Pork and Cider Casserole
Serves 4
Not really publishing this with the aim of teaching anyone to suck eggs, this is one of those recipes we all have our favourite way to cook. In all honesty I mostly blog recipes as an online, easy to access, place to put them principally for my own benefit. But if you are interested in how I do it then do read on!
This was amazing! mmmmmm….
Ingredients
750g-1KG Shoulder Pork (dirt cheap at the time of writing in Morrisons)
2 Sprigs fresh rosemary
750ml Nice dry cider
250-300g New potatoes
400ml Chicken stock
Half jar chargrilled red pepper
3 Sticks celery
1 Large leek
3 Onions
3 Heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
1 Apple cut into 1/8ths
5 Cloves garlic
1 Tsp dried sage
1 Tsp dried oregano
Salt
Pepper
Creme fraiche
Method
Preheat oven to 120°C
Start off by cutting up the pork into bite sized bits. Shoulder of pork is quite fatty, if you are watching what you eat like I am you will probably want to trim off some of the fat. But don’t get rid of too much because loads of the flavour is in the fat and if you get rid of too much it will all taste a little weak, a fair new pieces nicely marbled will be lovely.
Heat us some oil in your casserole dish and over a low heat start to cook the chunks of pork. Whilst you are doing this chop up the onions, leek and garlic (remembering to keep stirring the pork at the same time. Once all the pork is a little bit done, but not fully cooked (about 5 minutes or so) take out of pan and put aside.
Now lightly fry up the garlic, leek and onions in the pan with the pork juice, you might need to add just a wee smidgeon of oil to stop stuff sticking to the bottom. After about 5 minutes or so when the onions are starting to soften but not caramelise add the chopped celery and the new potatoes (cut into bit sized bits) and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Now re add the pork, pour in the cider and stock, add the mustard, herbs, salt, pepper, apple and the red pepper (chopped again into bite sized bits). There should be a lot of liquid in the pan and it should cover all the ingredients.
Now put the lid on and whack it in the oven. Basically now you just want to leave it cooking for hours and hours. I try to cook it on a low heat for at least 6-7 hours. Taking out about once an hour for a stir (and TBH a taste!) and see if it needs a little more seasoning. By the end the pork should have that wonderful melt in the mouth consistency and the sauce should be a little thick and really tangy.
Serve with a dollop of Creme Fraiche stirred in (I use the weight watchers extra low fat stuff. Honestly in something like this it is fine, though without a doubt full fat would be better!) and a nice fresh crusty roll. Is superb. Hungry again now just writing this out! 😉
