With tonight's Mac and Cheese cook-off looming, I've obviously got cooking competitions on the mind... But I have to say, I probably won't be experiencing anything like the dish that won Mario Batali's grilling competition: Pig-wrapped pig-stuffed pig.
The dish, created by Jim Webster of St Petersburg, FL, is a riff on the classic Southern Turduken—except the animal stuffed inside itself is itself, not just an animal like itself. Ta Da!
Here's how Webster explains it:
"Everybody thinks that to be good, a recipe has to be complicated. The thing I keep hearing and reading is to keep it simple. I think that holds true. There are seven ingredients in my recipe . . . and three of them are pork. Some of the recipes entered had 50 ingredients, with four hours of prep time and diagrams. The longest single step of mine was grilling, which really meant opening the grill and turning the meat over."
Basically, it's just an over zealous porchetta. Gee, sounds easy. Wanna make it yourself? Alright then. Check out the award winning recipe after the jump!
Pig-Wrapped Pig-Stuffed Pig2 tablespoons fennel seed
1 tablespoon salt
2 large oranges (finely minced zest and juice, used separately)
1 1/2 pounds pork shoulder, cut in 1-inch chunks
1 cup orange marmalade
2 pork tenderloins, about 1 1/2 pounds each, each sliced in thirds (3 pieces, about 4 inches long each), butterflied and pounded to about 1/4 inch thick
10 to 12 ounces pancetta, sliced thin (24 to 30 slices)
To watch Jim Webster make his dish, go to mariobatali.com/grillingcontest.
To make the orange-fennel sausage: Heat a dry skillet. Toast the fennel seed for about 3 to 4 minutes. Keep pan moving to keep seeds from burning. Run the toasted fennel seeds through a spice mill to grind. Toss the fennel seed, salt and orange zest with the pork shoulder chunks. Run through a meat grinder. (Substitute 1 1/2 pounds bulk pork sausage to eliminate this step.)
To make the glaze: In a small saucepan, combine orange juice and marmalade. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally for 15 to 20 minutes, or until you are ready for it at the grill.
To assemble the meat rolls: Take 4 to 6 slices of pancetta (depending on the size of your butterflied pieces of tenderloin), and lay them out on a work surface, overlapping the edges slightly. Put a piece of tenderloin on top of the pancetta. The tenderloin should extend a little beyond the pancetta on the sides. Place 3 ounces of sausage down the center of the tenderloin. Fold the ends of the tenderloin up. Get your fingers under the pancetta on one of the sides, and pull the pancetta and tenderloin up to cover the sausage. Roll the package over the rest of the way. These can go straight to the grill, or be individually wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight.
To grill: Preheat grill. For gas grill, turn three burners on high until grill is about 400 degrees, then turn off the middle burner and leave the outside burners on high. For a charcoal grill, set up for indirect heat cooking.
When grill is hot, put the meat over the middle burner. Cook covered for about 5 minutes, then turn 1/2 turn. After 5 more minutes, brush glaze on meat and turn 1/4 turn. After another 5 minutes, baste with more glaze and turn 1/2 turn.
Monitor temperature of the biggest piece. When the internal temperature gets to about 135 degrees, take roll off the grill and baste with more glaze. Allow to rest about 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Leftover glaze can be used as a sauce.
Serves 8 to 12.
Source: Jim Webster, Clearwater
