Spanish Pork with Pea Puree & Pea Shoots

I think the first time I heard about pork cheeks was relatively recently, possibly only in the last couple of years. Chances are, it was on a cookery show like Masterchef and I assumed that they were an expensive cut of meat. It seems I was wrong. A pack of four cheeks (a meal for two) costs £2.50. Put that together with the vegetables, you could actually serve this as an impressive main course for a dinner party of four for under £10. I think that's pretty good! Not only is it a cheap dinner party meal, but it can all be pre cooked and ready to serve, so you aren't stressing to get things ready when guests are having their first drinks. Perfect!

Here I have cooked them slowly in a sherry based sauce and they were melt in the mouth delicious.

I had the potatoes cooked and mashed, ready to be re-heated, the pea puree cooked, pureed and ready to be re-heated. And the slow cooked meat can be taken out of the casserole, the sauce blended, put into a small pan and the meat popped in the sauce, also to be reheated. All you have to do is plate up and serve to delighted and hungry guests.

Ingredients:     (Serves 4)

8 pork cheeks
flour, for dusting
1 tbsp. olive oil
10 shallots, peeled and halved
1 carrot, chopped
1 small red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic
200ml sweet sherry
500ml beef stock (cube is fine)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp. honey
1 apple, chopped

For the pea puree:
2 cups frozen garden peas
2 tbsp. olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt & pepper

Method:

Dust the pork cheeks with flour and heat the oil in a flame proof casserole dish. Seal the meat on all sides to brown and remove from the pan. Set to one side. Add the shallots, carrot, red pepper and garlic to the same pan (add a tiny bit more oil if needed) and cook for 10 minutes until beginning to brown. Add the sherry to the vegetables and turn up to high to reduce by 50%.

Add the meat back to the pan along with the beef stock, honey, thyme, apple and bay leaves. Stir and put into a low oven at about 170 C for 2 hours, checking occasionally to turn over the meat .

To serve, take the meat out of the sauce and pour the sauce into a hand bender. Blend until smooth and put into a small pan on a low heat. Pop the meat in to keep warm while you make the pea puree.

For the pea puree:
Boil the peas for 3 minutes until cooked. Drain well and put into a hand blender with the olive oil, lemon juice and generous seasoning of salt & pepper. Blitz until smooth.

I served the pork on a bed of mashed potatoes with the pea puree and some pea shoots. Delicious!