Pork, Morcilla and Chickpea Stew

This is a version of a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe. It's worth searching out Morchilla for this as it does have a totally different taste and texture to English black pudding. There's a particularly good Spanish deli in Liverpool, www.lunya.co.uk  which has a great selection of traditional cheese and meat.

1/4 bag of dried chickpeas (soaked overnight and then cooked till soft)
or 2 tins of chick peas 
2 medium onions, sliced finely
1 tea spoon Thyme
2 carrot diced
2 stick of celery diced
2 garlic cloves
1 kg pork shoulder cubed
300g Morcilla chopped
Glass dry sherry/dry wine
700ml chicken stock
2 bay leaf
3 handfuls curly kale
1 lemon
2 chillis (use depending on heat tolerance)
chopped parsley

 Add the garlic to a cold pan with 2 table spoons of cooking olive oil, put on a low heat then fry the onions and chilli till soft; then add the thyme, carrot and celery and soften; put to the side. Add more olive oil if needed (not much) then brown the pork shoulder (do this in batches, you don't want to over crowd the pan as this will just steam it and never add any colour) and add to the veg. Brown the Morcilla and set aside.

Add the sherry/wine to the warm pan, making sure to scrape the bottom, then add the pork and veg back in. Add the bay leaf and top up with stock till it just covers the ingredients, season and simmer. After half an hour add the chickpeas, half an hour later, check the pork is tender and then add the Morcilla and kale, simmer till the kale  softens. Add the juice of a lemon to cut through some of the fat and check for seasoning.

Although this dish screams out for a Ribera Del Duero, it equally could stand up to a strong beer with a bitter finish, a Duvel would work very well.

Pork chops and potato rosti

Pork and cider is a marriage made in heaven. The potato rosti is Simon Rimmer's recipe.

2 Free range pork chops
2 Large potatoes
Fennel seeds
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 Medium onion, finely sliced
1/2 bottle of decent medium cider
200ml of chicken stock. 

Pre-heat the oven to medium (gas mark 5 or equivalent)

Boil the potatoes whole, in their skin, for seven minutes. Scrape the skin off and leave to cool. When you're able to handle it, grate into a bowl and mix with garlic and plenty of seasoning. Form into patties and chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

In a frying pan, soften the onion and set aside. Turn up the heat and add the pork (seasoned) and brown. Put on a baking tray in the oven. Turn the heat down and add the onion, fennel seeds and garlic. Brown softly and add the cider, turn up the heat. Reduce this by 1/3 and add the chicken stock. Reduce this until you acheive a good, thick consistency.

For the rosti, fry them in olive oil till they're browned on both sides. Put all the ingredients together and serve with broccoli or spinach.

Pea & ham soup

A classic warming soup which is dead easy and dirt cheap, perfect.

Makes 1 litre

Ingredients
1 ham hock (fat, bone and everything left on) soaked in water over night
Bag of split green peas
2 onions sliced
Stock veg (onion, 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks)
2 bay leaf


Drain the water from the hock and refresh. Put on to boil with 2 litres of water. Chop and add the stock veg, bay leaf and a good hit of black pepper (don't add salt yet as a lot will come from the ham.) Let it cook for over an hour until the ham is finished and the water reduced by 500ml.

Take the ham out and leave to cool. Discard the stock veg as they will have done their job. In a seperate pan, fry the 2 onions until they start to brown, then add the stock and the bag of split peas. While this is cooking, trim the fat from the hock. With the meat underneath, cut long, thin slices until you get to the bone. Add the fat and bone back to the soup. Cook this for another hour until the water has reduced another 500ml and the peas are starting to break up. Remove the fat and bone ( a lot of the meat will have come off them) and blend the rest. The peas will thicken the soup and give it a nice green colour. Now check for salt and seasoning. If you want you can add some of the ham back to the soup (chopped up), but there should be a strong meat flavour without this.

Roast pork and all the trimmings

Moist roast pork with crackling, stuffing, rich gravy and a ton of potatoes and vegetables is a stunning meal to serve for Sunday lunch. This recipe is for 6 people.

1.2kg pork shoulder
200g sausage meat
Potatoes (whatever is seasonal)
2 onions
6 carrots
6 parsnips
Head of Broccoli
Table spoon of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
2 crusts of bread
Bottle of cider
Cranberry sauce

*I've used pork shoulder as this is fattier, therefore better crackling, but when used right can be very tasty and much cheaper than loin*

 Pre-heat your oven to its highest setting.
First the spuds. I've not added a weight here, because this is subjective. Personally, I always make far too many so I can eat them cold the next day with horse radish, my favourite snack. Wash, peel and wash the potatoes. Then add to a pan of cold water and bring to the boil. When it boils add a good hit of salt to the water.
*I use Maldon sea salt for cooking, it's the best. However, I always have a tub of cheap table salt for adding to water.*
Boil for about 5 minutes until they start going soft on the outside, but are still uncooked inside. Drain (reserve the water) and give them a shake to fluff up the outside. Then leave to cool down.


If you get your pork from a decent butcher, they should score the fat for you. If not, you should invest in a Stanley Knife for your kitchen. Nothing will cut through the outer skin better. Rub sea salt into the scored skin and rub with olive oil. Quarter one of the onions and place in the bottom of a pan (leave the skin on) and sit the pork on top. Put the pork on the top shelf for about half an hour, after 20 minutes keep checking on it, until the fat has gone crisp, but not burnt. While this is cooking, put a roasting tin on the bottom shelf of the oven and add fat/dripping. After a few minutes, put the tin on a medium heat and add the potatoes. Sprinkle lots of sea salt all over and a little black pepper and turn it in the hot oil (I recommend wearing an apron at this point.) Then put back in the oven.

Prep your carrots and parsnips by peeling and quartering (cut them into 6 if they're very big.) When the crackling is crisp, swap the potatoes onto the top shelf and turn the oven down to gas mark 6. Pour the bottle of cider into the roasting tin with the pork until it comes up to the top of the onions. Add the carrots and parsnips to the potatoes, season and turn them all in the oil.The pork should be checked after an hour. Insert a knife into the meat and check if the juices run clear.

For the stuffing, blitz the crusts into crumbs and add the onion, thyme and a good whack of seasoning. Pulse the blender to leave a chunky mix and add the sausage meat. Stir in together and add to a ceramic bowl. Cover in oiled baking paper and put on the bottom shelf.

When the pork has cooked, remove the crackling carefully, with a decent knife, and trim the fat until there's just  a small layer on the top. Leave this in a warm place to rest (this is where a microwave comes in useful.) Keep turning the potatoes and vegetables to brown all over. Put the roasting tin with the cider on top of the hob on a medium heat. Add a couple of bay leaves and 2 table spoons of cranberry sauce. Bring to the boil and reduce to a low simmer. At this point take the baking paper off the stuffing.

Turn the broccoli into florets and add to a pan of boiling potato water and boil for a couple of minutes. Drain (reserve the water) and add the broccoli to the potatoes to keep warm. Check the cider gravy and add the potato water if it's reduced too much.

Then simply slice the meat, put everything into warm bowls on the table and open another bottle of chilled cider.