Father's day recipe for whole roast suckling pig

It's Father's Day next week, but if you want to make this dish for him, you'll need to plan ahead. Order the whole suckling pig from your pork butcher well in advance.

Whole roast suckling pig (pictured)

Of all the photo shoots I've done for the recipe column in Post Magazine, this one was by far the most difficult. We ordered two piglets, and hoped they would be small enough to fit neatly into the oven and onto the barbecue - we wanted to try both cooking methods, to find which was the best. (Both were good, but next time, I'll stick to the oven: it's easier to control the heat so the meat cooks at a steady temperature, it takes less time, the skin is crisper and the pan underneath the pig captures all the delicious drippings.)

What we ended up with were piglets that weighed about 5kg each and measured more than 60cm from nose to tail. One barely fit onto the barbecue; the second one wouldn't fit stretched out in the oven (which measures about 45cm by 45cm) so we had to tuck the legs under the body and put the pig into the oven on the diagonal.

Getting the pig ready is the hard part, but once it's cooking, all it takes is time. And, yes, you could simply buy a roast suckling pig from a siu mei shop, but what's life without challenges? And dear old Dad will appreciate your efforts.

1 suckling pig weighing 5kg or less