Recipe: Balinese porchetta

Hold on to your hats because this cookbook really rocks the kitchen. So colourful, so inspired, with wonderful Indo-European dishes – simply mind-blowing. Sweet, sour, fresh, spicy, layered, savoury: all your taste sensors are triggered by Vanja van der Leeden’s Indorock. Here she shares a number of top recipes supersenang, and believe us: you’ll want this book on your shelf.

How to make Balinese porchetta 

• Start by making the bumbu.
• First roast the coriander seeds, nutmeg, long pepper, cumin seeds and cloves in a dry frying pan and grind them finely in a bowl-shaped mortar – or use a spice grinder.
• Then grind the remaining ingredients in stages with the spices until you have a paste.
• For these quantities, use a blender or immersion blender (or get someone to help you grind everything by hand).
• If desired, add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to make it smoother.
• Cook the bumbu together with the salam leaves in 6 tablespoons of coconut oil; you will probably need two frying pans for this (and therefore 3 tablespoons of oil per pan).
• Stir it continuously until it starts to smell wonderfully fragrant. This will take at least 10 minutes.
• Remove the pans from the heat and leave to cool. 
• If using cavolo nero, remove the tough central rib, cook the vegetable for 5 minutes and drain thoroughly.
• Score the rind diagonally with a sharp knife. Rub it well with salt and set aside. 
• Prepare five pieces of kitchen string long enough to tie around the porchetta.
• Preheat the oven to 140 °C.
• Place the piece of meat lengthwise in front of you and butterfly it with a filleting knife. This means evening out the thickness by cutting horizontally through the thicker parts. This way, you open the meat up further and make it longer. It doesn’t have to be precise; you won’t see it later anyway (as long as it remains in one piece).
• If desired, score the meat some more so the fat can run through it – this keeps your porchetta beautifully succulent.
• Now sprinkle the long piece generously with sea salt.
• Then spread it generously with bumbu – save any remaining bumbu.
• Cover with the cabbage leaves and roll the meat up tightly, starting at the rib end (the leanest part). 
• Now wrap the rind tightly around it. Tie the rind with four pieces of kitchen string, with the fifth piece running crosswise.
• Wrap the sides of the roll in aluminium foil and place the meat on a rack in the centre of the oven.
• Place a drip tray (for example, a large oven dish) beneath the rack to catch the fat.
• Now go and do something else for 3.5 hours. For example, run three hundred laps around your house. In any case, also make the kuning coleslaw.
• Add the coleslaw ingredients to a large, shallow mortar in stages and pound them into a mush with a pinch of salt.
• Heat the sunflower oil in a small frying pan and add the bumbu with the salam leaves.
• Cook the bumbu over low heat for a few minutes.
• Add the coconut cream, the juice of 11⁄2 limes and the Javanese sugar and allow to reduce slightly.
• Taste the dressing and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
• Remove from the heat.
• Peel the winter carrot and use a serrated vegetable peeler to cut it into long strips.
• Finely shred the pointed cabbage, cut the Granny Smith into matchstick-thin strips and sprinkle with the juice of 1⁄2 lime to prevent discolouration.
• Finely chop the fresh herbs.
• In a large bowl, mix the dressing through the vegetables with the fresh herbs and sesame seeds.
• Next comes crisping the rind. If you find this too much trouble, you can also skip it and let the meat cook gently for another 30 minutes. If you’re going for perfection, read on. 
• After 3.5 hours, increase the temperature to 230 °C.
• Remove the drip tray from the oven and pour the juices that have formed into a saucepan.
• This is bumbu with pork fat, insanely delicious. Mix in any remaining bumbu and cook over low heat for at least 15 minutes.
• Add a little liquid (water or coconut milk) if it becomes too dry.
• Serve this later as a sauce with the porchetta.
• Slide the drip tray back into the oven.
• Now brush the rind with coconut oil. 
• If you have a fan setting, turn it on now; this gives the rind an extra boost to make it crisp. If the rind starts to puff up, that’s a good sign.
• Remove the meat from the oven, turn it slightly, brush with coconut oil and return it to the oven.
• Repeat until the rind is crisp all over; this will take at least another 30 minutes.
• Remove the meat from the oven after 4 to 4.5 hours and let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Use a large, sharp knife to cut it into lovely thick slices. Serve with the coleslaw and, if desired, bumbu sauce.

Tip

Can’t figure it out? On Vanja’s website (www.indorockcooking.com) you’ll find photos of the cut of meat you need to order and step-by-step photos showing you how to roll the thing.

Title: Indorock
Author: Vanja van der Leeden
Price: €34,99
Publisher: Nijgh Cuisine

Photography: Remko Kraaijeveld

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• Recipe: rendang dumplings
• Recipe: gado gado but different
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