Pork shoulder butt

I kind of made this recipe a couple weeks ago, but I failed in two integral ways: One, I failed to notice that the recipe called for the pork shoulder to be cut up into pieces, and Two, I failed to add any vegetation. If you don't cut the pork up, half of it is above the liquid level, and is a bit dry and isn't saturated with flavor. If you don't add vegetation, it still tastes good, it just has no vegetables. I did learn that it wasn't particularly spicy with less than a tablespoon of the chili garlic sauce (which scares me). Oh, and while I ultimately made it and ate it... I almost didn't, because I forgot to set the timer properly, so it thought I wanted to cook it at night, rather than during the day like I'd planned. Nothing is more disappointing than coming home to a chunk of raw meat when you thought you were going to come home to actual food.

So I tried again.

I learned last time that apparently one does not buy a pork shoulder. One buys a pork shoulder butt. The internet has been a little unclear as to why this is; I have gathered that the term refers to a meaty cut from the shoulder region that's typically fairly fatty. OK. Sure.

So I mixed up the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and a healthy spoonful of the chili garlic sauce. I trimmed fat and cut my meat up into chunks and added it to the crockpot. I turned it on (no timer this time!), and went to work.

I stopped at the grocery store for bok choy. I came home. I chopped bok choy. I added it to the pot. I let it sit for more than the 5min recommended in the recipe (wanted my greens actually cooked). I ate it.

Yum. Needs something more though. Oh yeah, maybe the rice that the recipe recommends (was being lazy). Or more variation of flavor - not sure what I'd put in though at this point. Just a touch spicy, pretty flavorful, and has greens in it. What else could I want? :-)

Chicken bean surprise

Crockpotted today. A random mashup of ingredients.

Chicken thighs. A leek. A can of cardoza beans. A few carrots. A large can of diced tomatoes. Garlic. Napa cabbage. Salt, rosemary, thyme, sage.

It's a little bland (not quite enough salt or herbs) but otherwise seems to be quite edible. At least it's got lots of fiber!

And it's a good thing I resisted the temptation to add water or broth to the pot, since when I got home, there was plenty of liquid in the concoction.

Braciola

I found a recipe for Braciola on a forum I'm on. It involves flank steak, Mozzarella and Provolone cheese, Prosciutto, Italian seasoning, tomatoes, garlic, onions and carrots. It's supposed to involve celery (but I don't like it) and mushrooms (which I forgot). It's also supposed to involve a food processor and pasta, but I don't have the former, and didn't feel like the latter. Oh, and I don't have any pre-made Italian seasoning, but I do have herbes de Provence, so I substituted.

One is supposed to pound out the steak so it's about 1/2" thick (I didn't quite make it there, and next time I should use something heavier than the end of my quite lightweight rolling pin), line it with the cheeses, the Prosciutto, the seasoning, roll it up, tie it up, brown it, and put it in the crock pot. One then sautes the vegetables, then puts them in a food processor with whole canned tomatoes, which is then added to the pot and the whole thing cooked on low for 8 or 10 hours. I used pre-chopped canned tomatoes, and didn't really mix the veggies with the tomatoes before adding it all to the pot.

It came out quite tasty. The best bits are the bits with the seasoning in it. I added a touch of salt, but didn't need to have - the cheese and Prosciutto probably supplied enough. Also, when making rolled steak things, don't cover the entire surface - leave a margin on the side being rolled toward.

Can I take a picture of a smell?

Came home this evening; the apples smell amazing.

Blenderized the apples. Tasted. Really good applesauce... added a touch of allspice and honey (not quite sweet enough for my taste), more to see what will happen than anything else. And let it sit in the crock pot for an additional couple of hours, with the lid on.

When I took the lid off, the butter was still pretty applesaucey in texture... but holy cow on the flavor intensity! I had some with dinner (pancakes), and let it simmer another hour or so uncovered, on low. Still pretty soupy. BTW, pancakes with not-quite-apple-butter and honey is really, really good. Maybe next time use honey instead of white sugar?

After a couple more hours uncovered on low, I've got something moderately thick (not as thick as I envisioned it, but perhaps it'll be better once it's cool), smells really good and tastes better.

It's now in the fridge, and it's time for bed. The crock can be washed tomorrow.

Apples

Apple Butter, part one.

I used this recipe. Plus a touch of nutmeg.

5 1/2 lb of apples is a lot of apples.

It also turns out that 5.5 lb minus about half an apple fits in my crockpot. Approximately. If it's supposed to be 5.5 lb before peeling and coring, and not after.

It is too late to start twelve hours worth of cooking tonight, so I will refrigerate the apples and start it in the morning. If I wake up early enough to do the one-hour-on-high thing, anyway...

Pre-resolution use

This blog was triggered by this crockpot attempt. so I figured I may as well blog it.

Cock-A-Leekie soup.  Apparently, this means chicken + leeks in liquid. This was made on Monday night.

• A couple pounds of chicken thighs
  
  The chicken thighs I bought turned out to have not been deboned. Deboning chicken thighs was not entertaining. I did remove the skin as well, which wasn't bad. The chicken got cut up in pieces
• 2 leeks
  
  Washed and cut up fairly thin, it turns out that 2 leeks fill up the bottom third or so of the crockpot.
• 4 or 5 (relatively wimpy) carrots.
  
  More wouldn't be bad.
• Chicken broth
  
  I also used some beef broth to get the liquid to barely get to the top of the food. Could have used a little less, since things cooked down and there was extra liquid at the end.
• Salt
  
  More flavor would be better. I added the salt at the same time as the barley so as not to oversalt. Salt level was fine.
• Barley
  
  Lightly rinsed, then thrown in about 3 hours prior to end of cooking

Cooked on high for 2 hours, then low for about 6 or 7. Other than being a little bland, it tastes fine. Add lots of herbs and/or spices next attempt.