I have never really been a fan of crock pot recipes. It just seems that everything comes out tasting the same, and most crock pot recipes are just gross. Really.
However, I have been revisiting the crock pot and I have two recipes that are really good. It involves the meat only, no potatoes or vegetables that come out soggy, mushy, and tasting like the meat.
1. Cranberry Pork Tenderloin
Sprinkle the tenderloin with salt, pepper and dried rosemary. ( I am not a measurement kind of person.. sorry). Then sear the meat, browning on all sides in a pan on medium-high heat.
Combine 2 TBS of low sodium soy sauce, 2 TBS orange juice, 2 TBS honey, 1 TBS of jarred ginger, 2 TBS of brown sugar. Add this to crock pot and then add pork. Cover with 1 can of whole cranberry sauce. After removing the pork, dissolve 2 TBS of cornstarch to some water (a small amount 1/4 cup?) and add stirring until sauce is thick. Serve over pork.
Cook for 3 hours on high or 6 on low.
Cooking it on high for 3 hours made sure the meat didn't come out too tender.. held it's shape, only shredding slightly.
My kids LOVED it.
2. (stealing the base recipe from my friend Tara.)
A 3-4# pot roast (brown on all sides in pan on medium high heat first). 1 can of Progresso french onion soup and 1 can of low sodium beef consume. Add all of this with some thyme springs to the crock pot.
Low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
Yum.
Kids loved it too.
So, I shall continue to revisit the crock pot.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Revisiting the Crock Pot
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8 comments:
I loooove that you are posting receipes....now I can steel your ideas!! yummmy!! Thanks :)
That Cranberry Pork Tenderloin sounds delicious!! I wish our crock pot wasn't broken. We tried to cook a roast in it this weekend and when I (ok, it was Marty) checked on it, it was boiling... on LOW!!!
We (again, Marty) managed to transport it to the oven and were able to save the dinner but it just wasn't the same.
PS... I stole your recipe (hey.. I gave you credit) and posted it on my blog, with a link back to yours.
http://mommybits.blogspot.com/2008/01/stealing-recipes-and-not-feeling-bad.html
You can steal anything you want.. and you don't have to give me credit!
Here is my issue with the crockpot - and maybe I am just one of the stupid people :)
But I am a very lazy cook - and not much of a meat eater - but every recipe I find you have to cook the meat first - or there is some initial step making the idea of the crockpot being "easy" null.
My laziness thinks "well, if you have to cook the darn thing anyway, why bother messing up another cooking pot?" And then I go buy a marinated pork tenderloin and throw it in the oven for 30 minutes and done.
The Cranberry Pork does sound good though. Please enlighten me - I've been wondering this for a while. Yet it doesn't stop me from buying crock pot cookbooks at the checkout lane...
I think most crock pot recipes are "lazy" recipes. You don't HAVE to brown the meat, I just prefer it, the way it tastes. Searing the meat holds in the moisture. I HATE how mushy soft meat gets in the crock pot, so I don't let mine cook that long either. So you aren't stupid. I think crock pots where meant for less preperation.
I am just a food/recipe SNOB, so I don't use it much.
If you get more, PLEASE post them! I've been looking for great crock pot recipes. I love pork tenderloin, so I gotta give this a try. The recipes are just so easy for me. We never seem to get home in time to cook something before O breaks down from hunger.
I don't like to cook the meat beforehand, either, it does gets mushy, but that's OK by me. :)
I'm with whoever called themselves a lazy cook. If I'm using the crockpot I don't want any prep before-hand!
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