Hey everybody. Welcome to the next installment of the Depressed Kitchen. Today I want to talk a little bit more about meats that you may not have ever cooked with before. I myself had stayed away from pork roast for a long time as I was not sure how economical it could be. I found several on markdown once and I have never looked back. This week I found a 5lb pork roast in the bottom of my freezer from last summer. It had been marked down to 3.50, and by the looks of it there was two dinners worth of meat there at least. It is important to keep an open mind when you see markdowns in the store. Remember, the store cannot sell spoiled food, so be daring and pick up that package of marked down pork roast and do something with it; I will give you a few options.
The recipes I would share with you here are for any cut of pork roast from loin to shoulder. Do not think you need a certain cut, although the different cuts of any meat will have their own distinct qualities.
The first recipe I learned for pork roast was the easiest:
BBQ Pork Sandwiches.
I have done this both in the crock pot and on the stove and it is always a winner with the family. In a crock pot on high or a pot on the stove at medium low, simmer the roast in enough water to just cover for at least four hours. When the meat is fork tender drain the water and shred. Add as much barbecue sauce as you like, home made sauce is always the best. Slap this on a bun, texas toast, toasted bread, what ever you have on hand and you have the main course. I add frozen french fries, and cole slaw.
Easy Cole Slaw
One head of cabbage sliced as thin as possible
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 red wine, balsamic, or just plain good vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp Mrs. Dash, or your favorite seasoning
Mix and chill. In 30 minutes you got some slaw, enough for four for about a buck.
My next attempt at pork roast came out really yummy and cheap as well, although not as inexpensive as the first recipe.
Chile Verde
1 pork roast
enough chicken broth to almost cover
1-2 cans fire roasted green peppers (ortegas)
1 cup green salsa
1 onion
Simmer until tender. Chunk and serve with the flavorful broth over spanish rice. This will serve a crowd, or make two dinners. Buy the cheapest peppers and salsa you can find. Real chicken broth is easy to make, but bullion will do.
Spanish Rice
sizzle one cup of rice in a little butter or oil until the rice slightly changes color. Add 1/2 cup red salsa, two cups broth or water, cover, and simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes. Turn off the heat when you can no longer see any water in the rice, but it still looks moist. Let this sit for another 5 minutes or so. Feel free to add cumin, green peppers or onions, or anything else that strikes your fancy.
You could also throw some corn or flour tortillas in the oven on high for about ten minutes or until they are crispy, and then put your verde and rice with shredded lettuce, or a can of almost any bean, (no sweets), on top and sour cream and you have a tostada.
Finally, I had to ask myself what would my grandmother have done with a pork roast? Being a mother of 4 during the Great Depression I find myself asking what she would have done more often these days. So, I went to the font of all wisdom, my elderly mother, and asked her. This is what she told me.
Plain Old Pork Roast
Turn your oven on to 350. Season your roast with rosemary, garlic, black pepper, salt, and any other roasty spice you like and place your roast in a baking pan with well scrubbed poatoes, carrots, turnips (only if you like them), onions, and any other vegetable you like that stands up to roasting around the roast and bake until tender. Use the drippings, (you will have a lot) to make gravy and serve with fresh bread if you can bake some (or buy some cheap). Mom remembered this fondly, but my family would rather have the first two options.
As for dessert, I feel it is a must. I do not want the children to feel deprived in any way so I bake. rarely will you come to my house and not find cookies. This week, I wanted a dessert that would go with any of the above dinners (we had pork roast number one this week), so I made pie, but the easy cheap way. I know last week there were several comments about how easy pie crust can be, and they are right, but in this pie I use sugar cookie dough for the crust to get the dessert double whammy.
Individual Apple Pies
Granny Smith apples, hopefully purchased on markdown, peeled, cored, and chopped. I use about 4 big ones, because I don't like too many leftover desserts hanging around, and I only have so many ramekins.
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
1/2tsp ground ginger
Throw all of this into a medium sized saute pan and cook on low until soft but not mushy. Put this into ramekins and top with sugar cookie dough. Bake until the tops are brown, about 15-20 minutes. Top with ice cream, whipped cream, or my favorite, just plain. I am not going to provide a recipe for sugar cookie dough as there are a bjillion out there, also if you have the money you can purchase a sugar cookie mix, (Target has them for 1.20), or I have even purchased premade sugar cookie dough on close out. Another thing to look for is right after holidays, sugar cookie dough gets marked way down to get rid of it, like right now my local store is getting rid of valentine stuff. Buy two or three, only at rock bottom price mind you, and throw them in the freezer, they will keep a few months or more.
OK that's it for this week, hopefully next week we will be cooking duck confit (HA!) but it will probably be something like chicken ala king.