We like to use local ingredients when we can, so when we saw some Irish cider on the shelf at the local supermarket, it gave us the perfect opportunity to get a nice piece of pork meat and cook pork in cider.
Ingredients - Serves 4
- 1 pork fillet
- Oil
- 2 onions - 1 finely chopped and 1 coarsely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 cooking apple
- cider
- 1 gluten free stock cube
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- Cherry tomatoes
- 1 dessert spoon sugar
- mixed herbs
- salt and pepper to taste
- (mushrooms - not required)
- cornflour to thicken the sauce
Method
Prepare the vegetables, so finely chop or crush the garlic, finely chop one onion and coarsly chop the other. Chop up the apple into large chunks.
Cook the onions and garlic in oil until they are transparent. Add the gluten free stock cube then the pork fillet that had been cut into large chunks. Add the tomato puree along with the cherry tomatoes, then add the apple. Cover the meat, onions and apple with cider, then add the salt and pepper along with the mixed herbs. We also added some mushrooms, but they did not add to the flavour of the dish.
Simmer for at least one hour. We used our Mr. D Thermal cooker so that we could get on with some jobs. After one hour, add the sugar to balance the taste of the apple, cider and tomatoes. Simmer for another hour.
At the end of cooking thicken the sauce with cornflour to suit your tastes.
Serve with either rice or potatoes with seasonal vegetables
Top Tip
When cooking with apples choose which variety you use with care, for example the flesh of Bramley's breaks down to mush, so remove the skin if you are cooking with this apple, while with Braeburns or Cox's apples the flesh is harder so you might choose to keep the skin on
