Slow Cooker Rosemary Garlic Pork

There was a 2 1/2 lb piece of Boston Butt sitting in my ‘fridge and I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. One thing I did know is that I wanted to avoid both the Italian and Tex-Mex flavor profiles. Now, I have nothing against Italian and Tex-Mex - quite the opposite - I love them. They are the cuisines that I have the highest comfort level in practicing. I have come to understand them to the point where I can “wing it” without a recipe and be reasonably assured of a tasty supper. But this means we eat loads of tomatoes, oregano, beans and pasta.

And I really didn’t want to go that way with this chunk of meat. Which brings us to standing with a piece of pork sitting on the counter at 10:30 pm pondering the possibilities. Springing into action, I seasoned it with a rub and chucked it into the ‘fridge to plot against me overnight. The best decision is the one put off until tomorrow.

The Hardware:

Slow Cooker, Immersion blender, Large Saucepan

The Software:

2 1/2 lb Boston Butt
3 - 4 T Chopped Garlic (I used the stuff in the jar, if using fresh use your judgment)
2 - 3 T Chopped Fresh Rosemary
1 - 2 T Salt + plenty of pepper
1 t Sage, Powdered
1 Onion, coarsely chopped
2 Carrots, coarsely chopped
2 Stalks Celery, coarsely chopped
200 ml Pomegranate Juice (I know, but it is the size of a juice box and it is what I had)
Granulated Garlic

Set up your work space with some prep bowls. Fill one with a combo of the salt and pepper, put the rosemary in a second and the garlic in a third - we are gonna get porky. Rinse and dry the pork and then liberally season one side with salt & pepper, then rub in about half of the garlic and rosemary and sprinkle with sage. Flip the roast over and do the same for the other side. Make sure to rub the seasoning down on the edges of the roast as well. You are looking for some pretty dense coverage - so be generous and add more as you deem fit. Seal in a container and allow to hang out in the ‘fridge overnight.

You can either chop the veggies the night before and put them in the ‘fridge or do them in the morning. I did them in the morning because when I went to bed I had no freaking clue what I was going to do the next day. What I did do was place the veggies in the crock of a crock pot and place the seasoned roast on top. I then busted into my toddlers juice box stash and poured a box of pomegranate juice over top.

I didn’t get around to doing this until about 10:30 and I wanted to eat at 6:00, so I started out on high for a couple of hours and then turned it to low for the rest of the time. If you are setting this to chug along while you are out of the house then I would think low would be fine for the day. After the first hour I flipped the roast and then after the second I flipped it back. I don’t know why I did this. I read on someones blog that they had read on someones blog that they had read in Cooks Illustrated that this is a good thing to do when slow cooking.

I just like fiddling, so it seemed to be the thing to do.

However you cook it, cook low and slow until it is almost fall apart tender. Remove from juices to a cutting board and cover with foil. Realize that the juices are just too good to lose and also have a fit of frugality that will not allow you to discard the veggies. Transfer cooking juices and chunky bits to a large sauce pan and puree with an immersion blender (or do the blender thing - ’sall good).

Simmer on low heat and season with salt, pepper and granulated garlic to taste. If your toddler happened to leave a half finished juice box laying around and you just happened to stash it in the ‘fridge when he wasn’t looking - well you could use that to brighten the flavor a bit. While the sauce is simmering, pull pork apart with two forks until nicely shredded and then return to sauce - stirring to mix well.

What is this? I have no idea. If the flavors are anything they might be kinda French. Which might make this sorta a French barbecue. But that might be sacrilege. Whatever it was, we ate it with roasted potatoes and a chunk of homemade half-wheat bread.

Roasted Potatoes, GBD

There is a high degree of probability that the term Golden Brown and Delicious was coined to describe perfectly Roasted Potatoes, and despite how humble they are you must give them props.

I have developed this recipe from a source recipe found in one of my favorite JLC* and I intend to cook from this tome many more times. “A Southern Lady Cooks With a Greek Accent” is an excellent mix of homey anecdotes and delicious recipes. Usually with my JLC I am happy if I can find one recipe that looks good enough upon read-through, and if it turns out then I am ecstatic. I currently have 4 additional corners dog-eared in Mrs. Sophia Clikas’s cook book and I cannot wait to try them.

* JLC = Junior League Cookbook. A catch-all term that I use to describe the now ubiquitous, self published cookbooks put out by organizations. I have been collecting them for years and have some doozies. Initially local Junior Leagues were the only groups that put them out - then Churches got in on the act. Now anybody and their Mother can publish one, and not all of them are good. Hallmarks of a JLC include a spiral bound format and names like Mrs. Earl Plotzkiss after each recipe as  means of attribution.

How I have digressed!

Roasted Potatoes

The Hardware:

Glass Casserole dish of sufficient size to hold potatoes with space around each chunk, Spatula

The Software:

2 T Canola Oil
1 T Olive Oil
1 1/2 t Salt
1/3 t Paprika
Fresh Nutmeg and Pepper to taste, be generous
3 Medium Russet Potatoes or combination of potatoes you like to equal
(My Potato to conversion chart says 1 Med Russet = 3 small Yukon, I like more Russet)

Set oven to 400 degrees. In your casserole combine oils and spices, place in oven while it is pre-heating.

Wash potatoes and cut into good sized chunks - somewhere between 1/2 and 1 inch squariods. The small Yukons I halved and then quartered each half - then I cut the Russets to match. When the oven has reached 400 degrees, remove the casserole and add the potatoes. Toss around liberally with the spatula, turning to ensure that all sides are coated in tasty, tasty goodness. Spread out into a single layer with as much space betwixt the chunks as possible.

Roast for 15 minutes and then use spatula to rearrange the potatoes. You will probably have to scrape some of them off of the bottom. If the layer that was in contact with the casserole sticks just scrape it off too. Those thin little layers of potato get all crispy and yummy and … well it is almost indecent. Return to oven for another 15 minutes then repeat the drill. Return for a final 15 minutes.

If at the end of 45 minutes you have not achieved GBD and a decent amount of crispiness then you might need to put them in for a scooch longer. Mind you, a scooch is a very precise measurement.

We didn’t just eat potatoes for dinner, but that will be a different post, maybe. Becuse it was tasty, but not real pretty.

Sour Cream and Scallion Dip

Does dip actually need a recipe? I mean really? Take some sour cream and chuck in some tasty stuff. Actually, for me the primary dip recipe of note is:

Open tub of Sour Cream

Insert Chip

Cram in mouth

But that lacks elegance. And my guests sometimes object to everyone eating out of the Sour Cream tub, so apparently I do need a recipe… Fine… Be that way.

Sour Cream and Scallion Dip:

16 oz Sour Cream (reduced fat is OK if you roll that way)

5 T Chopped Scallions

1/2 C Chopped Fresh Flat Leafed Parsley

1/3 C Dehydrated Onion Flakes

1 T Granulated Garlic

1 t Worcestershire Sauce

Dash of Paprika

Salt and Pepper to taste

Frankly - everything is to taste.

Scrape sour cream out of the container into a medium sized bowl and add all of the ingredients except parsley. Stir together well and taste for seasoning. Add anything else you want, except dried herbs - they suck in this application. Scrape mixture back into sour cream tub and seal.

Allow to sit overnight in ‘fridge or as long as you have. A couple of hours is essential. Shortly before you serve it, stir in the parsley. Once it is made it keeps well refrigerated, but I like adding the parsley just before serving it to guests.

My husband, well he gets the stuff that has been sitting in the ‘fridge for however long. You will notice that there is no mayo in this recipe as is common in other recipes. I do not care for mayo sullying my sour cream experience.

Guess who ate the prop chip? Husband, of course.

When the Stars Make You Drool

Potential Hacks:

I have made this with a mirepoix mixture in the beginning and it turns out just as nicely with the added bonus of more veggies in the dish. You could also increase the amount of tomato paste if you wanted to up the tomatoey quotient.

There are as many recipes for this dish are there are Italian mamas, and I do not claim to be an Italian mama. One of the significant variations between versions is it's end thickness. In some interpretations you get a tomatoey broth with beans and pasta floating about among a variety of veggies. In other interpretations you could slice yourself off a chunk like cold macaroni and cheese.

Your best bet is to tinker with this until it makes you happy. The only thing you need to be careful about is when you add the salt. If you add salt at the beginning of the cooking process your beans will take forever to soften, if they soften at all. Don't know why, if you find out let me know O.K.?

Tomatillo Gumbo

If you watch cooking competition shows you will be familiar with the tendency to call any food item constructed in a  (bread/pastry base, something edible, another layer of bread/pastry, something else edible topped of with a third layer of bread/pastry) fashion a "Napoleon". Any actual resemblance to the food item that originally bore the moniker has been practically eliminated and the pastry/food/pastry/food/pastry format has been co-opted as a technique, with the technique defining the dish as opposed to the constituent elements. Interestingly enough, by this definition, the Big Mac is a Napoleon. But I digress.

I have brought this up because I am calling this dish Tomatillo Gumbo because of how it is served. It is a tasty stew-like mixture served over a bed of rice - just like gumbo. Any further resemblance is non-existent. A second point is that I have absolutely no Texan or Mexican background at all. So in reality this doesn't have any basis in that cuisine either. One could call it Tex-Mex/New Orleans fusion - but that would imply that I had much familiarity with either cuisine.

I'll just call it tasty.

Hardware:

Saucepan w/lid and Blender.

The Software:

8 oz Ground Pork

1 lb Tomatillos

1 Small Poblano Pepper

1 Onion

1 Bunch Cilantro

2 t Garlic

1 1/4 t Cumin

Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder, Cayenne & Garlic Powder to taste.

1 t Apple Cider Vinegar (optional)

1) Remove husks from tomatillos and wash the sticky stuff off. Wash poblano and cut top off. Cut poblano in half and remove seeds and ribs, keep 1/2 for some other nefarious purposes and cut the other 1/2 into 1/4's. Place poblano pieces and tomatillos in large saucepan and just cover with water.

2) Now, I just learned how to cook with tomatillos and I want to share some tips I have learned.

A - They float, so I am not really sure how you are supposed to "cover with water" when the little buggers keep rising to the top. I put enough water into the pot so that they float enough to not touch the bottom.

B - You are supposed to bring them to a boil and then simmer for 2 - 5 minutes or until they change color. This confused me - what color are they going to change to? How will I know? Will they explode? Well, I gotcha back on this one. I took pictures:

The one on the left is before the boil and the other is after the mysterious "Color change". I cook them for 5 minutes and call it done.

3) While the tomatillos are cooking, peel your onion and cut it in half. Take 1/2 and chop coarsely and chop the other 1/2 a normal kind of chop. Also, wash and trim the cilantro. I usually just leave the rubberband/tie thingie on the bunch and cut all of the stems below it off.

3) Remove the tomatillos and pepper from the water and place into your blender, add

 1/2 C of the cooking water and push the button a few times until they are busted up.

4) Add the coarsely chopped 1/2 of the onion, 1/2 C of Cilantro, 2 t Garlic and 1 t salt to the blender and really puree the heck out of it. Make sure to take off that center bit on the lid and hold a towel over it or else it might explode.

Really, I am not kidding.

Set the blender aside for later.

5) Sautee the other 1/2 of the onion in some olive oil until it has taken on some color and then remove it from the pan. Put the ground pork into the pan and cook it most the way then return the onions to the pan.

6) Pour sauce into pan and add cumin. Then add a pinch each of chili powder and cayenne. Simmer for 10 minutes and then salt and pepper to taste.

7) At this point realize that you have no idea how you are going to serve this. It isn't really a taco filling like you thought it was going to be, nor is it exactly a chili that you would want to eat straight out of a bowl. Decide that you need to make rice. Cover the pot with a lid and start making rice.

8) After the rice is made reheat the sauce/stew stuff you made. Realize that you have lost a little bit of the brightness that you had and add 1 t of Apple Cider Vinegar. That works! Decide you need more garlic so add some powder and a little more salt and a little more pepper. If you, unlike myself, had the foresight to have the rice at the ready then you could probally skip the AC Vinegar step and simply season to taste.

9) Serve in bowls over rice and garnish with additional fresh cilantro.

My husband and I debated what I should call this. He is from Louisiana and has some definite ... opinions ... about gumbo. But in the end he agreed that we could call it tasty.

Some like it Cold

Freezing cold that is.

It seems like my thoughts on freezing stuff might have piqued some interest, so I thought I would share some other oddities that I have lurking in the smaller half of my 'fridge.

These are dumplings, not those poufy, Bisquick style drop dumplings but the flat kind. I have decided I prefer these to the big fluffy kind that you eat and they sit in your stomach and bully any of the food that you eat later. They make it sit in the nosebleed section of your stomach and crowd your esophagus and then you get the acid reflux. And I don't like the acid reflux.

But I like chicken and dumplings, and turkey and dumplings, and meatballs and dumplings (what? I had some leftover meatballs!) These little guys are kind of like the noodles in your chicken noodle soup on steroids. So much so that I think the next time I make them I am going to cut them into long, skinny rectangles instead of square-oid shapes.

I try to always have homemade chicken stock on hand, but if I don't I like "Better Then Bullion" just fine. Bring some stock up to heat, grate in some carrots and chuck in some shredded chicken and you have yummy soup. And if you have these dumplings in the freezer you have Souper Soup.

Flat but Tasty Dumplings

1 C AP Flour

1/4 C Milk

1/4 C Water

Salt, Pepper and Granulated Garlic to taste I use 1/4 t each of Salt & Granulated Garlic and a goodly amount of pepper.

1) Combine flour and spices in a bowl and whisk together. Add liquids and stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together enough to turn out onto a floured surface. Knead gently, adding flour until you can handle it fairly well. This is a soft dough but you want to get rid of the stickiness.

2) Cover with a towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. On a well floured surface, roll out rested dough until it is the thickness of a knife blade. You will most likely need to add more flour to make it workable. Using a pizza cutter, cut into rough polygonal shapes (the original recipe said 2 inch squares but who the heck am I kidding? And I thought 2 inches was too big anyway).

3) If you are making the soup right now, save enough for the number of servings that you need. Remove the rest (or all if you aren't making soup) to a flat plate or cookie sheet covered with waxed or parchment paper. Check to make sure the plate/sheet that you are using will fit into your freezer. Don't ask me why I feel the need to give you that tip, I just do.

4) Make sure that the dumplings do not overlap and freeze them for several hours or overnight. Once frozen, peel off of paper and place in freezer bag - squishing out as much air as you can. These can be thrown directly into simmering soup.

Fresh dumplings take about 10 minutes at the boil, frozen a bit longer - just stop when they are done. This recipe can be doubled easily and it makes a ton of dumplings.

Buy Big, Save Big

Mexican Rice and Beans

Let's get things started right. I have been working on this dish for awhile, fine tuning it to my family's taste and I think it is ready for prime time!  It is a true pantry/freezer meal, the only things in it that have to come out of the 'fridge are the shredded cheese and the Lizano. Everything else can be stored in the pantry. It is composed of inexpensive food items so you can buy quality ingredients without breaking the bank - the only thing you need is time. And the time is mostly hands off time, so no biggie there.

Hardware:
First off, the hardware. I make this in my 2.8 Liter Oval Souffle dish with a glass lid. It really needs to be cooked in something fairly deep as opposed to one of those large rectangular casserole dishes. A medium Dutch Oven could work, as you can see in the picture the dish ends up being pretty thick so beware anything too shallow.

The Software:
1 can Black Beans (15 oz range)
1 C Brown Rice, well rinsed
1 C Frozen Corn
1 can Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz range)
1 can Rotel (Mild) (10 oz)
1 t Granulated Garlic
1 t Ground Cumin
1/2 t Dried Oregano
2 T Dried Chopped Onions
2 t Salt
Black Pepper to taste (I use about 15 grinds)
1 1/2 T Lizano Sauce
1 1/2 C Water or Chicken Stock
1 t Olive Oil
Shredded Cheese, Cheddar or Queso (amount depends on the size of your container)

Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Get a piece of heavy-duty foil ready that will cover the pot.
1) Combine tomatoes, Rotel, garlic, cumin, oregano, onions, salt, pepper, Lizano, and Water/Stock in a sauce pan over medium heat - the goal is to bring it to a boil. Take your cooking vessel and spray it with non-stick, measure your corn into the dish with the rinsed rice. Rinse beans gently and add to dish and drizzle with the olive oil, stir gently to combine.

2) Once the tomato mixture has come to a boil, pour into the dish and stir to combine. Cover tightly with the foil and top with lid.

3) Place in oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove foil and stir gently to get the tomatoes distributed but pat the top back out smooth, taste to make sure the rice is done. If the rice is undercooked replace foil and lid and cook until rice is done unless the rice is really "soupy" then do not cover.

4) When rice is done, sprinkle (ok cover) the surface of the rice with cheese of choice and return to oven uncovered. Remove from oven when cheese is nice and melty and bubbling, can take 5 minutes.

Ingredients/Potential Hacks:
Obviously the mystery ingredient here is the Lizano. If you poke around some of your Hispanic groceries you can find it, it is specifically Costa Rican and if you have a market that caters more to Central Americans than Mexicans you will have better luck.

I haven't come up with a good substitution, it isn't a tomatoey sauce but a savory sauce. Kind of like a Costa Rican version of HP sauce. It has Cumin and pureed veggies and odd stuff in it, but it is super tasty. It is worth it to have it in your 'fridge and see what you can put it on.

Regarding the beans; I have measured a can of beans and it contains roughly 1 3/4 C of cooked beans. So if you wanted to use re-hydrated dried beans that is what you would be aiming for, but I don't think that simply soaking and then tossing in would work. They would need to be cooked beans.

You can definitely up the heat on this if you wanted to by buying one of the hotter versions of Rotel I am a big ole sissy so I use mild. You could even add some jalapenos if you wanted to be wacky. Another fun variation can be had if you have a Trader Joe's handy. They sell a frozen "fire roasted" corn that gives a lovely smoky flavor to this dish when you use it in place of plain ole corn.

If you really  wanted to, you could use white rice - but we like it much better with brown. You wouldn't have to boil the liquid ahead of time and you would use less water/chicken stock - 1 cup should do it. Also your cooking time would most likely be shorter, maybe 45 min to 1 hr. If you try this out please let me know what your cooking time was.

Enjoy!

At the end, this seems like an awful lot of writing for what is really a simple dish. The process is really one step away from "dump it in the casserole and bake" but I wanted to add in all of the little details that have made this a sucessful meal for my family. We eat on the leftovers for days, it reheats in the microwave beautifully and makes a tasty lunch.

You gotta start somewhere

And I guess here is as good of a place as any, here being an explanation of why I would name a food blog Robbing Peter. The old cliche, "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" seemed to be a pretty good analogy for the cooking style I have been developing to cope with current economic times.

You see, I have developed this theory that the food that I cook for my family has three primary considerations when it comes down to it: Quality, Cost and Convenience. And unfortunately you can only have two out of the three in any given situation.

Huh, you might say?