Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Fun Fall Food, part 2 - Crock-pot Comforts

Crock-pot.
Enough said?
Let me elaborate: if you don't have one, get one.

I actually love crock-pot meals year-round. A few minutes prep time + a little forward thinking = all day cooking tastes. That's season-less good math! This Summer we all talked about ways to get a home-cooked meal on the table without heating up the whole kitchen. Well, the crock-pot is a great way to do that. But, Fall & Winter are when crock-pots really heat up. It seems most of the recipes just seem right with rosy cheeks!

Sunday, I took about the first 15 minutes of nap time to prep this little beauty:


I poured in 2 cups of chicken broth, then drizzled in 2 tablespoons molasses, a few turns fresh-cracked pepper, a shake of Kosher, a pinch each of fennel seeds & caraway seeds. Whisk away! Then I chopped a head of plain old cabbage into roughly 6 wedges, then half a medium white onion & a small Gala apple. I tossed all those into the crock-pot as I chopped. Finally, I topped all the veggie goodness with a nice lean pork roast. More S&P on top of that, a few more seeds, and just for the heck of it - I studded it with whole cloves. Apparently, it was use-little-used-spice-day at my house.

After that, I sat outside & read my fat, nerdy book till the Munchkin woke up. Then, off we all went to the pumpkin patch!

              

When we got back, we found this goodness:


I served it with bakery rye bread:


Cabbage is not yet a hit with the Munchkin. It is a bit strong, not to mention the other flavors. (She got green beans for her veggie - Old Faithful!) My husband & I really enjoyed the meal Sunday, as well as leftovers tonight. We didn't actually eat the apples, but they added nice flavor. The cabbage was mouth melty. The whole thing took on a bit of a licorice flavor from the fennel too (& maybe the molasses?). Anyway, it seemed classic but also creative.

So, Florida doesn't seem quite like Fall yet, but I think I'm ready for my kitchen to be! Enjoy! -- Angie

Ingredients

2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons molasses
Pinch each - Fennel seeds & Caraway seeds

1 head green cabbage
1/2 medium white onion
1 small tart apple
2-3 pound lean pork roast
6-10 whole Cloves
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Into a large crock-pot:
Whisk together broth, molasses, seeds, S&P.
Chop & add cabbage, onion, apple.
Place pork roast atop veggies; S&P to taste, stud with Cloves.

Set crock-pot to high for 3 hours.




2 comments:

  1. YUM! I love cabbage recently :) I've been making my cabbage/potato/sausage meal a lot. Great recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm...interesting. I've never really been a fan of cabbage but I like the idea of making pork in the crock pot.

    ReplyDelete