*Warning: this post contains images of whole pig*

“I don’t suppose it’s a good idea to name her” I say surveying the 7 kilo piglet on the tray. I’m talking to  George Diamond who is the Group Executive Chef for the Keystone Group’s restaurants including Bungalow 8 where tomorrow we are to have a porcine feast with eight of my friends.

“We can call her Miss Piggy” he says smiling.

“Done!” I say.

Miss Piggy is why I’m standing in the kitchen, chef’s jacket on and surveying a pig the day before my most pork loving friends and I are going to gather at Bungalow 8. We will have a pork fest with a Peking style suckling pig with trimmings like Asian coleslaw, steamed buns, roti, baked mantou buns, hoi sin and plum sauce and an addictive chilli caramel. It is Bungalow 8′s new strike for the food lover.

Group Executive Chef George Diamond

Previously known for more bar food and the ubiquitous all you can mussels, pies and fish and chips, they’ve now revamped the menu to try and lure more food lovers that want something beyond deep fried bar food. George’s background is fine dining so he uses his skills to have arrived at a menu that will not alienate the regulars yet gives more balance and the list of salads I note sound particularly good. The new style of food here is now more share style. David Gray ex Manly Pavilion and Atlantic has been tasked with working with George on the food as well as the service.

Started only three weeks ago the suckling pig is their new signature dish and even though it is new in concept they sell about seven pigs a week. In keeping with the new Tiki and Asian theme it is served Peking Style. Do you know how Peking Duck has a lovely crisp skin on it and tender meat underneath and is served with pancakes and sauces? Well with careful preparation this suckling pig also has a crispy skin flavoured with Asian flavours like soy and five spice and is served with buns that you assemble yourself filling it with whatever you fancy from the platter.  The suckling pigs need to be ordered 48 hours in advance, cost $490 and are designed to feed 8 people.

They use Macleay Valley pigs which are free range and organic pigs and each weighs about seven kilos. As George points out, they’re all female as female pigs are better to eat (males have a distinct hormonal smell to them). And I’m about to learn how to make a suckling pig! And pork enthusiasts, George has been kind enough to share the recipe with us should you care to knock the socks off your family at Christmas! You will need a larger 900mm oven for this but do check that your pig will fit.

Our lunch was scheduled for a Sunday so the day before in the afternoon I arrived at Bungalow 8 to do the first part of the pig preparation. This is the key to the success of the pig and the glassy, crunchy crackling. George has already trussed and broken the backbone of the pig for presentation so that the legs can sit below the body. He then uses a blowtorch to singe off any hairs on the pig and then uses a dry rub consisting of salt and five spice mixture and  to draw out the moisture from the pig as you want the pig to be as dry as possible. Next he rubs the dry rub all over the outside and inside of the pig. Take care around the ears as they are delicate and can fall off.  Leave this salt rub to infuse for two hours by which time some liquid will have pooled under the pig as the salt draws it out.

After two hours, taking a few ladlefuls of boiling water, wash off the dry rub from the outside of the pig (you don’t need to wash the inside) and then take some paper towels and dry the pig. The hot water shocks the skin and readies it for you to apply the homemade  marinade of soy sauce, malt sugar and water to the pig and air dry it uncovered next to a fan in the fridge to dry the skin. You will end up applying the marinade three times to pig, air drying it for two hours between each application so that the pig is marinated for a total of six hours (and this is why you need to pre order it).

Miss Piggy cooling by the fan

The next day I arrive just over two hours before when we are to eat lunch. The pig has been sitting by the fan drying overnight and the skin feels firm, like leather. George is pleased with the way it has come up and the colour on the pig is a light golden colour. Now we are ready to prepare the pig for the oven and that is simple, just covering the tail and ears gently with foil to prevent them from overcooking. George does one ear while I do the other.

Oh no! The foil on the right ear has blown off!

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“Honey! Honeeeey!!!” I said waking Mr NQN shaking his arm urgently.

“Mmmppffhhh” he muttered still half asleep.

I climbed on top of him so that he could sense the urgency. “Honey, we need a ransom question, you know, just in case one of us is kidnapped!”

“Whaaat? Who was kidnapped?” he said slightly more awake and immensely more annoyed.

“I had a dream that you were kidnapped and I had to ask a ransom question but I didn’t know what to ask” my bottom lip turning out slightly,  recalling the dream where only minutes before he had been snatched away from me and his ring finger with wedding ring had been sent to me. “So you see, we need to figure out ransom questions…” trailing off because I started to realise how unlikely it would be that either of us would be kidnapped.

“Oh you’re silly” he said giving me a hug nevertheless. “How about for the ransom question, we ask what your mother’s maiden name is?” he suggested.

“Don’t be silly, that’s like a bank I.D. question and that’s easy enough to find out!” I said.

“Well, what about your favourite fruit?” he then suggested.

Of course I couldn’t answer this question-there are far too many delicious fruits to count. And if anyone has read my blog, they’ll know that cherries feature highly up on the scale. To me, cherries are always reliably sweet, plump and juicy and I can eat bowls of them in one sitting. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be sent a 5 kilo box of them and a load of Lurpak butter and after downing down much of the cherries I decided to make a galette. I had originally seen the recipe in the new 10th birthday issue of Delicious magazine, the recipe by Valli Little. Sadly I wasn’t able to make it to their birthday party event as I was overseas but I figured that making something would be just as good. Trying to choose one item though was hard.

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I used to like to play a game with myself. When Mr NQN’s family used to pop by, I used to invite them to stay for dinner. I loved the challenge of being able to conjure up something, for vegetarians, vegans and omnivores out of what I had in my cupboard or fridge. I would get excited at the idea of trying to make something out of what I had without having actually gone for a proper shop.

Donna Hay’s new book Simple Dinners is one of those books that I would have no doubt flicked through during one of these challenges. They’re all about easy dinners without a battalion of ingredients ideal for weeknights, quickly cooked and assembled but without sacrificing flavour. There are 13 sections broken down into eggs, bread, pasta, noodles & rice, couscous, beans & lentils, chicken, beef, lamb, pork as well as many others ending with that all important chocolate chapter. Recipes include spicy chickpea and chorizo fried eggs; crunchy top beef pies; prosciutto, sage and ricotta French toast; cheat’s ravioli lasagne, chicken pan pie;n  oven puff cake with blueberries and cheat’s chocolate and salted caramel tart. Plus these 140 recipes are all new recipes and have not been previously printed in the magazine.

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