Pig Cheeks in Cider Sauce

If totally-made-up-heaven is your kinda meal,  read on!

This recipe is one I’ve been working on for a little while, and although it’s not quite perfected, I couldn’t wait to share it with you all!

Ingredients:

1-2 pig cheeks per person (~50p each from Morrisons)
1 large onion (pennies!)
1 medium-large carrot per person (pennies!)
1 can of cider (2.29 for 4 from Aldi)
Mushrooms
Bacon- sliced (optional)
Herbs- Bay leaf, ‘mixed herbs’ (thyme, rosemary), sage.

1. Cover the cheeks in cider, add herbs and seasoning, and slow cook for 4 hours on high, or 8 hours on low. If you aren’t using a slow cooker, go straight to step 3a.

2. Fry the onions, and place in the bottom of a casserole. Sprinkle the carrots over, then place pork cheeks on top. Pour cider over.

3a. If you haven’t slow-cooked the pork already, cook now for 2-3 hours in a 120C oven before carrying on to the next step.

3b. If you’ve slow cooked the pork, de-stem the mushrooms and add them, gills up, to float on the cider sauce. Cook for 30-40mins at 180C, without the lid on. You want the mushrooms to go wrinkly and the cider to reduce, if possible.

4. Serve straight from the casserole with chunky homemade bread, mashed potato, or a baked potato!

Give it a go- it’s frugal!

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!!!