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Friday, January 15, 2010

Slow Cooking Almost Like No Cooking

My bro kindly picked up a few things at the store for me a few days back. Whilst he was whittling away his time in the lengthy line (no doubt eyeing candy bars along the way), he spied a little booklet named for the style of cooking made infamously popular in the 70's by the company known as no other than "Crock Pot". I wonder if it ever occurred to any of the marketing execs that this brand name is dangerously close to "crack pot"?  As in: adjective- eccentric; impractical; fanatical: crackpot ideas. Well, it Was the 70's, they were getting away with a lot back then and I guess they thought nobody would notice.

Anyway. At first, when he brought it home I dismissed it as a bachelor's lazy attempt at making his living space smell better and feeding himself. But after Mom started flipping through it, she was reading the recipes off and they sounded really quite good and so I took a look. Lo and behold, they were not full of ingredients I had no way of getting without much trouble, in fact, I had most on hand as it was.

So I delved into what has to have been one of the easiest cooking experiences of my life, bar none. I made a roast pork loin with fruit medley served over basmati rice. Scrumptious! I am not fond of pork unless it is in the form of sausage or bacon, so for me to say 'Mm mm tasty' to it is quite rare. This was tender, and juicy and flavorful. The slices broke up a little bit and acted a touch like "pulled pork" but no biggie, it was good anyway. We just sat there going "mmmmm this is SO Good!" like every 30 seconds or so. I have to admit, I almost felt guilty at how good it was. It just seemed like it was something I had slaved over it to get it to taste so fabulous! But I didn't! And that is AWESOME!

This called for aside from the marinade of thyme, salt, sugar and bay leaf, basically apricots, prunes, green grapes, garlic, and red wine. The only thing I did differently than the recipe was marinate in the sugar and applejack water I had previously reconstituted the cranberries in, which infused the berry flavor as well. After browning the meat before placing it in the cooker, I also deglazed the pan with a shot more of red wine and then poured it in with the roast. Oh yeah, and I added carrots 'cause I had a bunch of em sitting around. None of that really added any work though, so it was still "easy peasy".  Next I'm going to make Beef Bourguignon in the cooker and it looks just as simple as this one was.

Funny how my bro hasn't touched the book since I've been cooking out of it. I get the feeling it will be left with me for Quite some time. MmHm.

Check it out! Bet you wish you had smell-o-vision!

1 comment:

  1. Love slow cookers! Thanks to the kindness of in-laws we have one with us now, which I use weekly. This recipe Looks and Sounds delish, maybe I can convince you to share it sometime :)

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