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Five-Spice Crockpot Pork Roast

The basis of this recipe came from something in the Boston Globe Mag a few weeks ago. I tweaked in two basic ways:

  1. I didn’t have any Chinese 5-spice powder so I improvised my own
  2. I did it in the crockpot because it was a weekday and I don’t have four hours to cook on Monday nights.

Five-Spice Pork Roast

For the rub:

  • 2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tsp Szechuan peppercorns
  • 2 tsp salt

Everything else:

  • 1 4 lb pork roast
  • 2 T canola oil
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
  • 5 T brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup homemade chicken broth
  • 3/4 cup good lager beer
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup ketchup

Toast the spice seeds and then grind the spices together somehow (spice grinder, mortar & pestle). Rub all but a tablespoon of the spice blend all over the pork. You can wrap in plastic and let set overnight in the fridge if you like. The original recipe says to tie up the roast to keep it from falling apart, but mine didn’t and I wouldn’t have minded anyway.

Heat the oil in a skillet over med-high. Brown the pork on all sides and then place in the slow cooker crock. Turn heat down to medium, add the garlic to the pan and saute just until fragrant. Add the broth and beer to the pan and stir/scrape to get the yummy browned bits of fond. Pour all this into the slow cooker, set on low and go to your 9-5 job.

Back from work? Excellent. Preheat the oven to 450. Whisk together the soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar and the rest of the spice mixture. Line a baking sheet with foil. Pull the roast out carefully (I use a big flat skimmer thing) and place it on the foil. Brush the ketchup glaze mixture over the top and pop in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Meanwhile, strain the drippings and skim off as much fat as you can. Mix in the remaining glaze and reduce in a saucepan about half-way.

2008 12 16 lbjay Recipes
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Moroccan Carrot/Kohlrabi Salad | Boston Globe

It’s taken me awhile to warm up to kohlrabi. I’ve cooked it a few times in the past year, always because it’s been part of the farm share. If there is such a thing as a mental “image” of what something tastes like, I still don’t really have one for kohlrabi, but I now have a favorite way to prepare it.

Moroccan Carrot/Kohlrabi Salad

  • 2 medium kohlrabi, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 5-6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch sections
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. paprika
  • 1/4 tsp. cayenne
  • 2 T fresh lemon juice
  • 2 T minced parsley
  • salt & pepper to taste

Place the carrots and kohlrabi in a saucepan w/ enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and then let them cook for ~10 minutes. You’re looking for not crunchy but still firm here.

Drain the veggies really well. Toss with the olive oil to coat. Then add the spices, the lemon juice and the parsley, in that order, tossing each time. The original recipe said to let stand for an hour, but we were too hungry. I also halved the spice measurements when I did it; our carrots are fresh from the garden and too tasty to drown them in other flavors.

2008 10 01 lbjay CSA
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OpenID enabled

Yep. I installed the OpenID WordPress plugin. Not super useful since I’m the only one who really needs to log in. But the plugin author plans to add server and delegation capabilities, so eventually I could be my own OpenID provider (not that I couldn’t already if I really wanted).

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2008 09 10 lbjay Gadgets
Geeked
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Gallons of Gazpacho | Various


We can’t stop the tomatoes; we only try to contain them.

We’re getting 10 lbs a week from the farm share these days, plus nearly that much from the garden. Two weekends in a row included a peel & seed session and a batch of crockpot red sauce. Three gallons in the freezer so far, separated into 1 quart containers.

Today also involved some tomato peeling & seeding, but this time for gazpacho. That’s what’s going on in the background of the photo. In the foreground you see the ingredients for some salsa verde (sans the zucchini) that will be constructed later on today. Below is the rough recipe I went by. It’s crimped from both Cook’s Illustrated and Bittman’s HTCE with adjustments for what I had and how I like it.

Gazpacho

  • 6 lbs ripe tomatoes
  • 4 cucumbers
  • 4 shallots
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 rounds pita bread
  • 2 t salt
  • 1/2 t fresh ground black pepper
  • 1/3 cup good quality white wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup good quality olive oil

Peel, seed and loosely chop the tomatoes and the cucumbers. Preserve as much of the juice from these as you can, discarding the skins, seeds and pulp.

Chop or tear the pita bread into chunks and soak in the reserved juice plus water to cover if necessary

Working in batches if necessary (and unless you have an industrial sized Cuisinart, it will be,) load up a food processor with all the ingredients except the olive oil. Pulse a few times, then leave on for 20-30 seconds to get everything very well blended. With the machine still on, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Note: since it’s all going to get stirred together in the end I don’t worry about perfectly divided batches; for instance, i’ll do all the bread with the first batch and all the olive oil in the last

Pour each batch into a large, non-reactive container and chill for a couple of hours before serving.

There’s several additional things you can do to spruce this up for serving:

  • chop up another pita round into bite size pieces, toss with olive oil and toast to make crutons
  • finely chop another cucumber and/or tomato and use to top each bowl
  • drizzle with more olive oil
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2008 09 01 lbjay Growing Stuff
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Pictures of a Japanese Kitchen

Fascinating.

My favorite is the gas range. I like how when everything is off the flat lever controls make a nice straight line, giving you a visual clue, even from a distance, that one of the burners is on. Don Norman would approve.

My least favorite aspect? Probably the submarine galley nature of it all: exposed pipes, that hulking gas hot water heater, and the 6″ threshold between the kitchen and the bathroom. I hope they keep a good supply of incense matches in there.

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2008 08 22 lbjay Gadgets
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Things I’m embarassed I used to eat alot #6

Yum!

Yum!

Thought of another thing to add to my list: faux lump crab meat. You know, the stuff where the ingredients list consisted entirely of the vague “whitefish”.

I worked at a Subway briefly in college. I used to eat the crap out of those seafood salad subs. And when I was mixing up the “seafood” & mayo in the back, if any stray bits of meat were left I’d eat those too.

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Black Bean and Corn Salad

2 cups home cooked crockpot black beans
1 1/2 Cups cooked corn
2 Stalks Celery
1 Medium Shallot
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
4 Tablespoons Canola Oil
Salt and Pepper
Handful of Cilantro

Mix together and let it sit for a half an hour.  Enjoy!

2008 07 27 lbjay Recipes Comments (0) Permalink

I <3 Potatoes!

As an experiment I created a Wordle word cloud from the f00die feed:

Todo: try in using a separate feed for just my Recipes category.

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2008 07 22 lbjay Food 2.0 Comments (0) Permalink

Hobo Potatoes w/ Arugula

Is it a green? Is it a herb? Don’t care. Love it.

Arugula makes a really simple addition to potatoes of any kind. I’ve added handfuls of fresh arugula to smashed potatoes, but it’s too hot for boiling potatoes these days. I prefer to keep the cooking outside on the grill, which means hobo packs.

Hobo Potatoes w/ Arugula

  • 6 all-purpose potatoes, medium-sized
  • 4 T olive oil
  • salt & pepper (any kind of seasoned salt works well, too)
  • 2 cups arugula, loosely chopped

Give the potatoes a good scrubbing but don’t peel. Cut them in half lengthwise and then slice into 1/4 inch thick half-circles. Toss with the olive oil and s & p.

Lay out two sheets of heavy-duty foil, one on top of the other. Spread a little extra olive oil in the middle of the sheet and pile on 1/2 the potatoes. Lay another square sheet of foil on top so that the edges line up. Fold up each side of the square to seal in the pack. Lay the packs directly on the grill over at least medium heat. They’ll need to cook for ~20 minutes. Move/turn them around frequently to make sure everything’s cooking evenly. You should be able to hear the contents inside sizzling.

Put the chopped arugula in a good-sized serving bowl. Pull the packs off the grill and carefully open one side. Check that the potatoes are done. If not just reseal and leave on the grill a little longer (or abort and nuke them in the microwave–but not in the foil!) Assuming the potatoes are done, you should be able to tip the contents of each into the bowl on top of the arugula. Toss the hot potatoes with the arugula and serve.

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2008 06 17 lbjay Recipes Comments (0) Permalink

Weekly Menu, June 15-20

Picking up our first weekly share today. It ante’s up the challenge of planning a menu for the week when you’re not sure what you’re getting and how much of it. Fortunately, the new CSA seems like they’re going to be good about e-mailing weekly guesstimates.

The weather acts as a foil as well. I can pencil in “Grilled Chicken Breasts”, but they might end up being stuffed and baked instead (and vice-versa).

Sunday
  • Grilled Chicken Breasts
  • Hobo Potatoes w/ Fennel Fronds & Arugula
  • Spinach or Bok Choy (in the grill basket)
Monday
  • Saag Aloo (w/ leftover potatoes)
  • Basmati Rice
  • Salad
Tuesday
  • Fish w/ Ginger & Tomatoes
  • Leftover rice
  • Napa slaw w/ Mango
  • Salad
Wednesday
  • Leftovers
Thursday
  • Grilled Tofu
  • Grilled Zucchini
  • Tomato Crostinis
Friday
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