Slow Braised Pig Cheeks

Braised pig cheeks… a.k.a the first slow-cooker experiment!

Long time no write! I hear you shout.

Well, I’ve been busy with my slow cooker! I reply.

Anyway, here’s the first recipe I tried, modelled on one by Nigel Slater (barely), although with a lot less wine involved (expensive!!) and using a slow cooker instead (awesome) and with some marinading, but without all the celery (although you can add this if you wish). So… not actually really based on one by Nigel Slater at all!

Slow Braised Pig Cheek Stew

– Pig cheeks (1-2 each, available from Morrisons or ask your local butcher)
– Carrots
– Onions
– Garlic
– Red wine (any leftovers or as much as you can afford)
– Stock (pig or vegetable, preferably)
– Flour
– Mixed Herbs

1. Marinade the cheeks in garlic and red wine overnight.

2. Roll the cheeks in seasoned flour, then brown in a drop of oil.

3. Use some of the wine from the marinade to deglaze the pan, then pour the whole lot into a slow cooker with the onions, along with enough stock to make up the mixture (cover the cheeks and make up to around 1L). Don’t add the carrots now, because it turns out that if you do this everything just tastes like pork soup and they’ll be totally overcooked and lose all their colour anyway!

4. Cook for 3-4 hours on high, or 7-8 hours on low. Alternatively put it in a casserole in a low oven for 2-3 hours, covered, and skip to step 6.

5. When you return home from work, your house will smell amazing. Transfer the whole lot to a casserole dish and place in the oven, along with chopped carrots and anything else you want to add.

6. Cook for another hour or so, uncovered, to allow the sauce to reduce a little. If necessary, place on stove top and cook on high to reduce further, and thicken with cornflour.

7. Serve with mash, noodles tossed in creme fraiche, or dumplings. or baked potato. Or crusty bread…. or anything else you fancy!

Congratulations, a truly wonderful and very very frugal dish, with minimal effort!

FRUGALICIOUS!!!

This little piggy went to Dad….

So here’s a very quick post to say I’ve finished this adorable little knitted pig!

It’s a present for my Dad for Fathers’ Day- he’s got a small herd of pigs and being the only pig farmer on the island is mostly known as the ‘pig man’. Him and my mum actually keep ‘Oxford Sandy and Blacks’, which are actually not pink, but, big surprise, ‘sandy’ and ‘black’! Here’s a photo of my lovely dad bottle feeding a runt, and a photo of a beautifully pregnant sow named Lucy. The third photo is a litter of day-old feeding piglets! 🙂

Unsurprisingly, we have hundreds of pig toys, teddies and ornaments around the house, most of which have been given as gifts. This one is a little different as it is going to go in the car, on the rear-view mirror!! His adorable little wings were a pain to knit, but they make him so much cuter!

This was an extremely quick knit, taking about 4 hours in total, and uses hardly any wool! I would definitely recommend it to anyone with friends who like pigs! 😛

A pink piggy…

Today was more crafts!

This is the present I’ve started for Father’s Day.

 

It’s an Oink Pig! For those of you that don’t know, my parents keep a lovely little herd of outdoor Oxford Sandy and Black pigs in the Channel Islands. This pig doesn’t really do them justice but when he’s got some little angel wings (as per the pattern, here) he’ll be perfect to hang on the car mirror! I wish I could fill him with a good smell but I haven’t got anything that’ll work, so he’ll have to just be a useless pink flying car pig.

Well that’s a sentence I don’t think I’ll ever use again! 😛

Anyway, I think it’s pretty cute and together with some chocolates or something will make a pretty acceptable Father’s Day present.

Of course, mum will want one next…

Liver with bacony-mushroomy sauce and sauteed potatoes- scrumptious!

On accidently ordering too much liver from Tesco, I had to find new ways to cook it! This is a delicious liver recipe that is now one of my favourite meals- cheap or otherwise! It costs less than 70p per portion and it’s just YUMPITY! I did mine with spinach but there’s no need- I just felt the need for some green!

You Will Need:

• Liver- I use pig’s liver, about £0.50 from Tesco, but lambs or even calves will do! You’ll need it thinly sliced (Tesco packs already come like this) and then cut into similar size pieces
• Potatoes- a couple each, cut into1/2 inch cubes
• Plain flour
• Mixed herbs/paprika/dried mustard (you can choose depending what flavour you want)
• Bacon, mushrooms, onion, creme fraiche and wine, if you want the sauce
  Alternatively:
• Creme fraiche/cream and elderberries

What to do:

1. Boil the potatoes until soft all the way through (~10mins). Drain.
2. Meanwhile, fry the bacon, onions and mushrooms.
3. Fry the potatoes in oil until golden brown on each side (~20mins). If this is completed a bit early, remove from pan, toss in salt, and put on a low heat in the oven to keep warm.
4. Pour the creme fraiche and wine into the bacon pan and stir, then allow to simmer.
5. Mix the flour and herbs/spice with a little salt and pepper on a plate. Heat oil in a clean pan to a high heat. Take a slice of liver and coat it in the flour, then put it straight into the oil (if it sits for too long on the side it usually needs re-flouring). This bit requires some haste because you only want to fry the liver for a minute or so on each side, so you need to get all the slices into the pan as quickly as possible!
6. Put the sauteed potatoes onto a plate, put the liver on top, and put the sauce over the top. Delicious! The potatoes soak up the sauce and it’s all just lovely!