PIG CHEEKS WITH CHORIZO AND BUTTER BEANS

You must have realised by now that I am rather partial to pig cheeks. I love the way that the muscle and gristle melt into a lovely gelatinous nugget after long slow cooking, and the rich flavour of the pork can cope with all kinds of additional flavours.  There is a huge interest in Spanish cooking at the moment, heightened by the excitement of the lovely Jose Pizarro opening his first ‘proper’ restaurant in Bermondsey Street. I went to Andalucia several years ago and was bowled over by the food – tapas in bars in Seville, wandering from one to another…tiny deep fried octopi, melting jamon, unctuous crocqettas…and then there were the main courses. At one meal I had half a roast milk fed lamb. I should have felt guilty, as the kidney was the size of a teaspoon, but the flesh was incredibly tender and flavoursome. I ate it all. 

So, what to do with a pack of pig cheeks in my freezer?  I also had some cooking chorizo knocking about so it seemed obvious. The result was served with some long stem broccoli and a bit of bread to clean the dish – it was all very flavoursome…

Serves 2

1 tblsp. olive oil

I onion, finely sliced in half moons

Clove garlic crushed

500g pig cheeks, silvery sinew removed, cut into three

150g cooking chorizo, cut into chunks

1 tin butter beans, drained

500ml chicken stock

Splash of wine

Chopped parsley 

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan, add the garlic and onions and cook gently until golden. Add the pig cheeks, turn up the heat slightly and brown them off. They don’t have to be too brown, just have a little colour.  Add the chorizo and continue cooking until the chunks are a little crisp round the edges. 

Add the beans, chicken stock and wine. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 hours.  You may need to remove the lid for the last 30 minutes to reduce the sauce down a little, and you can also crush a couple of beans into the sauce if you need to thicken it more. 

Spoon into 2 bowls, sprinkle over the parsley, serve with a green vegetable and some bread.

Chinese braised pork cheeks

I was browsing the meat shelves in Morrisons a couple of weeks ago and saw packs of pig cheeks – so of course, I had to buy some, and at £2.75 for 500g it seemed churlish not to. The first time I cooked them I used Essex Eating’s recipe, and they were delicious, but the texture of the meat – soft and yielding with that delicious gelatinous quality, made me think of chinese pork belly and all those other bits they cook.  So why not make chinese style pig cheeks?

I looked to the master, Ken Hom, for inspiration, and amended his recipe for braised pork belly, marinating the meat first and not using as much hoi sin.  The result, served with egg fried rice and oyster sauce stir-fried vegetables, was delicious. 

Serves 2 

500g pigs cheeks 

Marinade 

3 tblsp. Chinese rice wine

Clove garlic, thinly sliced

2 tsp. five spice powder

2 tsp. soy sauce

2 tsp. sesame oil 

Cornflour 

Braising ingredients 

4 dried chinese mushrooms, along with the soaking water

5 slices ginger

1 tblsp. whole yellow bean paste

3 tblsp. chinese rice wine

2 spring onions, sliced diagonally

2 tsp. hoi sin sauce

Combine marinade ingredients and marinade pig’s cheeks for up to 3 hours.

Remove cheeks from marinade and reserve liquid. Dry cheeks, dust with cornflour and brown in vegetable oil. Set aside.

Combine all braising ingredients and left over marinade in a wok or shallow pan.  Bring to boil, add pig’s cheeks then lower to simmer, covered.  Cook for 2 hours, but for last 30 minutes remove cover to allow sauce to thicken.

Before serving, slice each cheek into three and return to sauce – makes eating easier with chopsticks!!