Creamy Cider Sauce For Pork Recipes

Steps:

• Heat half the oil in a large pan and brown the meat in batches. Don't overcrowd the pan, and only turn the meat when it has a deep brown crust on the underside, as this will add lots of flavour to the stew. When one batch is cooked, tip it into the slow cooker and continue with the next batch, adding more oil as you need it.
• When all the meat has been transferred to the slow cooker, add the onion, carrots and celery to the pan and cook for 5-10 mins to just soften, scraping any meaty bits up from the bottom of the pan. Tip the veg into the slow cooker. Add the lardons to the pan and fry until crispy. Pour in the cider, bubble for 1 min, again scraping the bottom of the pan, then tip the cider and lardons into the slow cooker too. Add the apples, stock cube and herbs to the slow cooker, pour in 400ml water, season well and turn the heat to Low. Cover with the lid and cook for 6-8 hrs until the meat is very tender. (If you don't have a slow cooker, tip all the ingredients back into the pan, cover with a lid and cook for 3 hrs over a low heat, stirring every now and then to prevent it from catching on the bottom. You may have to add a splash of water during cooking if the sauce looks dry.)
• Turn your slow cooker up to High. Add the crème fraîche and mustard to the stew and check the seasoning. If the sauce is thin, you can thicken it with the cornflour - ladle 2 spoonfuls of the sauce into a pan and bring to a simmer, mix the cornflour with 1-2 tsp cold water to make a paste, then stir it into the sauce. Once thickened, return the sauce to the slow cooker and cook for 10 mins more on High, stirring occasionally (or for 5 mins on the hob). Serve with mashed potato, greens and extra mustard and thyme, if you like.

Steps:

• Combine cider, broth, vinegar, and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan. Simmer over medium-high heat until liquid is reduced to 1 cup, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and discard. Set sauce aside until pork is cooked.
• Pour off any fat from the skillet in which the pork was cooked. Add 1 tablespoon butter and heat over medium heat until melted and foaming subsides. Add shallot and apple and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and add Calvados.
• Return skillet to heat and cook about 1 minute, scraping bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen browned bits. Add reduced cider mixture, any juices from resting meat, and thyme; increase heat to medium-high and simmer until thickened and reduced to 1 1/4 cups, 3 to 4 minutes.
• Off heat, whisk in remaining 3 tablespoons butter and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over pork and serve immediately.

Steps:

• The day before you want to eat, lay the pork belly skinned-side down, season generously, scatter over the fennel seeds and crumble over 3 of the bay leaves. From the widest side, roll into a tight log and use some butcher's string to tie at regular intervals. (You could take some fennel seeds and bay to your butcher and ask them to do it for you.)
• Heat oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3 1/2. Melt the butter in a large, shallow flameproof casserole dish or ovenproof sauté pan. Brown the pork all over (this will take a good 15 mins), then remove from the pan and add the vegetables and remaining bay leaves. Cook for about 10 mins until starting to colour. Nestle the pork among the veg. Pour over the cider and bring everything to a simmer, cover and cook in the oven for 2 hrs.
• When the pork is ready, leave to cool a bit, then remove the pork from the braise and chill. Strain the sauce into a jug and chill. Fish out the bay leaves and blitz the veg to a purée in a food processor. Tip into a bowl and chill.
• On the day, heat oven to 220C/ 200C fan/gas 8. Cut the pork into six rounds. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the pork, then put in the oven for 20 mins, turning halfway through, until crispy. Meanwhile, remove the solidified fat from the top of the braising juices, simmer until syrupy and reheat the purée. Serve everything in the middle of the table or smear some of the purée across plate, sit a piece of pork on top next to a burnt butter cabbage wedge, a piece of potato cake and some crackling (see 'Goes well with', right). Pour over some of the sauce and serve.