I recently bought a small pork roast at the local grocery store, and decided to make it into a crock pot dinner today. With some assistance from The Mother Thing, and use of her crock pot, everything was prepped and started by 1 PM Pacific Standard Time. I took some liberties with a couple existing recipes and using what I had on hand. It should take 6 hours, give or take, to cook the pork and soften the veggies to a tasty meal by suppertime.
Equipment
- Crock pot
- Chef's knife
- Cutting board
- Measuring spoons and cups
- Vegetable peeler
- Paring knife
Ingredients
- Pork roast (mine was a bit over 2 lbs. or 1 kg., so adjust proportions accordingly if yours differs)
- Celery, diced (2 stalks)
- Carrots, diced (I used up what I had, no measurements. Sorry!)
- Potatoes, diced (About 4 non-standard home-grown russets)
- Onions, diced (2. Sensing a pattern with my cooking yet?)
- 1 cup water
- 3 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. soy sauce or liquid aminos
- 2 Tbsp. tomato sauce or ketchup
- 1/2 tsp, each black pepper, salt, and chili powder
- Garlic powder to taste (I was out of fresh garlic)
- Bay leaves (I used a whole leaf and half of a broken leaf)
- Hot sauce (I felt adventurous, and we'll see how adding a splash works out. YMMV.)
Directions
- Place meat in crock pot, fat side up.
- Dice veggies and layer around the roast.
- Toss in the bay leaves and shake garlic powder over everything
- Sprinkle seasonings over the roast itself.
- Add vinegar, soy sauce, tomato sauce, and water over veggies around the roast.
- Set your crock pot according to its specific directions. This one suggests low for 5-6 hours for a slightly larger roast.
These may vary depending on your crock pot size and shape. This one is wide and shallow. If yours is a deeper style, try layering potatoes first and placing the roast on top before surrounding it with the rest of the veggies.
UPDATE: Dinner is Served!
The kitchen was smelling absolutely amazing, so I checked the temperature after only 4-1/2 hrs. The thermometer is way beyond "cooked to safe internal temperature" and on toward "this might get a bit dry." However, the fat layer on this cut of meat helps minimize this risk and allows more room for error.
I promptly sliced some pork and spooned some veggies for a quick serving snapshot. This won't win any awards for presentation, but I'm shoveling food in my face and not trying to impress Gordon Ramsay. The flavors from the black pepper, chili powder, vinegar, and garlic powder all add their own notes to the symphony of flavor!
OK, that was a bit pompous. But it is tasty. The potatoes are not too firm, the onions are delicious, carrots add a bit of sweetness and color. I probably didn't need to dice everything so small, but if I make a soup or stew from any leftovers, everything is prepped and ready now. I could boil some barley in the liquid, toss the veggies back in, dice any meat scraps, and it's all set.
Another update: The Mother Thing decided to take the liquid and make gravy while I was writing the previous update. That's also an option, obviously.
Concluding Thoughts
Expect an update to this post in a few hours with the results. See above!
Home cooking can be financially frugal while providing better nutrition and flavor than restaurants, takeaway, or frozen pre-made dinners. One of my goals as a librarian is to encourage people to become more self-sufficient by learning new skills and expanding their abilities to grow as individuals. This is also one of my goals when I post about recipes or D.I.Y. projects. I also want to open up discussion in the comments, because I know a lot of my projects may have room for improvement, or people might have ideas to vary them for new situations. For example, how might to modify this to use beef, chicken, or other meats? I'm always trying to learn, too.
