Winter warmer: slow cooked pork and cider casserole

Adventures with my slow cooker continue. I still can't quite get over the wonder of chopping a few things before breakfast, flicking a switch, and coming home to a beautiful smelling flat several hours later.

This week, I tried pork, apples and cider, with a little thyme. The results were absolutely delicious - tender pork and sharp apples in a lovely rich, scented, sweet and savoury sauce. Again, much too much sauce - I would recommend using half the amount of cider I did - although eating my supper of stew and mash with a spoon only served to increase the comfort food factor. The apples disintegrate, but it serve to thicken the sauce (slightly).

I also used more meat than usual - about twice as much. For some reason, I instinctively serve more pork than other meats. You could halve it - this was a very generous, even snooze-inducingly large portion - but I'd add a littlemore root veg to bulk it out if so.

 

Serves 4-6
0.8-1kg/2lb ish diced pork - I used shoulder, go with whatever good quality meat is cheapest
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 bramley apples, peeled, cored and chopped
One onion, sliced
Half pint/250ml cider (although I used twice that)
Few sprigs thyme, leaves picked

Put the onion, carrots and apples at the bottom of the slow cooker, and add the pork, thyme and cider. Cook all day on low, or half the day on high.

Or, in a normal oven, use the full pint of cider, and cook for two hours in a low oven.