Dreary winter weather calls for hearty dishes. Food that fills your belly and leaves you with a warm, fuzzy and satisfied feeling. This dish with braised pig’s cheeks and mustard cream sauce, does exactly that. Accompanied by a carrot and potato mash, it has no frills, but lots of favour.
Pig’s cheeks (or pork cheeks depending who you’re asking), became fashionable a couple of years ago. They were hailed for being a cheap, underused but incredibly delicious piece of meat. This was of course all very true. Unfortunately all this hype came at a price. In this case the price of the meat. As soon as pig’s cheeks were no longer an unpopular piece of meat, prices went up. At least in this part of the world.
However, this doesn’t mean you should stay clear of pig’s cheeks! As far as its taste is concerned, it completely deserves all the hype. It’s a relatively lean type of meat which is also very tender and moist. A well prepared pig’s cheek simply melts in the mouth.
We usually buy our pig’s cheeks in Belgium, where they’re reasonably easy to find. They might be less readily available in other countries. But any good butcher should be able to provide you with some. But if they are hard to find, you might also be lucky enough to get them for a non-hype price.
To quote a famous Dutch football player: every disadvantage has its advantage.
| Servings |
|
- 8 pig's cheeks
- 1 onion
- 250 ml white wine
- 1 stock cube
- 250 ml cooking cream
- 2 tbsp french mustard
- 2 tbsp chives
Ingredients
|
|
- Season the pig's cheeks with salt and pepper. Brown the pig's cheeks in butter or oil. It's best to use a Dutch oven or a similarly heavy pan for this. Once the cheeks have a nice colour, remove them from the pan.
- Finely chop the onion and add it to the pan. Add a bit more oil if needed. After the onion has been cooked for about 5 minutes, put the pig's cheeks back in the pan.
- Add the wine and let the alcohol cook out for about a minute. Break up the stock cube and add it along with 250ml of water. Bring to the boil and cover with the lid. Then let it simmer for 2 hours, or until the meat falls apart.
- Towards the end of the cooking time add the mustard, chives and cream. Warm the dish until it's nice and hot, but don't let the cream boil.
- Serve with carrot and potato mash.
Leave a Reply