Slow-cooked pork stew with wet polenta
casserole with mash
Slow-cooked pork stew with wet polenta is a hearty, gluten-free recipe that tastes fabulous. Make it in advance, as the stew needs to sit for a day or two in the fridge for the flavours to develop. You can also freeze it ahead of time.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves 8
2.25kg (5lb) leg pork, untrimmed weight,
cut into chunks
oil, for frying
150g (5oz) pancetta or smoked streaky bacon, cut into small chunks
2 onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
5 juniper berries, crushed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
pinch dried chilli flakes
few sprigs fresh rosemary
1 x 75cl bottle robust red wine, e.g. Shiraz
1tbsp tomato purée
30g (1¼oz) soft butter
2tbsp potato flour
250g (9oz) polenta (cornmeal)
1 litre (1¾ pts) vegetable stock
50g (2oz) butter
50g (2oz) fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
1 Preheat the oven to 150 C, 130 C fan, 300 F, gas 2. Brown the chunks of pork in the oil in a large frying pan. Do this in batches, then place in a large ovenproof casserole dish. In the same pan, cook the pancetta until crispy, then add to the pork. Cook the onions, carrot and celery until softened but not browned and add to the casserole along with the juniper, garlic, chilli and rosemary. Add some red wine to the frying pan and bubble, scraping up any bits in the pan, then add that and the remaining red wine, the tomato purée and seasoning to the casserole. Bring it all to the boil, cover and cook in the oven for around 2 hours or until the pork is tender.
2 Put a colander over a large saucepan, strain the casserole over it. Now, to thicken the sauce, bring the liquid to the boil on the hob, then mix the butter and flour together and add it to the sauce, whisking well. Bubble until thickened, then take off the heat and return all the sauce, meat and vegetables to the casserole dish.
3 For the polenta, follow the pack instructions but use vegetable stock instead of water. Slowly add the polenta to the boiling stock, stirring constantly, rather than adding the stock to the polenta. When it is cooked through, add the butter and Parmesan cheese, plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve immediately with the stew.
Per serving: 618cals, 27g fat, 11g saturated fat, 31g carbohydrate
