge mansions, co-existing side by side on wide tree-lined boulevards.

The host and hostess were throwing the party under the guise of it being just a party for good neighbors and close friends when, in actuality, it was going to be their wedding. They told no one. So, at an appointed time in the party they stood up and said, "we're so glad you're all here and guess what..... we're getting married! NOW!"

And so they were. It was a great moment.

From the moment we first met I knew Kim and Craig had it all together. They knew what they wanted, they had already arranged rentals of major things like a tent, farm tables, the musician, everything. They also knew the kind of food they wanted because they, themselves, are foodies as are most of the people who were coming to the party. They wanted a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern menu and I knew exactly where I was going to go -- Ottolenghi.

If you've seen my previous posts you have read of my rhapsodic admiration for Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli-born British chef. He has taken his place in what was my triumvirate (now quadruvirate? is that a word?) of culinary heroes -- Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and Thomas Keller. The menu I developed for them was all Ottolenghi and I didn't care that I didn't include anything original. I happily borrowed every recipe from this great chef.

Kim and Craig's kitchen was tiny and there were going to be five of us prepping and cooking so I decided to add an additional kitchen outside under their covered carport. I rented a large six-burner propane-powered industrial stove and we had use of their grill so we were all set. Almost all of the recipes were made fresh, onsite. There were alot of us cooking and it was a very relaxed atmosphere all day, allowing me to do my thing of table decorating and flower arranging while prepping and cooking the two dishes I was responsible for.

With me was an incredible team, a dream team, really, which included the eternal Kasey Tritch, Amanda Hart Seltzer, Teddy Boucard, an old compadre from years ago, and a new team member, Margaret Weaver High, who was TERRIFIC!

Not all the dishes got photographed, as per usual, but Kasey and Margaret took photos that I was able to use in this post.

If you want the recipes, go to https://ottolenghi.co.uk/

13/09/2023

HELLO AGAIN, EVERYONE

After a long absence I've returned to Facebook. Alot of you have messaged me asking if I'm OK.... is everything alright.... am I well? I'm very grateful to you for taking the time to do that. Thank you so much!

Why I took a leave of absence from Facebook, I don't know. It is one of the main venues I have for marketing my cooking/catering business. I guess my only answer is that I just didn't feel like posting.

Bad caterer.

But I have resolved to re-enter and catch up with what has been going on. And so I am.

On Sunday, September 10, I catered a small gathering of 11 women for a "small bites" brunch in Mount Joy, PA. The hostess was a delightful woman, Susan, who was a complete pleasure. The brunch food -- ex*****on, serving and clean up (ergo me) -- was a gift from her son so she was able to really be a hostess and didn't have to worry about the food and after-party cleanup.

I first visited Susan at her home over a month ago and was completely charmed. She, like me, is a gardener so we had a good time going through her flower garden, discussing their beauty and their ins and outs. If you garden, you know that you really get to know each plant's needs and quirks. She is a much better and more knowledgable gardener than me.

What usually ends up being a half-hour visit turned into a two hour yak session. We got the party stuff settled and then we just chatted away.

All last week I prepared -- I visited Susan again to solidify details, made lists, ordered online stuff, talked with vendors I've purchased from for a long time; shopped, and crammed it all in my tiny little place. I made all the food in advance in two days of intense cooking. It was all small stuff and I have big hands that like to lift big pots. But it was all good stuff.

Susan's home is just right for one person. Her kitchen is on the small side, which I love alot, and there is a chest high divide that separates the kitchen from the living room so you can see right into it. This is where about half the ladies gathered and the rest were relaxing and eating in Susan's sunroom.

The ladies who attended were hilarious, interesting, intelligent women. Because I was just a good spit away from the living room and because of the chest-high divide I could hear everything. Everything.

It was very engaging, very funny, very revealing conversation amongst the ladies. They covered a multitude of topics - art, literature, television, and hair. Because I was there I dove into the conversation a few times; just enough to be delightful.

I made one very big blooper though. I got to Susan's at 8am and proceeded to put together the food for the party, which takes time. Around 10am I realized I had forgotten two important dishes. When I left Susan's at 11:30am after getting all the food out -- save the two left behind dishes -- I raced to Lancaster, dashed into my apartment, got the two tubs with the food in them and raced back to Mount Joy.

I was gone for 40 minutes and the party was going on full swing when I returned. No one, except me and Susan, really knew there were two missing dishes. One of them was my mother's secret weapon -- deep-fried sweet and salty pecans. I dashed into the house, put the pecans in a bowl, plated the other dish, and passed them both amongst all the ladies, being delightful. As I passed the pecans I warned them that "you can't eat just one." It was a big bowl of full of fried pecans at 12:30 pm and was devoured by 3:30.

Cleanup was a relative breeze and I was home by 4:45. I was happy, really tired, and fell asleep in my rocking chair - something of a ritual thing with me.

This is my first post since sometime in June, I think, and I have alot to do to catch up, social media-wise.

So that's all. I hope you like the photos. Be well, everyone.

26/06/2023

A PRETTY SALAD.

I have served this salad -- I guess you can call it a salad -- at two dinner parties. I've posted it as part of larger posts but it's so pretty I wanted to showcase it. I really can't take credit for the originality of it because I found it online.

The components are pretty obvious but I'll outline them: Jumbo lump crab meat, which was very lightly dusted with cayenne pepper; strawberries; cucumber; red onion that was pickled in lime juice, which takes away the onioniness and transforms it into onion candy; and cherry tomatoes.

The dressing was a very light lemon and honey vinaigrette and the flower decorations are baby marigolds and borage (?), I think.

16/05/2023

PORCHETTA

Following the wedding at the Tuscan Villa on Friday, May 5, described in the previous post, I received the loveliest thank you email from the bride. In it she stated that the Porchetta we served was the best she had ever eaten and could I please send her the recipe? So I did, of course. I edited the recipe so it mirrored exactly what I did and so I thought I would share it on Facebook.

I don't normally share recipes on my business page but this dish is so representative of central and northwestern Italian cuisine I thought it was worth sharing. It is at the bottom of this narrative.

The recipe is actually a combination of several different recipes I found on the internet. I had only made it once before and it was successful but I wanted to try a different way this time.

The one thing that remained constant is that I made my Porchetta out of a large slab of pork belly rather going the usual route of a pork loin. The name “pork belly” turns some people off because they don’t know what it is.

It isn’t a pig’s stomach, which is considered a delicacy in Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish country where I’m from. It refers only to a very fatty cut of meat that comes from the underside, the belly, of a pig. In its cured form, it’s bacon. Just bacon. Pork belly can be bought cut in short lengths or it can be purchased in a large slab.

For this venture I purchased a large slab at Costco and the rind, or the pig skin, is cut off, which I would have done anyway. Costco made my life much easier. Many preparers of Porchetta like keeping the rind on because it gives a very crispy brown exterior to the roast. I, however, just find it difficult to chew and so I get rid of it, leaving just the fat to be the outside layer. It, too, gets very brown and crispy and even though it’s Fat with a capital “F” at least you can chew it. And pork fat rules.

There are two other things I did, which took it off the traditional beaten Porchetta path.

First, I put a pork tenderloin on the flat belly so that, when rolled, it was in the center of the Porchetta roast. It probably doesn’t add that much as far as character to the flavor, but I guess I did it because, like George Mallory, the ill-fated climber of Mt. Everest, said, “it was there.”

Second, I rolled the Porchetta lengthwise rather than widthwise. This made the rolling more difficult, due in great part to the bulk the pork tenderloin created. However, I was feeding 15 people with this roast – amongst many other dishes – so I needed to have an abundance of pig.

Final note: Sometimes I forget to take photos of the process of actually making the food. For this post I borrowed some photos from other websites. Credit to the source of the photos in between is given in the photo captions. Most of the photos, however, are mine.

Here is the recipe:

Porchetta
Yield: 20 servings
Total Time: 3 hours, 35 minutes

Ingredients

• One fresh slab of pork belly roast with the rind cut off (unless you like it, then you can leave it on; personally I think it looks nice but it’s impossible to chew weighing 8 to 10 lbs
• Two pork tenderloins
• Kosher or sea salt
• fresh rosemary; chopped
• fennel pollen at least 1 oz. – it’s very expensive; I purchased a 7 oz. bag of Italian fennel pollen and it cost $53
• freshly ground black pepper
• good quality extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Prepare the Porchetta

Lay the full slab of pork belly fat side down on a large piece of parchment paper

Cut deep slashes (but not all the way through the meat) diagonally across the pork belly, about 1 ¼” apart in both directions so you have a diamond pattern in the meat

Sprinkle generously with the salt on both sides of the meat, then work the salt into the pork.

Next, add the chopped rosemary. Rub the chopped rosemary hard and crush it between your fingers to release the oils. Rub it into the diagonal slashes and also on the uncut side. Add freshly ground black pepper all over both sides of the pork belly.

Now add the fennel pollen. Sprinkle evenly over the pork.

Remove excess fat and silver from the tenderloins. Season the tenderloins liberally with salt, pepper, rosemary, and fennel pollen.

Place the pork tenderloins lengthwise across the pork belly – you will likely want to overlap it a bit since tenderloins usually taper off into semi-flatness -- between ¼ and 1/3 up the length of the seasoned pork belly.

I like to roll up the pork belly lengthwide so I get a very long roast that I cut in half into two roasts once tied.

Roll the pork belly with the tenderloin inside as tightly as you possibly can. It will want to unroll on you, but let it know who’s boss.

Keeping the seam side down, start tying the pork about every 1”. Keep tightening the roll as much as you can as you tie. Another pair of hands will make this part immensely easier.

Once it is tied, cut the long, long roast in half so you have two roasts, unless you have a very, very large oven.

Rub the exposed surface again with salt, pepper, rosemary and generously with fennel pollen, including the ends.

Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate it at least overnight and ideally for two days. With the salt, pepper, rosemary and fennel pollen you are essentially curing the meat.

When it’s time to roast, turn your oven on to 450F.

Place the tied roast seam side down on a baking rack that you’ve sprayed with vegetable spray and that’s resting on top of a deep sheet pan. It will create a lot of fat and drippings that you will want to use for a sauce, if you choose to make one.

Place in the hot oven when it comes to temperature and roast for 30 minutes then lower the temperature to 400F for another 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 325F and continue to roast for 2 ½ - 3 ½ hours. Baste whenever you can.

This may seem like it’s a long time butt it’s pork belly, which is ultra fatty, so it won’t dry out and the tenderloin inside is kept moist by continuous basting of the pork belly fat.

Take it out of the oven and allow it to rest for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Using a sharp knife or a pair of scissors, remove a few pieces of the twine and start slicing. I like it thick cut – about ½” slices.

The traditional way of eating Porchetta is in a warm crusty Italian roll, eaten as a sandwich. No condiments, just pig on bread.
I like serving it with a sauce. Porchetta purists would be aghast but it’s my party. So, here’s the sauce. It’s more by feel and look.

Ingredients

• Non-fat drippings left in the roasting pan (there isn’t a lot but enough) and porchetta fat drippings
• Flour – enough to make a good paste with the drippings and the fat – about ½ cup; add a little more if you think the roux needs it.
• A Bottle of Good Chardonnay
• Beef Stock and Chicken Stock

Directions

You need as much non-fat drippings as you can get. That’s the flavor.

You want about ½ cup of fat drippings

Make a roux with the flour and the drippings. Let it cook awhile on low heat to deepen the flavor.

Add the whole bottle of wine if you want and let the sauce cook down slowly by about ½.

Start with adding beef stock, whisking constantly, taste, add chicken stock if you think it would make it better. You want a sauce consistency.

Season according to taste.