Preparation

Cut the pork cheeks into cubes approximately 3 cm across. Put the meat in a bowl and season with salt, pepper and stew seasoning if desired. Sprinkle with flour and mix well.
Chop the onions. Clean the mushrooms and cut into wedges. Clean the carrots and slice them.

Method

Melt the butter in a large casserole over a medium-high heat. Brown the meat on all sides in batches. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Pour a splash of beer into the pan and loosen the browned bits. Add some butter if necessary. Cook the onions over a low heat for approximately 10 minutes until soft and golden brown.
Return the meat to the pan on top of the onions. Add the clove, bay leaves, thyme, carrot slices and mushrooms. Pour in the remaining beer.
Spread one side of the bread slices with mustard and place them mustard-side down on the stew.
Add maple syrup and, if desired, apple cider vinegar.
Bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer the stew gently with the lid on for 1 to 1.5 hours, until the meat is meltingly tender.
Stir the stew and remove the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
Taste and adjust the seasoning with pepper, salt, maple syrup or apple cider vinegar.
Serve the stew with chips, mashed potatoes or a piece of crusty bread.

Background

Tips Sauce thickness: The flour, a slice of bread and reduction thicken the sauce. Still not thick enough? Add cold dark roux, bought or homemade. Sauce sweetness: Make the sauce sweeter with dark sugar or maple syrup. Choice of beer: This recipe used PiedBoeuf dark table beer, which already provides a sweet note. Other dark beers are suitable too, but bear in mind that each beer gives the sauce its own particular sweet or bitter flavour! Carrots and mushrooms: Perhaps not part of the original recipe, but I like them.

Pork cheek stew

Ingredients

Meat

Sauce

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Preparation

Method

Background