Slooooooooooow Cooker

[Kevy Baby]

Sue made stew yesterday.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Old thread alert!

Originally Posted by blueerica

My latest adventures in slow cookery took place in my mouth yesterday. And yum was the result.

Thursday night, I quickly seared a small-ish pork loin (a bit lean for slow cookery tastes, but seemed like a good choice anyway), with olive oil, salt, pepper (mixed peppercorns), and probably something else, but I don't remember, because I tend to get carried away with the moment and not take stock of what I am actually putting on things. But I think I kept it pretty simple since I knew the rest of my plans were a bit... different.

Been dying to get rid of a jar of applesauce that had been staring me in the face for a month and a half. Apparently, we like apple sauce, but only when we feel like it. Until I have the urge to make this dish again, it's applesauce cups for us. So, after I seared the pork, laid it into my slow cooker on a bed of apple sauce... mmm... Chopped 1.5 med-small sized onions. Since they were on the smaller size, I just cut them in half rather than quartered, broke it up a little and threw it in. 6 average-sized garlic cloves, roughly chopped into bigger sized pieces. Tossed those in, too. Then, I turned and remembered the apples that I bought in an effort to eat more fruit (forgetting that apples are only something I enjoy occasionally, and even then, granny smith, not gala). I took the easy way out and just chopped around the core, then took the bigger piece and chopped it in half. Three apples later, I threw it all in.

Then came a can of vegetable broth. Let's call it 15 ounces. I honestly don't remember and the trash got thrown out, so I'm no help there. But, it was a can of Swanson's veggie broth.

After staring for what seemed like about a minute and a half, I decided it needed more. I threw on some more pepper and salt. No, that couldn't be it... Oh, what the hell, how about some honey... I drizzled honey over the exposed area of the seared pork and called it a day. No I didn't... I added a bunch of cinnamon I got from the farmer's market. Some fancy kind, ground up and stuff. Then I called it a day. Threw the crock pot in the fridge and waited for dawn.

After a good 8 hour nap, I woke up, got ready for work, and tossed the pot into the cooker, and hit "10 hours, low heat." Going to work unsure of what the night's meal would bring was, well, it was like going to work on a normal day. In fact, I pretty much forgot about it until I got a call from J telling me he got sick and was home.

When I got home, I was shocked to discover that the juices had condensed into a paste (I'm sure there were a hundred reasons why that happened, none of which I'm willing to investigate). Though the house smelled amazing, I knew something needed to be done. Luckily, I had the foresight to grab an extra can of veggie broth while I was at the store, and I tossed that in. Cooked it a little longer, made some mashed potatoes (boiled with a bit of garlic oil and mashed with a small amount of goat cheese), served it up and..........

It was really good. Melted in my mouth and had that amazing combination of sweet, salty, savory and... melty. And the leftovers were pretty good, too.

If anyone wants to try it, I think it went something like:

Small pork loin
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Stuff
Some random amount of apple sauce, let's call it 2 cups
1.5 smallish sweet onions, chopped lengthwise in half
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 apples, chopped
Vegetable broth
Honey, apx... uh... 3... uh... spoonfuls, but I squirted it out of a cute bear thing
Cinnamon, probably a tablespoon or two

Sear pork loin, do some stuff, mix it together in a crock pot and cook for a long time. Then make some mashed tatos. Serve together.

This is currently filling my house with sweet appley aromas. I'm sure it'll be fantastic tonight.

[blueerica]

Hmm - you'll have to share the results.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by blueerica

Hmm - you'll have to share the results.

Oh hell no. I'm not sharing. Mine mine mine mine mine.

To. Die. For.

[BarTopDancer]

I swear I posted this before, but I can't find it:

1 pot roast
cut up pot roast vegetables.
1 packet onion soup mix
1 can cranberry sauce
salt & pepper
1/2 c. water

cook 8 hours low.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

The pork fell apart with a fork and the apples absorbed all the goodness perfectly, not losing too much cohesion or texture. Delish!

BTW I went with 2 cans of veg broth upfront instead of one early and one later, to avoid the coagulation issue. Other than that, nearly exactly your "recipe", including mashed potatoes from scratch as the side.

Slow cook is now my fav style, because making dinner can be a challenge. Theo isn't too happy in the evenings, and GD and I end up passing the cooking back and forth.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Other than that, nearly exactly your "recipe", including mashed potatoes from scratch as the side.

My favorite part was when you "did some stuff".

[blueerica]

Awesome!

Reading that recipe, I'm not sure I'd have dared to make sense of what I wrote, but I'm glad you did!

We still slow cook here and there. We had to downsize our slow cooker as we always ended up making too much food to actually eat. It forces us to buy in smaller quantities, which ends up being better in the long run. Slow cooker fare, as of late, has been roast/stew from last week, corned beef, carrots and potatoes (didn't bother with the cabbage) from St Patty's Day, and some freezer burned chicken that came out awful.

I may have to try that pork loin thing again...