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Termyn8or -> RE: CrockPottery (or 'What's NEXT for dinner?) (1/11/2009 7:57:01 PM)
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Sounds like a pretty good chili there GT. I checked out the Rotel link and it seems there must be a brand of salsa or two that must come close. I have never seen the stuff in stores so I might have to improvise, but truthfully I probably would've anyway :-).
subj, that sounds good, but I would like to see less canned and prepackaged. I can come close to duplicating that cream of mushroom, and the herb and garlic is mostly seasoning with some bullion perhaps and maybe a few other things. All in all, I'd rather make it than open it. I have a very wide variety of spices on hand.
Here's one if you can handle the carbs, scalloped potatoes with pork. Ham can be substituted if you wish, but the flavor is so subtle with just pork chops, not smoked or salted that it still works well. This is usually done in an oven, in crockery it will be a smaller batch no doubt.
Fry up the pork chops on high heat, trim them lean either before or after frying, but do leave just a little bit of fat. Peel and slice some potatoes, put them in the crock. Make a white sauce by mixing basically flour and water, or milk if you prefer. Take the prefried chops and put them on top of the potatoes. Turn the thing on low and disappear for awhile, after several hours the meat will be falling apart, and it's juice will be permeating the white sauce and the potatoes. It will turn off white and you cook it until the potatoes are tender. Then remove the meat and stir the potatoes, you get the juices, but if you do it right it is not oily or greasy. Onions are a plus in the potatoes if you prefer. I also recommend seasoning it with organically harvested unrefined seasalt. Don't wreck it with table salt. You can also add butter if you wish, but it is not required. Make a green veggie or a salad on the side and you are done.
If you want less carbs, simply use less potatoes and more meat. If you don't want the salt, simply don't add it. Fresh ground pepper and Mrs Dash at the table should be fine.
There are a gillion of these, and for me at least, some of them entail just having a look in the freezer to see what is there. If it goes together, put it together. The only thing you don't want in there is pasta as it tends to turn to mush.
Need I even mention saurkraut ? We don't drain in in these parts, well at least most of my family. First time you eat it, it takes you by surprise, but thereafter you wouldn't have it any other way. What it does to any kind of meat you put in there is well, something else. In kraut however, you let the meat get done first and then put the potatoes in if you choose. Also, the undrained kraut is best seasoned with caraway seed. One rounded tablespoon to a bag is about right. It moderates the sourness and enhances the flavor overall.
And of course there are garlic and onion in almost everything I cook, so that goes without saying. If you don't want it, don't use it.
This might just be a long thread, because there are really a gillion things you can crock. I'll probably think of/remember more in due time because I used to have one and I used it. Wonder where that thing is now.
T
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