Slow Cooked Pork & Apple Casserole

Ingredients

• 800 g diced pork shoulder, cut into 4cm pieces
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 200 g smoked bacon lardons
• 200 ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 large onion, roughly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp soft brown sugar
• 300 ml dry cider
• 4 fresh sage leaves, roughly torn
• 2 Cox apples, cored and cut into thick wedges
• Creamy mashed potato, to serve
• Crusty white bread, to serve
• Pickled red cabbage, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan. Pat the pork dry — water means steam, and steam means no browning — then toss the pieces in the flour with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Season well now; this is your foundation.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy casserole over a high heat until it shimmers. Brown the pork in two or three batches, leaving space between the pieces — crowd the pan and water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of building that deep golden crust. Each batch wants 3–4 minutes, turning until bronzed on all sides. Set aside on a plate with the resting juices.
3. Drop the butter into the same pan and fry the bacon lardons for 3–4 minutes until the fat has rendered and the edges are starting to crisp. Add the onion and leek, reduce to medium and cook for 6–7 minutes until softened and sweet and the sticky brown fond from the pork is loosening. Stir in the grated parsnip and cook for a further 2 minutes until it has slumped into the onions.
4. Add the garlic and torn sage and stir for 30 seconds, just until fragrant — no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole casserole bitter, and you've worked too hard on that base to lose it now.
5. Pour in the cider and let it bubble hard for 2 minutes, scraping up every sticky bit from the base of the pan with a wooden spoon — that's pure flavour you're lifting back into the sauce. Stir in the wholegrain mustard and brown sugar.
6. Return the pork and any resting juices to the casserole. Pour in the chicken stock — it should just cover the meat — and bring to a gentle simmer. Taste the liquid, season, taste again. Adjust now, not at the table.
7. Cover and transfer to the oven. Cook for 1 hour 20 minutes, then lift the lid and nestle the apple wedges into the stew so they sit half-submerged. Return uncovered for a further 25 minutes.
8. The pork should pull apart at the nudge of a spoon, the apples soft but still holding their wedge shape, and the sauce glossy and slightly reduced. If it looks thin, set the casserole over a medium hob and bubble for 5 minutes to tighten. Taste one more time — a touch more mustard if it needs lift, another pinch of salt if it's flat.
9. Scatter the parsley over the top and bring the casserole to the table. Spoon over creamy mashed potato, with crusty white bread for mopping and pickled red cabbage alongside to cut through the richness.