pork cheek, chorizo, pea + potato stew

I had rather a lazy time of it on Sunday, in that I didn't get out of the door (even though I'd run out of milk after breakfast) and spent much of the time sofa-bound, watching two films and reading a book. But I did manage to make a loaf of bread and this rather tasty and hearty stew - another wonderfully comforting dish following on from last week's meat and potato pie.

The only inhabitants of the vegetable rack were a solitary Cyprus potato, an onion and a head of garlic; there was a chorizo sausage and a roasted pepper in the fridge, left over from earlier in the week when I'd made this sandwich:

And on Saturday I'd bought two packs of pork cheeks from Morrisons (£5.20 per kg) with no particular recipe in mind. Although these are a regular item on the shelves of the Peckham branch they quickly disappear, mainly because there's a local restaurant owner who selfishly keeps buying up the entire stock. So if you ever see them there, grab as many as you can while you can, if only to piss the little fucker off.

Just to be clear - what we're talking about here, what Morrisons sell, are the nuggets of meat you get from the pig's cheek, not the entire cheek (see the photo below).

The amounts here serve one greedy person (viz. me).

serves one (with seconds)
a sprig of thyme
1 dsp olive oil
3 pork cheeks, each cut into 3 pieces (approx. 225g)
½ onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
50g chorizo, in small chunks
75ml red wine
250ml chicken stock
1 roasted red pepper, skinned, de-seeded and roughly chopped
175g of waxy potato, in small chunks
75g frozen peas
salt + black pepper

Heat a frying pan and have a casserole dish ready next to it. Put the thyme in the casserole. When the frying pan is hot add the oil and briskly fry the pork until nicely browned, then transfer to the casserole. Next, fry the onions and garlic until softened then spoon these over the pork. Fry the chorizo in the frying pan until starting to brown, pour in the wine and stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up the sticky bits from the base of the pan. Add the stock, let it bubble for a minute, then pour everything into the casserole. Add the roasted pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer very gently, covered, for 1½ hours.

Remove the lid from the casserole, add the potatoes, increase the heat slightly, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the peas and simmer for a final 15 minutes. The pork should now be lusciously tender and the potatoes squishily soft. Season to taste and serve. You'll need some crusty bread to mop up the juices.