Pig cheeks in cider

Thanks to a tweet from Niamh at Eat Like a Girl, I discovered that Waitrose are now selling pig cheeks amongst other "forgotten cuts" of meat. And a bargain they are too, with 300g setting me back just over a quid. They're best cooked slow and long, braised in wine or in my case, cider.
Pig cheeks in cider (serves 2)

Ingredients

4 - 6 pig cheeks

Large knob of butter

500ml cider

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp herbes de provence

1 savoy cabbage, shredded

1) Preheat the oven to 160c.

2) Heat a pan, get the butter foaming and then brown the pig cheeks all over. Remove and put into a casserole dish.

3) In the same pan, cook the onion until soft, then add the garlic and herbes de provence. Cook until the garlic is just starting to colour (add more butter if necessary).

4) Pour the cider into the pan and gently scrape the bottom to get all the yummy porky bits off.

5) Add the cider mixture to the casserole.

6) Bung it in the oven for 1 and a half hours.

7) Throw the cabbage in for the last 10 minutes so that it wilts down into the cidery juices.

I served this up with a heap of lentils, a bit wintry perhaps but definitely an earthy and satisfying meal. It would probably be even nicer with a few slices of Bramley apple thrown in, but I didn't think of that until afterwards!