Why does everyone love their slow cooker but me? With the exception of Pulled Pork (I’ll give you the recipe later), I have not liked a single meal that has come out of mine. My sister loves her Crockpot; my friend Andrea uses hers almost every weekend. I don’t understand!
One benefit, some say, is you get to “throw everything in the pot in the morning and have dinner ready when you get home”. Sorry – too chicken to leave the thing on all day unattended. I know that’s silly; I know I leave other things running like the dryer and the dishwasher. I just can’t do it. Besides, I love to cook so throwing everything in a pot and not touching it for 10 hours is not appealing. I like to look at the food and stir the food and taste test the food when I am cooking. Oh, and this waiting 10 hours for food? Not in my house! Why would I make something in the slow cooker when I can put it on the stove and be eating in 2?
One day I decided to try chili in the slow cooker despite all my issues with it. It was 6:30am. I pulled out the slow cooker and all the ingredients so I could get ready to “throw everything into the pot”. I read the first step of the recipe which said “Brown ground beef”. What?? What happened to "throw everything in the pot"?! It’s 6:30am! I didn’t have time to brown beef!! I threw everything back in the fridge and rushed off to work. When I got home that night I did brown the ground beef but this time I threw all the ingredients in a pot on the stove and had chili in just a few hours.
I did say earlier that the only thing I like in the Crockpot is Pulled Pork. As a matter of fact, I made it last weekend. It’s the easiest recipe in the world! Buy a 3lb. pork butt and slap it in the slow cooker. That’s right! No rub; no spices; no nothing. Dry as a bone into the Crockpot. Put the cover on and cook it on high for 5-6 hours or low for 10-12 hours. The key is to make sure you get pork butt. It’s a fatty piece of meat and when put in the slow cooker, cooks in its own juices. When it is done, take the pork out, put it on a platter, and shred it using 2 forks. It should practically fall apart when you touch it. Discard al the liquid from the crock pot and then put the shredded pork back in along with 12 oz. of your favorite BBQ sauce. My sister likes to take 2 different flavors of BBQ sauce and mix them together. I also like to add a large chopped onion. You can leave the onion out if you prefer. Depending on the BBQ sauce I choose I may also add a little lemon juice and brown sugar. Stir everything up; put the cover back on; and cook on low for 1 more hour. Serve the pork on some nice, crusty rolls with a side of fried potatoes or cole slaw. Yum!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment