This was a SUPER EASY dinner to make. We had a long busy day so I decided first thing this morning to make a slow cooker meal. In the bowl of your slow cooker place 2/3 cup of brown sugar, pour in 1/2 C of soy sauce and 1/2 C of worcestershire sauce and 1/2 C of water plus 2 TB of prepared BBQ sauce (or ketchup). Mix this thoroughly and add in 5 whole sweet mini peppers. Place about 2 pounds of frozen pork ribs into sauce, submerging as best you can. Cook on high for the first hour and then on low for the next 7 hours (can be cooked on low for 8 hours as well) About halfway through cooking time I flipped the ribs over so the other side could baste in the sauce as well.
The ribs will come out fall off the bone tender. We served this with leftover mac and cheese, leftover baked beans and steamed Normandy style mixed vegetables.
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Whoopsie Wednesday: Forgot to Post and Thursday's Dinner
Wednesday's dinner was a great success, I made a spicy black bean soup and my husband made some corn bread waffles. You can find corn bread waffle recipes online, but our recipe came from the KitchenAid Belgian Waffle Maker cookbook that came with our super-studly, mack-daddy, dual belgian waffle maker, (with chrome exhaust and V-8 engine). Seriously, it's an awesome waffle maker.
Basically you use flour, corn meal, eggs, milk, cheese and cayenne pepper and make a nice thick waffle batter. You cook each waffle for 3 minutes and 45 seconds and they are light and crispy and cheesy and delicious. It made a sort of nice quick bread to serve with the bean soup.
I rinsed, sorted and soaked my beans and set them aside. In the bottom of my pressure cooker I sweated some roughly chopped onions, garlic, yellow bell pepper, and 2 tsp of Emeril's Southwest Seasoning and 1 tsp of chili powder and a single bay leaf. I added the drained beans and stirred them all together and then added a partial container beef broth I had in my fridge that needed using up. You could use chicken or vegetable broth or a mixture if you are so inclined. I cooked the beans with the veggies for 25 minutes on high pressure and then did quick release after 10 minutes. We served everything with a nice green salad. I was so tired though that I fell asleep without remembering to post. So sorry!
Tonight (Thursday's) dinner was sort of a chaotic adventure. My oldest daughter came home today with an earache, which necessitated some phone calls to local doctors to see if anyone could see her before 5 and dosing her with tylenol. Then trying to get her sister to get dressed and both kids to find their shoes to get them in the car to the doctors. No sooner had I texted my friend (and Sarah's softball coach) that we couldn't make it to practice, (my husband is the assistant coach) I get a call from Coach's Wife (and also my friend) that their beloved Golden Retriever had JUST passed away suddenly and could we please go coach the other kids?
Is it any surprise that I left the dinner in the oven? When I got home I was able to salvage the now somewhat sad and shriveled pork loins I had prepared by putting some barbecue sauce on them, but I still felt bad.
These are delicious when prepared correctly, but pretty good even if you leave them in about 30 minutes longer than you should have.
Take both pieces of a pork loin and lay them in a lidded dutch oven or large oven safe lidded pot; mine is an enamel over cast iron piece from the Martha Stewart collection. Sprinkle the loins all over with your favorite BBQ rub or rib rub. Drizzle the meat with a combination of liquid smoke, worcestershire sauce, apple juice and a splash of mojo marinade. (If you lack mojo you can sub in some citrus juices, lemon, lime, orange etc.) I put some large hunks of onion and a quartered apple around the meat to cook down and add moisture and flavor. They did help keep the meat somewhat moist as well.
After I pulled the meat out I took some pre-steamed green beans and put them in a pan with hot bacon fat and let them sit and sizzle till they were golden brown, then I peppered them and turned them and let them get brown on the other side. While those were cooking over medium heat I added some butter to a smaller pan and put that on low. Then I sliced an un-peeled apple into many nice thin slices and fried them in butter. When they were brown and soft on both sides I added the apples to a bowl with a goodly dash of cinnamon. Then I added some frozen corn to a microwave safe bowl and cooked the corn niblets with salt, pepper and butter. You could also add a bit of cream or sour cream after they are heated through to make a sort of "creamed corn" that is also very good.
Basically you use flour, corn meal, eggs, milk, cheese and cayenne pepper and make a nice thick waffle batter. You cook each waffle for 3 minutes and 45 seconds and they are light and crispy and cheesy and delicious. It made a sort of nice quick bread to serve with the bean soup.
I rinsed, sorted and soaked my beans and set them aside. In the bottom of my pressure cooker I sweated some roughly chopped onions, garlic, yellow bell pepper, and 2 tsp of Emeril's Southwest Seasoning and 1 tsp of chili powder and a single bay leaf. I added the drained beans and stirred them all together and then added a partial container beef broth I had in my fridge that needed using up. You could use chicken or vegetable broth or a mixture if you are so inclined. I cooked the beans with the veggies for 25 minutes on high pressure and then did quick release after 10 minutes. We served everything with a nice green salad. I was so tired though that I fell asleep without remembering to post. So sorry!
Tonight (Thursday's) dinner was sort of a chaotic adventure. My oldest daughter came home today with an earache, which necessitated some phone calls to local doctors to see if anyone could see her before 5 and dosing her with tylenol. Then trying to get her sister to get dressed and both kids to find their shoes to get them in the car to the doctors. No sooner had I texted my friend (and Sarah's softball coach) that we couldn't make it to practice, (my husband is the assistant coach) I get a call from Coach's Wife (and also my friend) that their beloved Golden Retriever had JUST passed away suddenly and could we please go coach the other kids?
Is it any surprise that I left the dinner in the oven? When I got home I was able to salvage the now somewhat sad and shriveled pork loins I had prepared by putting some barbecue sauce on them, but I still felt bad.
These are delicious when prepared correctly, but pretty good even if you leave them in about 30 minutes longer than you should have.
Take both pieces of a pork loin and lay them in a lidded dutch oven or large oven safe lidded pot; mine is an enamel over cast iron piece from the Martha Stewart collection. Sprinkle the loins all over with your favorite BBQ rub or rib rub. Drizzle the meat with a combination of liquid smoke, worcestershire sauce, apple juice and a splash of mojo marinade. (If you lack mojo you can sub in some citrus juices, lemon, lime, orange etc.) I put some large hunks of onion and a quartered apple around the meat to cook down and add moisture and flavor. They did help keep the meat somewhat moist as well.
After I pulled the meat out I took some pre-steamed green beans and put them in a pan with hot bacon fat and let them sit and sizzle till they were golden brown, then I peppered them and turned them and let them get brown on the other side. While those were cooking over medium heat I added some butter to a smaller pan and put that on low. Then I sliced an un-peeled apple into many nice thin slices and fried them in butter. When they were brown and soft on both sides I added the apples to a bowl with a goodly dash of cinnamon. Then I added some frozen corn to a microwave safe bowl and cooked the corn niblets with salt, pepper and butter. You could also add a bit of cream or sour cream after they are heated through to make a sort of "creamed corn" that is also very good.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
It begins! New Year's Day menu
Hello and Happy New Year!!! Today begins my Dinner 365 challenge and it has already been, um, challenging.** The kids stayed up to ring in the New Year and still woke up early, so they are a little it cranky already. I am in my parent's tiny cabin in North Carolina, super charming, but space is at a premium. There are 5 kids here under the age of 10 and 3 adults. The kitchen doesn't have a garbage disposal or a dishwasher and the counter space could best be described as "miniscule" but we forge ahead. I have a friend in Australia cooking her New Year's dinner over a camp fire today, so things could be a mite more challenging still.
The menu:
Baby Back ribs; the kids' preferred method of eating pork and a catchy jingle of the late 90's, ("I want my baby backs, baby backs, baby backs..." )These are liberally seasoned with my trusty Adobo seasoning blend "con pimienta!" and then squeeze a fresh lime over all. I wrapped them in heavy duty foil and they will sit and "marinate" for awhile before we cook them "low and slow" in the oven. 275-300 for maybe 3 hours should do it.
We also made a picnic butt roast, a small but fatty piece of meat. We rubbed it all over with my father-in-law's super secret dry rub and tented it with foil in a shallow baking pan. Use any good BBQ spice rub or make your own seasoning blend with salt and spices, some people even use brown sugar in their rubs. The roast went in at the same temperature until a meat thermometer reached a minimum of 140 degrees. When you bring the meat out of the oven to rest the temperature will rise by 5-10 degrees.
Collard greens; the greens are best purchased pre-washed in the bag if available. They will still need an extra rinse or two, collards, mustard and turnip greens are notoriously gritty. If you like the frozen ones work well too. Greens are great with a bit of tabasco sauce or peppered vinegar, or my preferred way, just a dash of salt and pepper.
Plain white rice; I usually make brown rice, yellow rice or wild rice, but on New Year's Day it is typical long grain white rice for me. This is one of those recipes I have memorized, 2 cups boiling water, 1 cup of rice and salt to taste (maybe a teaspoon). Boil the water, add the rice, bring back to a boil for 1 minute then turn down, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Black-eyed peas; these can be taken dry from the bag, rinsed and then placed in a large stock pot with salted water. You can also add a bit of onion and garlic to the water. Usually mine are boiled up with a piece of ham, ham hock, or bacon, but I also make them vegetarian by adding chopped carrot, onion, celery and garlic and maybe a bay leaf for flavor and then adding a few tablespoons of olive oil when they are almost done. They take about 45 minutes. Today, due to space and time constraints we made frozen field peas with snap beans (aka black eyes peas with green beans). They were my first attempt at using frozen beans and they were great actually. If I had more freezer space I'd probably make them that way more often.
Cornbread, use any mix or recipe you like for the cornbread, but my tip to you is to get the pan hot in the oven with some oil or grease in the pan. When the oven is preheated, the pan will also be hot and ready. Pour your batter directly and quickly into the pan and let it bake according to your recipe or package directions.
Creamed corn; again, a frozen food I was not aware even existed. When I make creamed corn usually I am cutting corn off the cob and then "milking" the cob by scraping it with a spoon. Then I cook the corn for 25 minutes in the microwave with an entire stick of butter and some salt and pepper. Here my mom just took a frozen package of creamed corn, mixed it with a package of kernel corn and microwaved it all in about 10 minutes. It is not as good as fresh corn off the cob, but it is winter time and not the season for fresh ears of corn and it makes a fine winter substitute.
Our garnishes were home-made salsa and chow-chow from a local farm store. Chow-chow is a sweet relish and terrific with the beans and rice.
If you wanted to make this meal vegetarian, it would still be delicious. Skip the pork, use extra spices in the greens and beans and rice, for instance, using vegetable broth to make the rice (super flavorful!). Mixed black eyed peas and rice is it's own special dish called Hopping John, round out the plate with the hot cornbread and that is a wonderful meatless meal.
** Right after I wrote this post, we put the meat in the oven, set the temperature to 275 and left to take the kids swimming at the Y since the weather was so miserable today. We returned from the Y prepared to make rice and cornbread, heat up the greens and eat only to discover the oven had never turned on!!! We quickly cranked the heat in the oven to 350 degrees and cooked everything for an hour less than planned. We staved off hunger with a big platter of cheese, crackers, sliced meats, and grapes. The kids were remarkably calm after ingesting the entire platter in about 5 minutes and then ate a good dinner when it was finally ready. The cabin was quite cold so the meat had stayed fresh and probably the extra time "marinating" in the spices made them even better, so alls well that ends well!
The menu:
Baby Back ribs; the kids' preferred method of eating pork and a catchy jingle of the late 90's, ("I want my baby backs, baby backs, baby backs..." )These are liberally seasoned with my trusty Adobo seasoning blend "con pimienta!" and then squeeze a fresh lime over all. I wrapped them in heavy duty foil and they will sit and "marinate" for awhile before we cook them "low and slow" in the oven. 275-300 for maybe 3 hours should do it.
We also made a picnic butt roast, a small but fatty piece of meat. We rubbed it all over with my father-in-law's super secret dry rub and tented it with foil in a shallow baking pan. Use any good BBQ spice rub or make your own seasoning blend with salt and spices, some people even use brown sugar in their rubs. The roast went in at the same temperature until a meat thermometer reached a minimum of 140 degrees. When you bring the meat out of the oven to rest the temperature will rise by 5-10 degrees.
Collard greens; the greens are best purchased pre-washed in the bag if available. They will still need an extra rinse or two, collards, mustard and turnip greens are notoriously gritty. If you like the frozen ones work well too. Greens are great with a bit of tabasco sauce or peppered vinegar, or my preferred way, just a dash of salt and pepper.
Plain white rice; I usually make brown rice, yellow rice or wild rice, but on New Year's Day it is typical long grain white rice for me. This is one of those recipes I have memorized, 2 cups boiling water, 1 cup of rice and salt to taste (maybe a teaspoon). Boil the water, add the rice, bring back to a boil for 1 minute then turn down, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Black-eyed peas; these can be taken dry from the bag, rinsed and then placed in a large stock pot with salted water. You can also add a bit of onion and garlic to the water. Usually mine are boiled up with a piece of ham, ham hock, or bacon, but I also make them vegetarian by adding chopped carrot, onion, celery and garlic and maybe a bay leaf for flavor and then adding a few tablespoons of olive oil when they are almost done. They take about 45 minutes. Today, due to space and time constraints we made frozen field peas with snap beans (aka black eyes peas with green beans). They were my first attempt at using frozen beans and they were great actually. If I had more freezer space I'd probably make them that way more often.
Cornbread, use any mix or recipe you like for the cornbread, but my tip to you is to get the pan hot in the oven with some oil or grease in the pan. When the oven is preheated, the pan will also be hot and ready. Pour your batter directly and quickly into the pan and let it bake according to your recipe or package directions.
Creamed corn; again, a frozen food I was not aware even existed. When I make creamed corn usually I am cutting corn off the cob and then "milking" the cob by scraping it with a spoon. Then I cook the corn for 25 minutes in the microwave with an entire stick of butter and some salt and pepper. Here my mom just took a frozen package of creamed corn, mixed it with a package of kernel corn and microwaved it all in about 10 minutes. It is not as good as fresh corn off the cob, but it is winter time and not the season for fresh ears of corn and it makes a fine winter substitute.
Our garnishes were home-made salsa and chow-chow from a local farm store. Chow-chow is a sweet relish and terrific with the beans and rice.
If you wanted to make this meal vegetarian, it would still be delicious. Skip the pork, use extra spices in the greens and beans and rice, for instance, using vegetable broth to make the rice (super flavorful!). Mixed black eyed peas and rice is it's own special dish called Hopping John, round out the plate with the hot cornbread and that is a wonderful meatless meal.
** Right after I wrote this post, we put the meat in the oven, set the temperature to 275 and left to take the kids swimming at the Y since the weather was so miserable today. We returned from the Y prepared to make rice and cornbread, heat up the greens and eat only to discover the oven had never turned on!!! We quickly cranked the heat in the oven to 350 degrees and cooked everything for an hour less than planned. We staved off hunger with a big platter of cheese, crackers, sliced meats, and grapes. The kids were remarkably calm after ingesting the entire platter in about 5 minutes and then ate a good dinner when it was finally ready. The cabin was quite cold so the meat had stayed fresh and probably the extra time "marinating" in the spices made them even better, so alls well that ends well!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Winter Meals
I know, I know I live in South Florida and I don't know about cold. Yeah, can we take the Yankee smearing of my fortitude and lack of grit as read? But the truth is there are only a few weeks all year where it is cold enough here to make truly hearty winter foods and last night was one of them!
Menu: Pulled Pork, collard greens, black eyed peas, cornbread, coleslaw.
The pulled pork recipe was adapted from Paula Deen's pulled pork recipe, basically you take a a pork shoulder and rub it all over with spices and brown sugar. I use my husband's TOP SECRET no TELLIN, *ever* dry rub and some brown sugar to coat the meat. Alton Brown and Paula Deen both have excellent dry rubs that you can use, there are also commercially available dry rubs. The real "secret" is to let the rub sit on the meat for at least 2 hours if not all night. Then you add a mixture of 2 tsp. garlic powder, salt, 2 TB worcestershire, 1/2 TB of liquid smoke, 1 C of cider vinegar and 2 C of apple juice to the dutch oven or roasting pan. Add the meat to the pan. Cover the pan with heavy foil and then put the lid on that. Slow roast this in the oven for 4 hours at 325 until you are able to shred the pork with a fork. You can eat the pulled pork as is or top with barbecue sauce.
Collard greens are so simple it is embarrassing. Fry bacon in a stock pot, add some finely chopped onion if you like. Toss rinsed, chopped, de-ribbed (only the really large tough ribs) collards in the pot, stir until wilted. Top with water or stock and heat through. They sell pre-chopped collards in a bag these days which makes it even easier.
Black-eyed peas were the big experiment of the night. I had forgotten to start them earlier in the day and I was stumped till I remembered I had received a pressure cooker for Christmas. I have never used a pressure cooker before so I was a little leery. I followed the directions and assembled the cooker, added the sorted, rinsed beans, a half an onion, a chopped carrot and 4 C of water. You lock on the lid, hit high pressure, and time and let it go. The beans came out delicious, soft and flavored well in only 24 minutes!!!. I did not add salt as the beans were cooking as this can inhibit the beans from going soft, but adding salt at the end seasoned them well. A piece of ham hock or bacon would have been good, but I had used my bacon for the collards.
I took the easy way out with the coleslaw and bought a pre-shredded bag of cabbage and carrots. Let the mix stand in a colander over the sink sprinkled liberally with salt for 20 minutes. After it has released its moisture toss the mix with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp of sugar, and a sprinkle of your dry rub. Then mix together 1/4 C of mayo with 1/4 C of Ranch dressing, pour over the mix and toss till coated. I can't stand soggy coleslaw so this may be too dry for you, adjust amounts as needed.
And now the final piece of the meal, fresh hot cornbread. I realized I was out of Jiffy corn muffin mix which is my go-to for cornbread, but I did have some cornmeal on hand. I used the recipe (more or less) on the back of the bag.
Golden Yellow Corn Bread
1 C corn meal
1 C sifted flour (I used bread flour and did not sift)
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 C soft shortening (I used some smart balance and some cold solidified bacon grease I had in the fridge. Yes, I did.)
1 C milk
1 egg beaten
3 tsp baking powder
Mix dry ingredients. Cut in shortening (or whatever you use.) Mix egg and milk together and add to dry ingredients with a few quick strokes. (Seriously, do not over beat corn bread batter!) Bake in a greased 9x9x2 inch pan at 425 for 20-25 minutes. (I only had an 8x8 pan and I baked it in a 350 degree oven due to the meat cooking and it came out fine.) When cornbread is brown around the edges and pulling away and a a toothpick inserted comes out clean it is done. I don't see why you couldn't have the dry ingredients for this pre-mixed and ready to go in your pantry at all times. It was lightly, lightly sweet and delicious.
Menu: Pulled Pork, collard greens, black eyed peas, cornbread, coleslaw.
The pulled pork recipe was adapted from Paula Deen's pulled pork recipe, basically you take a a pork shoulder and rub it all over with spices and brown sugar. I use my husband's TOP SECRET no TELLIN, *ever* dry rub and some brown sugar to coat the meat. Alton Brown and Paula Deen both have excellent dry rubs that you can use, there are also commercially available dry rubs. The real "secret" is to let the rub sit on the meat for at least 2 hours if not all night. Then you add a mixture of 2 tsp. garlic powder, salt, 2 TB worcestershire, 1/2 TB of liquid smoke, 1 C of cider vinegar and 2 C of apple juice to the dutch oven or roasting pan. Add the meat to the pan. Cover the pan with heavy foil and then put the lid on that. Slow roast this in the oven for 4 hours at 325 until you are able to shred the pork with a fork. You can eat the pulled pork as is or top with barbecue sauce.
Collard greens are so simple it is embarrassing. Fry bacon in a stock pot, add some finely chopped onion if you like. Toss rinsed, chopped, de-ribbed (only the really large tough ribs) collards in the pot, stir until wilted. Top with water or stock and heat through. They sell pre-chopped collards in a bag these days which makes it even easier.
Black-eyed peas were the big experiment of the night. I had forgotten to start them earlier in the day and I was stumped till I remembered I had received a pressure cooker for Christmas. I have never used a pressure cooker before so I was a little leery. I followed the directions and assembled the cooker, added the sorted, rinsed beans, a half an onion, a chopped carrot and 4 C of water. You lock on the lid, hit high pressure, and time and let it go. The beans came out delicious, soft and flavored well in only 24 minutes!!!. I did not add salt as the beans were cooking as this can inhibit the beans from going soft, but adding salt at the end seasoned them well. A piece of ham hock or bacon would have been good, but I had used my bacon for the collards.
I took the easy way out with the coleslaw and bought a pre-shredded bag of cabbage and carrots. Let the mix stand in a colander over the sink sprinkled liberally with salt for 20 minutes. After it has released its moisture toss the mix with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp of sugar, and a sprinkle of your dry rub. Then mix together 1/4 C of mayo with 1/4 C of Ranch dressing, pour over the mix and toss till coated. I can't stand soggy coleslaw so this may be too dry for you, adjust amounts as needed.
And now the final piece of the meal, fresh hot cornbread. I realized I was out of Jiffy corn muffin mix which is my go-to for cornbread, but I did have some cornmeal on hand. I used the recipe (more or less) on the back of the bag.
Golden Yellow Corn Bread
1 C corn meal
1 C sifted flour (I used bread flour and did not sift)
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 C soft shortening (I used some smart balance and some cold solidified bacon grease I had in the fridge. Yes, I did.)
1 C milk
1 egg beaten
3 tsp baking powder
Mix dry ingredients. Cut in shortening (or whatever you use.) Mix egg and milk together and add to dry ingredients with a few quick strokes. (Seriously, do not over beat corn bread batter!) Bake in a greased 9x9x2 inch pan at 425 for 20-25 minutes. (I only had an 8x8 pan and I baked it in a 350 degree oven due to the meat cooking and it came out fine.) When cornbread is brown around the edges and pulling away and a a toothpick inserted comes out clean it is done. I don't see why you couldn't have the dry ingredients for this pre-mixed and ready to go in your pantry at all times. It was lightly, lightly sweet and delicious.
Friday, December 11, 2009
The Miracle of the Pork Roast or One Roast, Three Ways
I know I started to talk about this in my previous post, but let me go into a bit of detail about my miraculous pork roast. I bought in sale at Publix for $1.59 per pound (which in my neck of the woods is very cheap). I was determined to make the most out of the meat, but since I am not a huge pork fan I was not relishing the thought of eating it several nights in a row. My best bet, I realized, was to make true "planned-overs" and transform the meat as entirely as I could from night to night.
Night one: Pork loin roast, simply seasoned and roasted. Next time I will cook it to a slightly lower temperature, because even though it had a generous layer of fat over it, I still felt it was *thisclose* to being too dry. I made asparagus and cabbage with the roast. (See previous post)
Night two: Pork Stew with multiple veggies served over mashed potatoes. My nearly dry roast was rehydrated in a flavorful veggie and chicken broth. I pan roasted the vegetables in a dutch oven, and salted them with kosher salt to help them break down. I tossed the cooked cubes of pork in flour with salt and pepper in it. As I cooked my Yukon Gold potatoes I also cooked a peeled and chopped parsnip in with them and mashed them all together. My husband is not terribly fond of parsnips, so I was looking for a way to use up my last one without having to confront hubby with the dreaded root vegetable. In the future I may add more parsnips to the potato party as no-one seemed to notice them. I am not really into all that "sneaky chef" stuff because if you are always "tricking" people into eating vegetables, they never learn to like them on their own. However, *I* like parsnips, so this way I can have them and not make a big deal. Huzzah. I brought the soup to stew consistency with a little slurry of cornstarch and water. I have also used arrowroot flour and water to make stew and I am fond of both as a thickener, they seem to thicken at lower temperatures than flour and you don't have to "cook" the flour flavor out of the food as much.
Night three: Pork BBQ, took the last third of the roast and put it on a dutch oven with oil, chopped onion, garlic and green pepper. Topped with with a generous amount of BBQ sauce and lots of Mr. David's pork rub, some ketchup and some mustard. (The mustard and ketchup were added to account for the fact I did not think I had enough BBQ Sauce.) The sauce application was to keep the meat from drying out during the re-heating and veggie cooking stage. Side dishes were steamed broccoli and leftover reheated mashed potatoes.
In keeping with my philosophy of offering a fruit and vegetable at every meal we also had apple sauce every night with dinner. Apple sauce and pork are a classic combination and this week made me remember why. The sweetness of the applesauce contrasted perfectly!
This roast provided 3 dinners and 6 lunches for a family of 2 adults and 2 children. (There is still pork stew in the fridge.) I estimate it was a 4-5 pound roast. I wish now I had noted the exact weight. Anyhow this proves my oft stated maxim that if you treat meat as a flavoring component and not the center of the meal you can get a lot more for your money. You just need sufficient veggies and starches. Other meals I could have prepared were pork fried rice and stir fry vegetables, or perhaps pork fajitas. This type of roast is also exceedingly easy to cut into your own pork chops, especially if you have an electric knife and a steady hand.
Night one: Pork loin roast, simply seasoned and roasted. Next time I will cook it to a slightly lower temperature, because even though it had a generous layer of fat over it, I still felt it was *thisclose* to being too dry. I made asparagus and cabbage with the roast. (See previous post)
Night two: Pork Stew with multiple veggies served over mashed potatoes. My nearly dry roast was rehydrated in a flavorful veggie and chicken broth. I pan roasted the vegetables in a dutch oven, and salted them with kosher salt to help them break down. I tossed the cooked cubes of pork in flour with salt and pepper in it. As I cooked my Yukon Gold potatoes I also cooked a peeled and chopped parsnip in with them and mashed them all together. My husband is not terribly fond of parsnips, so I was looking for a way to use up my last one without having to confront hubby with the dreaded root vegetable. In the future I may add more parsnips to the potato party as no-one seemed to notice them. I am not really into all that "sneaky chef" stuff because if you are always "tricking" people into eating vegetables, they never learn to like them on their own. However, *I* like parsnips, so this way I can have them and not make a big deal. Huzzah. I brought the soup to stew consistency with a little slurry of cornstarch and water. I have also used arrowroot flour and water to make stew and I am fond of both as a thickener, they seem to thicken at lower temperatures than flour and you don't have to "cook" the flour flavor out of the food as much.
Night three: Pork BBQ, took the last third of the roast and put it on a dutch oven with oil, chopped onion, garlic and green pepper. Topped with with a generous amount of BBQ sauce and lots of Mr. David's pork rub, some ketchup and some mustard. (The mustard and ketchup were added to account for the fact I did not think I had enough BBQ Sauce.) The sauce application was to keep the meat from drying out during the re-heating and veggie cooking stage. Side dishes were steamed broccoli and leftover reheated mashed potatoes.
In keeping with my philosophy of offering a fruit and vegetable at every meal we also had apple sauce every night with dinner. Apple sauce and pork are a classic combination and this week made me remember why. The sweetness of the applesauce contrasted perfectly!
This roast provided 3 dinners and 6 lunches for a family of 2 adults and 2 children. (There is still pork stew in the fridge.) I estimate it was a 4-5 pound roast. I wish now I had noted the exact weight. Anyhow this proves my oft stated maxim that if you treat meat as a flavoring component and not the center of the meal you can get a lot more for your money. You just need sufficient veggies and starches. Other meals I could have prepared were pork fried rice and stir fry vegetables, or perhaps pork fajitas. This type of roast is also exceedingly easy to cut into your own pork chops, especially if you have an electric knife and a steady hand.
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