Pulled Pig Cheek Hash

Where does inspiration come from? Sometimes a dream, perhaps you have seen something on the telly, read a magazine article or perhaps a book.  These days it's quite possible that inspiration comes from the internet.  I think, subconsciously at least, the inspiration for tonight's menu came from Twitter.

I can't tell you how, when or why I started following Hashcapades on twitter.  All I know is every now and then they pop into my timeline either with a new hash recipe or retweeting somebody else's meals.  It's not a new idea, I was raised on stovies* but to this day I have never cooked them.

So why change the habit of a lifetime tonight?  Insipration was at hand again.  Nestling in the freezer were a couple of pigs cheeks from Swillington Farm and some pork ribs that were leftover from a mexican meal we cooked a few months back.  I had been waiting for the right reason to cook the cheeks.  They are a brilliant cut of pork but two of them just doesn't quite feel like enough meat for a meal for two hungry carnivores.

I decided to use the ribs to bulk out the cheeks and cook them slowly so that they fell apart.  That was when the decision to make a hash came to me.  I cooked the meat in white wine and stock with onions, carrots and celery for around three hours on the lowest heat I could manage.  The shredded meat was then added to sauted potatoes, onions and more carrots to form the hash.  A ladle of the cooking liquor and a handful of rocket were added to finish the dish off.

The idea of pulled pork dishes has been knocking around for some time now so I can't claim to be any kind of revolutionary trend setter, but this dish was so easy and satisfying that I can see quite a few similar dishes on the menu in the future.

*a Scottish version of the hash, traditionally made with leftover beef but more often than not made with sausages in our house.