Porky goodness
Slow cooking is an absolute must if you’re a busy parent. If you haven’t tried it then I would definitely recommend you give it a go. There a tons of recipes out there which are really simple and delicious, just what I like. That being said, the following recipe isn’t massively simple, but it’s oh so worth it.
Allow me to introduce you to Porky Goodness. A friend of mine elected to cook a meal for me and some others whilst we were having one of our D&D sessions (obviously before kids), to which we all hungrily accepted. I’m not entirely sure where she got this particular recipe, but it was absolutely amazing. I’ve made it a few times since and everyone who’s tasted it has loved it. In fact, I think it’s my favourite recipe for the slow cooker. The ingredient quantities are very tenuous; it’s basically up to what you prefer. But this is the recipe she sent me, and I’m overjoyed to share it.
Porky Goodness
(My quantities in brackets)
1. Slice up a load of onions (2) – accuracy unimportant, but do peel them first!
2. Add fresh root ginger (2 thumbs worth)
3. Also some garlic (Uh, about 5 cloves depending on your palet)
4. Place in the bottom of the pan/crack pot/slow cooker
5. Rest the joint of pork (shoulder is good – the LUDICROUS one I cooked was 2.1kg) on top, you don’t need to take the string off, fat towards the top.
6. Splodge some soy sauce over (3 tablespoons, more or less)
7. Add some brown sugar (3 tbsp)
8. Shake a ton of 5-spice over the joint (3tbsp? or 6? Either way – a lot. I’ve used 3/4 of a jar before and it wasn’t too much for us).
You don’t really need to bother rubbing it in, it’ll all get infyooosed as you turn it. I stuck a couple of star anise in the bottom too, but you can get away without them. They add aniseedy fragrantness…
9. Glug in some apple juice, cider, wine, stock or at a pinch, water – go for a couple of inches in the bottom of the pan. You’ll need to add more as it evaporates away, so if you’re going to be leaving it for longer add more.
10. Stick the lid on, and put it in the oven at 200 for an hour/Or pop in the slow cooker on high
11. When the hour’s up, (Less if using the slow cooker) turn it over, and reduce the temperature to 150. (Low setting)
12.Cook for aaaaaaaaaaages (I think the magic starts to happen around hour 5 – you’ll know, because you’ll prod it with the fork to turn it and it’ll just slide straight through…)
If using the oven, turn every hour or so and add more water (Or wine, cider, apple juice depending on taste) as it reduces down. I managed to leave it for too long so it was just a thick, gloopy caramelised sludge at the bottom at one point, not sure if that’s a thing to recommend or not but it was yummy-tastic, and as long as it doesn’t go completely dry and BURN you’ll be OK.
Enjoy 🙂
Summary: Bed of onions underneath the pork, liquid in the bottom, add as many/whichever seasonings you like, cook at 200 for an hour then 150 for as long as you can stand to wait.
