Slow Cooked Pork in Cider Cream

• 1.2 kgpork shoulder, cut into 3–4cm pieces
• 200 mlhot chicken stock
• 2large onions, quartered
• 4garlic cloves, crushed
• 6fresh thyme sprigs
• 1 tbspolive oil
• 2cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 400 mldry cider
• 1 tbspplain flour
• Fine salt, to taste
• 150 mldouble cream
• 25 gunsalted butter
• 1 tbspDijon mustard
• 15 gflat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 30 mllemon juice
• Finely grated lemon zest (2 g)
• Black pepper, to taste

Method

1. 1Pat the pork pieces dry with kitchen paper and season generously with salt and black pepper.
2. 2Heat the olive oil in a heavy stainless or cast iron pan over high heat until it shimmers. Brown the pork in three batches, 3–4 minutes a side, until each piece is deep mahogany. Don't crowd the pan; all in at once and the pork sweats, the juices pour out, and you've boiled it instead of building fond. Those stuck brown bits on the base are the backbone of the sauce.
3. 3Drop the heat to medium, add the onions and cook for 4 minutes until they're softening and picking up colour at the edges. Add the crushed garlic and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant; no more.
4. 4Tip the lot; pork, onions, garlic, every sticky scraping from the pan; into the slow cooker. Add the sliced apples, thyme sprigs, cider and hot stock. The liquid should come three-quarters of the way up the pork. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours, or HIGH for 4–5, until a fork slides through the meat with no resistance and the apples have collapsed into the liquid.
5. 5Discard the thyme stalks. Lift the pork out with a slotted spoon onto a tray. Skim the fat from the surface of the cooking liquid; there will be a fair bit, and it's worth the two minutes. Pour the liquid into a wide pan.
6. 6Mash the flour into the soft butter with a fork to make a smooth paste (a beurre manié; it stops the flour clumping). Whisk it into the simmering liquid bit by bit and let it bubble for 2 minutes until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
7. 7Stir in the Dijon mustard and double cream, slide the pork back in and simmer gently for 2–3 minutes until the sauce is glossy and clings to the meat in a pale, silky mantle.
8. 8Stir in 15 ml lemon juice, then taste and add the remaining juice gradually if needed. Finish with the chopped parsley and lemon zest and serve.

Per serving

kcal

696

protein

40.3g

fibre

3.1g

carbs

19.1g

fat

50g