Saturday 27 August 2011

Slow Cooked Pork, Stavros Style

Not sure how chorizo is in a
'Greek' dish but there you go.
Pork, lemon, chorizo, sherry vinegar and fennel, what's not to like here? This is one of those get home from work, throw it together, and leave it to simmer away dishes, leaving you free to not do all those chores you simply don't have time for, rather watch Come Dine With Me or a re-run of the Inbetweeners. It's cheap and store cupboardy so a big thumbs up from me, which was upgraded to a very enthusiastic thumbs up from the Boyfriend when he was finally fed.

Feeds 6. Pre-heat the oven to 150C. Brown a kilo of cubed pork shoulder in a big casserole in some olive oil and set aside. Then fry a sliced onion and a few chopped garlic cloves until softened. Add 3tbsp sherry vinegar, bubble for two minutes and throw in a handful of chopped chorizo, cook until it oozes with its lovely paprika spiked oil. Bash up a tsp fennel seeds and throw them in, and return the pork and any juices to the casserole. Finally stir in a tin of tomatoes and a squirt of tomato puree and about a litre of water so it all looks a bit splashy and wet. The sauce will reduce right down in the oven, so give it a good stir and season, bring to a simmer, then pop the lid on and cook in the oven for a couple of hours, take the lid off for another 15/30 mins depending how thick its all got. Serve with a zingy gremolata made by combing chopped lemon zest, garlic and parsley. Ooh next time I might use half onion, half chopped fennel for extra crunch.

This is lovely in the summer with some green beans and rice, and comforting mashed potatoes in the winter. Hmmm looking outside right now its more like December than August, so mash it is.

4 comments:

  1. This sounds smashing. I keep trying to imagine how great dishes would taste and this seems nice n tangy and spicy...Say, I'm not a huge fan of pork, so do you reckon this will work with chicken or lamb chops or something like that?

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  2. There is nothing not to like.But what ii like most in your dish is fennel"_

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  3. This sounds like exactly my kind of flavours- it's funny- I love fennel, but always forget about using the seeds, usually I grab a bulb when I can and shave it into a salad that goes on the top of most dishes for a bit of light crunch. But this week, the seeds are going to come out and play...

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  4. Curious Cook: thanks very much, you could try it chicken, or some nice chopped neck of lamb, but I would omit the chorizo if doing it with lamb as it might clash a bit. Chorizo is great with chicken so go for it!

    Dzoli and Tori, I am obsessed with fennel seeds! They take a bit of effort to crush up but definately worth it.

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