You can love chicken, but hate chicken livers. You can adore steak, but loathe ox heart – but let me tell you: if you’re a fan of pork, I guarantee you will go completely tongue-under-bottom-lip-mad for pig’s cheek.
Pig’s cheek is, quite simply, one of the finest hunks of meat you’ll ever taste. Yes ‘hunks’. If anything deserves the appellation ‘hunk’, ladies and gentlemen, pig’s cheek is it.
It’s an over-sized meat oyster. It’s a dense, unprocessed nugget of porky joy. It’s a pocket-friendly porcine flesh wonder. It’s a savoury meat handful. Pork marketers can buy these descriptions off me for a reasonable fee. That fee is six pig’s cheeks, half a chorizo picante and a bottle of good cider.
Pig’s cheeks with cider and chorizo
Ingredients
6 pig’s cheeks
115g of chorizo picante (cured, spicy chorizo)
A 500ml bottle of decent cider (I used Weston’s Organic)
About 2 glasses of water
A handful of finely chopped parsley
Method
Slice the chorizo into 5mm coins and add them to a medium-hot frying pan with no oil. Once they’ve browned up, remove them with a slotted spoon, leaving the red oil from the sausage in the pan.
Lightly season your pig’s cheeks on both sides and place in your hot, chorizo oiled pan. Leave for a few minutes, then when they’re nicely coloured, flip them and do the same to the other side.
Now add your pig’s cheeks, your chorizo and your bright red chorizo oil to a large saucepan along with the cider and a two of glasses of water.
Cover the pan and lower the heat to a simmer. Every now and then take the lid off and give everything a stir – if ever things start looking a bit dry, add more water.
After about two and a half hours, check the pig’s cheek with a fork. If it’s super-tender, you’re nearly done. Now, with the lid off, keep things simmering until the sauce has reduced to just a few tablespoons.
Last of all, add your parsley and serve along side a mound of root vegetables, roughly mashed with lots of butter.
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