WARNING : Vegetarians beware the following content contains meat.

Well it’s been just over 5 weeks since my beautiful Wife and I flew into Kilimanjaro airport and I have learnt very quickly that pole pole (slowly slowly) is the way of Tanzania. But this is definitely not the case when a pig-soon-to-be-pork is involved. When Don presented me with the challenge of turning a newly butchered pig into a dinner for 20 I jumped at the task. As people who know me will know I just can’t go past the opportunity of a good roast.
It was the day before the big pig roast and I thought what better way to have a roast than to have it slowly cooked on a spit. Sounded easy at first but this meant that I had to build a custom fit spit roaster for our BBQ out of nothing in one day.

Don and I discussed other ways to cook the large amount of meat and decided on a combination of methods. First the spit roast, second ; hot coals in a pit with dirt over the top and third good old oven roast. Due to the lack of refrigeration we had to move quickly and Friday afternoon the pig left Kesho Leo for the last time. By midday on Saturday I was presented with tubs full of pork...actually I wouldn’t call it pork yet as there was still a lot of preparation needed.

While waiting for the meat to arrive I started early preparing the fires. Once those were under control and after a call to my father (a butcher) I began the challenge of turning chunks of pig into chunks of pork, all with a small paring knife which Sarah had bought me that morning. Surprisingly after I was done they did resemble a piece of rolled pork you may buy from the supermarket...almost, obviously my fathers’ talents as a butcher were not passed on to me.

With lemon and pepper pork cooking in the pit and pork and ribs roasting in the oven, I began the monotonous back breaking task of monitoring the spit roast. By mid-afternoon my routine went a little like this: chop wood, turn pig, put wood on the fire, move coals, chop wood, turn pig, put wood on fire, wipe sweat from brow, chop wood, turn pig...I think you get the picture, this went on for 5 hours.

But it was allllll worth it. With Amy’s help in the kitchen preparing rosemary mashed potatoes, honey carrots and green beans and the most amazing apple sauce I’ve ever tasted we were able to pull it all together.

There was a sigh of relief when we realised that the meat was off, the vege’s were cooked (and as chef’s we had of course taste tested it all) and it was perfect...if I do say so myself.

Guests and volunteers were left with full bellies and a smile on their face, what more could you ask for?
...except left over roast pork for lunch the next day!!! Woo Hoo!!

(Disclosure: only one pig was hurt in the making of this blog, all for a deliciously good cause of course)

By Glen Muller