Pork & apple ‘stroganoff’ with hot dog onions

SERVES 4 / PREPARATION 30 MINUTES / COOKING 2 HOURS

5 tablespoons ghee or rapeseed oil

4 medium onions, thinly sliced

3 sprigs of rosemary

700g pork neck steaks (about 3 steaks),

cut into thickish slices

250g mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 Granny Smith apples, cored but not peeled,

each cut into 8

1 teaspoon plain flour

300ml white wine or cider

500ml fresh chicken stock

1 heaped teaspoon English mustard

4 rounded tablespoons crème fraîche, plus extra for serving squeeze of lemon juice

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Heat a large flameproof casserole and add 3 tablespoons of ghee. When it has melted, add the onions and rosemary and fry very slowly with the lid on for about 25 minutes until the onions are really soft, making sure you give it the odd stir to prevent the onions catching on the bottom of the pan. Then whack up the heat and fry the onions hard for another 5 minutes or so until dark golden. The best kind of onions are almost soft enough to squash your fingers through them, a bit like hot dog onions.

While the onions are cooking, season the pork and brown it in batches over a high heat in a tablespoon of ghee. You want the pieces to be a really dark caramel, which is why it’s important not to overcrowd the pan. Remove the pork pieces with a slotted spoon and set aside while you brown the next batch. When this is done fry the mushrooms, again in batches, in a tablespoon of ghee, until dark golden on all sides, and finally, do the same with the apple pieces. When browning the apples, place them cut side down in the ghee in the hot frying pan, and leave them there for a few minutes until golden brown. Then flip the pieces over to brown the other side. Set the apples aside on a separate plate.

Keeping back half the onions and the apples, which you need as garnish, put everything back into the pan. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, then pour over the wine or cider and the stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and slowly braise the pork for 1 hour, making sure that you give it a good stir and scrape the bottom of the pan every so often.

It’s ready when the pork is tender and the sauce is thick and almost syrupy. Mix together the mustard and crème fraîche and pour them in to make a sauce. Put the apples back in to warm them through, but don’t overcook them or they will explode into the sauce. Check the seasoning; it will want lots of black pepper and it may need perking up with some lemon juice. Add the parsley, then you’re ready to serve, topped with the hot dog onions. I love this with short grain old-fashioned rice!