Braised pork cheeks with confit potatoes
- Portion size: Serves 4
- 24 hours marinating and 5-6 hours cooking
- Difficulty: medium
A recipe by Omar Allibhoy, Head Chef at El Pirata de Tapas and protégé of El Bulli’s Ferran Adria. This dish takes a fair amount of preparation and a long, slow cooking time. But it’s absolutely worth it for the delicate softness of the cheeks and really brings out the flavours.
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Ingredients
- 12 pork cheeks (between 600-800g in total)
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery stick
- 1 leek
- 1 tomato
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 2 sprigs tarragon
- 1 bottle red wine, whatever style you have to hand
- 2 litres chicken stock
- 100ml extra virgin olive oil
- 12 new potatoes
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
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Method
- Marinate the pork cheeks in the red wine for 24 hours. Less is fine, but the longer the better.
- Drain the pork cheeks and reserve the red wine. Gently sear the cheeks in the olive oil then set aside.
- Combine the onion, carrot, celery, leek and tomato in a hot pan and caramelise on full heat. When caramelised, add the pork cheeks and red wine. Reduce the volume by about half.
- Add the chicken stock, herbs and sugar. Slowly braise for three to four hours on a low heat. Once the meat is tender, remove the pork cheeks and set them aside.
- Further reduce the sauce until it is very thick and with an almost firm texture.
- Now confit the new potatoes in duck fat with herbs and crushed garlic for one hour over a very low heat. Do not allow it to bubble as this will ruin the texture.
- To serve, pour the sauce over the cheeks, add the potatoes and enjoy.
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