Pork Fennel and Tomato Stew

One of the things I did over Christmas was have a celebratory Pastis or two and I also like using it in cooking ...

• 1lb pork loin - most of the fat removed and cut into 1/2" chunks
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 medium sized carrot diced quite small
• 1 fennel bulb diced quite small
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1/4 pt of chicken stock
• 1 x 440 gmms cheap chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 wine glass (ca 80 ml) pastis
• 2 squirts of coriander (or about 20 grammes chopped up)

Preparation:

1. Trim pork and cut into 1/2 inch cubes; sprinkle with half each of the salt and pepper. In a deep-sided frying pan, heat half of the olive oil over medium-high heat adding the paprika so that it can infuse into the oil; brown the pork, in batches and adding more oil if necessary. Transfer to casserole.
2. Add the remaining olive oil. Cook onion, carrots, fennel, garlic, and remaining salt and pepper over medium heat until softened and lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add stock, scraping up brown bits from pan. Transfer to casserole. Now add the pastis and boil vigorously scraping any remaining bits up and add that to the casserole.
3. Add tomatoes and thyme to casserole. Cover and cook on low (GM2, which I believe is about 120 c) for about 2 hours or until pork is tender.
   
4. You can let it cool down and then reheat for an hour on GM4 and serve with boiled potatoes or some nice crusty fresh bread. But don't leave it too long.

Enjoy!

Just a quick health note on Pork, besides the various diseases associated with undercooked pork, there are a number of parasites that the poor beasties are occasionally subject to. In Britain there are some pretty stringent control programmes which have largely reduced/removed the prevalence of these, including porcine tapeworm. Trichinella worms can get transferred to human beings; but what you really, really need to know is that this is common in carnivorous game, so beware when eating wild boar, for example. But the reason for mentioning this is that I didn't know until recently that some people are hyper-allergic to the toxins that the dead worms leave behind; so if you know someone who gets unwell when they eat pork, then that's the reason...