Porky’s Revenge

Around noon yesterday, I put a pork loin in the slow cooker for dinner around 8:30-9pm (we eat late around here because mikey doesn't get off work until then).  The plan?  Slow cooked shredded pork tacos, a fairly regular menu item here since I first made it last year.

Cut to around 3:30pm, when Mike texts me that we were going to see Carrot Top at the Luxor at 8:30pm thanks to some free tickets from his work.  I'm not a big Carrot Top fan, but I figure as long as we have to live in this (I want to say sucky) town, we might as well enjoy the few perks.  I normally wouldn't consider Carrot Top a perk, as I'm not really a fan of prop comedy and his eyebrows upset me, but I am trying to be more spontaneous, so I agreed to go.

So, around 8:15, I knocked the slowcooker back down to "warm" and we hit the Strip for some, admittedly, fairly funny comedy. Not my usual brand, but I can't pretend I didn't laugh. 

When we got home, the house smelled like an abuelita's kitchen. (That's spanish for Grandmother, in case you weren't sure. Also, an excellent instant Mexican hot cocoa mix.)  I made some totally not low-carb or low-fat Tortillaland flour tortillas in the skillet (they're the uncooked/raw tortillas you can get in the chilled Mexican food section of the market), 8 points of totally worth it and 3.5 ounces of the tenderest pork I'd ever made.

Bear in mind, it's been slow cooking for like 10 hours. So this stuff just melts in your mouth. And it was so easy, it's ridiculous. Next time, I'll take pictures -- I'm not sure why I didn't do that.

Ingredients

• 1 pork center-cut loin roast (I used the lemon-garlic Hormel brand because they didn't have regular and it's a concession I will be making again. So good!)
• 1 big yellow onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup of water, chicken broth or beer (I prefer beer, but didn't have any, so I used water for this recipe)
• Cumin
• Coriander
• Chili Powder
• Hot Sauce (I used some left over from the local taco shop, but you can use whatever you dig)
• Olive oil

This recipe is perfect for one of those small slow cookers for two, which is what I have. It gives you enough for dinner that night and at least 2 meals of leftovers.

First, I line my slowcooker a brilliant invention: slow cooker liners -- they make clean up SUPER easy.  I do a medium slice on the onion and lay the slices down along the bottom, along with the garlic cloves, which i've peeled and smashed a bit to release the oils and flavor.  I drizzle both with a tablespoon or two of olive oil.

Then, I rub my pork loin (I can't say this without cracking a smile) with a generous amount of the spices, cumin and coriander.  I go less heavy on the chili powder, because it can quickly take over, so I am just sprinkling that on.  Hit it with some salt & pepper and don't forget to get both sides.  Lay it down on top of your onions and garlic, then pour your one cup of liquid (water, beer, whatever) around the outside of it.

I lay it fat side up at first. I do this so it stays moist during the first part of cooking.  Pour some hot sauce over the fat side-up to your liking. I like things spicy, but mike doesn't like it as much, so I just did a enough to coat the top, maybe a couple tablespoons.  Put the lid on, set it to low and off you go.

As it starts to break down, about half way through the cooking time I flip it fat-side down and use the liquid that's started to accumulate in the bottom to baste the top.  You can always trim off that thin layer of fat completely, but I find it adds flavor and keeps the meat moist, so I just leave it on. I'm not eating the fat directly and don't really use the juices in my meal, so I'm not worried too much about additional Points or calories.

My meal was 3.5 ounces of lean pork (4 points), 2 tortillas (8 points), 1/4 cup of lowfat shredded mexican cheese (2 points) for a sizable total of 14 Points.  Now, that might seem like a lot, but I had plenty of points for it so I didn't mind using the real tortillas. But you could easily shave off some points by going with low-carb or low-fat tortillas or none at all and make it a salad.

The "Revenge" part of this post is that this morning, coming down the stairs, I couldn't figure out why I still smelled last night's dinner so intensely.  Turns out, I'd left the crock pot  low (not even warm!) the entire night. I don't know how that happened, but I'm glad I didn't burn the house down.  The slow cooker liner that I love so much was cooked right onto the pot and everything inside was burned. BUT, luckily, the slow cooker liners are awesome, so just a few tugs pulled it right out, I tied it up and threw it away. Easy peasy.  If I hadn't had that in there, it would've taken forever to soak that off.

So, lessons learned here:  Pork is good. Slow cooker liners are awesome.  Leaving it on overnight makes your house smell like a delicious plastic factory.  Note to self.