Pork Cheek Stew

Name: Pork Cheek Stew
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: Lean pork shoulder; Onion; Carrot; Garlic; Red wine; Beef stock; Olive oil; Bay leaf; Fresh thyme; Salt; Black pepper; Cornflour

462 kcal a serving, against 651 for the traditional version. That is 189 kcal off, or 29%, with 41.6g of protein. Serves 4. 3 hours.

What the traditional version is

The proper version calls for pork cheeks, onions, garlic, carrots, a bucket of red wine and sometimes a bit of stock. Everything's browned, simmered gently for hours, and finished with a glossy sauce that coats your spoon in piggy silk. Served with bread or chips if you're lucky. The fat melts right into the sauce, making it rich and sticky, and the cheeks go spoon-tender.

What changed, and what each change costs

Pork cheeks swapped for lean pork shoulder, all fat trimmed

Cheeks are marbled and capped with a thick layer of fat. Trimming the shoulder and fishing out every bit of visible fat means you drop most of the fat that would have ended up in the sauce.

What it costs you. Meat isn't as soft. You'll need a sharp knife instead of a spoon. The flavour still lands, but you lose some of the lushness and that lip-coating finish real cheeks give you.

Olive oil halved

You don't need to fry the life out of shoulder, just a touch of colour does it. Cutting the oil down works so long as you use a heavy pan and don't wander off checking your phone.

What it costs you. Brown bits in the bottom may need a drop of stock to stop burning. Anyway, the main brown comes from the braise, not the frying.

Cornflour used to thicken instead of relying on rendered fat and gelatine

With all the fat trimmed off, the sauce goes thin. A quick slurry tightens it up at the end. You don't get that rich, wobbly texture, but it's not watery either.

What it costs you. Can't lie, it isn't the silky, sticky sauce you'll remember from a proper bar in León. It's smoother than nothing, but you won't be licking lips all afternoon.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Lean pork shoulder
Onion
Carrot
Garlic
Red wine
Beef stock
Olive oil
Bay leaf
Fresh thyme
Salt
Black pepper
Cornflour

How it starts

Cut every visible bit of fat off the pork shoulder.
Get a heavy casserole pan hot, add half the olive oil, and brown the pork in batches.
Add the rest of the oil, then toss in the chopped onion, carrot, and garlic.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Spanish.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	651	462
Protein	36.9g	41.6g
Fat	41.2g	17g
Saturated fat	13.2g	5.4g
Carbohydrate	13g	15.3g
Protein per 100 kcal	5.7g	9g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Spanish prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. sulphites.

The method is in the book

If you're after that pure, spoon-soft cheek, you'll miss the wobble. Nobody is fooled. But you'll still get a porky, winey stew with real depth - and you can eat it at lunchtime without booking an armchair for the afternoon. Cutting the fat gives you leaner pieces you actually have to chew, and the sauce needs a helping hand. It's a worthy swap, but I'm not throwing out my butcher's number for pork cheeks just yet.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Spanish, along with 57 more. Buy the paperback