River Cottage

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/Gas 4). Place a frying pan on the stove and add half the butter and oil. Add the onion and cook for 5–6 minutes until sweet and translucent, add the garlic and thyme leaves and cook for a further 3-4 minutes before adding the shredded pork and the chopped parsley if using. Season with pepper, mix well and remove from the stove.

Peel your potatoes, celeriac and pears and slice the as thinly as you can. If you have a mandolin, use this. Try to get them about 2mm thick.

Place the stock into a saucepan and bring to just below the boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Grease a 20x30 oven proof baking dish generously with butter. Neatly lay in the first layer of celeriac, followed by the pear, then half the pork mixture. Now add a layer of your potatoes, followed by more pork, pear and finally celeriac.

Pour over all of your stock and allow the gratin to soak for 15 minutes before dotting with the remaining 25g butter and baking in your preheated oven for 1hr 15 mins. You may need to cover the dish for the final 30 minutes of cooking.

Check to see if your gratin is done by inserting s knife, if it goes into the middle of the gratin without any resistance, the dish is ready. Leave to stand for another 10 minutes or so before serving to the table.

LINKS

• Challenge Hugh and win a £2,000 River Cottage bundle
• Want more? Go to Hugh's Scrapbook at Channel 4