Slow-cooked Pork Cheeks

The pork cheek, in my humble opinion, is the best cut on the entire pig. Yes, they are time consuming being cooked slow and long in pork fat a'la "confit" but they are also cheap as chips and the extra effort will give you the sweetest pork you have ever tasted.

Pre heat your oven to 130°c, 250°f, gas ½.

Ingredients:

10 pork cheeks
6 garlic cloves
a handful of thyme
pork fat - available in tins from any good deli


Method:

1. Place the cheeks into a deep roasting tray. Add the garlic and thyme and enough pork fat to cover.

2. Cover with tinfoil, place on a high heat until bubbling, then cover with foil, carefully transfer to the pre-heated oven and cook for three hours. Remove the cheeks from the tray, place on a biscuit rack set over a tray and cool.

3. Remove the skin then scrape away the fat to reveal a thin sheet of white long-grained meat. Remove and reserve. Turn the cheek over and remove the "nut" of dark meat. These two bits are all you need so get rid of everything else but strain and keep the fat for another use.

4. Lay out three sheets of 18" cling film - cut to around twice the length of your lower arm, on top of each other and place five of the 10 pieces of white meat, slightly overlapping, towards the front with the grain running left to right. Place the brown meat in a line on top followed by the remaining sheets of white meat, again slightly overlapping with the grain running left to right.

5. Roll the cheeks up as tightly as you can to form a big sausage then prick the cling film about twenty times with a cocktail stick and gently squeeze out the excess liquid. Twist and tie both ends. The "sausage" should be pretty firm and hold its weight without bending too much when you pick it up - otherwise it isn't tight enough. Try again.

6. Chill the cheek-roll overnight.

Once chilled you can slice the cheeks thinly and serve it cold with apple sauce or ccrisp-fried with scallops, but i like it best cut into 2" thick slices, quickly pan-seared on both sides and warmed up in a medium oven for 10 minutes, then served with mashed potatoe and braised red cabbage. Don't forget to remove the cling film before you eat it ... it doesn't taste very nice and is a bugger to digest!