Not Exactly Your Everyday Stew!

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Make Not Exactly Your Everyday Stew!

A slow cooking method  is used to make these pork cheeks soft and silky. The pig cheeks are beautifully complemented by a sauce of chicken stock, passata and a fruity red wine. Season and accompany the pork cheeks with some cheesy polenta and a scattering of gremolata.

Pork Cheeks with Polenta

Serves 4

Total time: 4 hours and 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 lbs of pork cheeks, trimmed of excess sinew and fat

1 large onion, roughly diced

1 large carrot, roughly diced

1 celery stick, sliced

3 garlic cloves, sliced

1 tbsp of oregano, chopped

2 cups of chicken stock

1 cup of passata*

1 cup of red wine

11 oz of polenta (or maize flour)

6 oz of Parmesan, finely grated

1 quart vegetable stock

2 tbsp of butter

3 oz of rocket, washed and rinsed

4 oz of bacon lardons, unsmoked

4 oz of chestnut mushrooms, sliced

olive oil, for frying

1 lemon, zest only

1 tbsp of parsley, finely chopped

1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped

salt

pepper

First heat your oven to 285F. 

Using a casserole dish that comes a lid, place on a burner over a high heat. Add a splash of oil, lightly season the pork cheeks with salt and pepper and quickly brown them all over. You may have to do this in two batches. Put the cheeks to one side on a plate and turn the heat down to medium. 

Add some more oil and then throw in the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and oregano, cover and sweat for 10 minutes until everything is soft. Add the red wine and cook off the alcohol for about 5 minutes, then place the cheeks back on top of the vegetables. Pour the chicken stock over the top, along with the passata. Bring up to the boil and then cover and put the casserole in the oven.

Cook for 3 to 4 hours, checking every now and then on the cheeks, they should be very soft and starting to fall apart when done.

Remove the pork cheeks from the sauce, cover and keep in a warm place, then strain the remaining liquid into a saucepan using a sieve or chinois. Using the back of a spoon, push as much sauce out as possible. When done, place the saucepan on a burner and reduce by half on a medium heat (do not burn).

Cook your polenta by bring the light vegetable stock to the boil and then add the maize flour/polenta, stirring all the while, until it thickens. After about 5 minutes, add the Parmesan cheese and continue stirring for another 3 to 5 minutes. Season with pepper and finishing off with a 2 tbsp of butter. 

For the bacon and mushrooms, simply fry them off in a pan with a small dash of oil until they crisp up. Then, mix up the lemon zest, parsley and garlic in a small bowl for the gremolata. 

The wet rocket really just needs a very quick flash in a pan over a medium high heat for it to shrink down, say 30 seconds. Don’t overcook it, otherwise it will turn slimy.

Plating/Presentation

Bring everything together by spooning a generous amount of polenta in the center of each plate (warmed) and then take two or three cheeks, sliced on the diagonal and arrange on top. Lay a few pieces of the rocket on the cheeks. Drizzle a nice ladle of rich sauce over the top, along with the mushroom and bacon. And finish with a healthy scattering of gremolata across the plate.

*Passata is simply fresh tomatoes, skinned, seeded and uncooked. Plum or Roma tomatoes work well. Quickly dip the tomatoes in boiling water and then into an ice bath. X the bottom of the tomato then using those ends, peel the tomato. Cut in half, remove the seeds then crush. 

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