Friday, October 7, 2011

Slow Cooked Apple Cider Pork

My roomate used to make us this recipe but with chicken.  You could use either meat.  I adapted it a bit to cook slowly so the pork would be more tender.

Apple Cider Pork

Ingedients:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 of an onion chopped.
4 pork tender loins or pork chops
1 Granny Smith Apple peeled and diced
Enough apple juice or apple cider to cover pork (about 4 cups)
2 Tbsp. butter

Heat olive oil in a pan on medium heat and add pork chops a few at a time depending on the size of your pan.  I used my dutch oven and cook only cook two at a time.  Cook for 2 minutes on each side.  Place finished on a plate to the side until all are done.  Then in the same pan cook onion and apples until onion is translucent and apples are tender (about 3 minutes).  Then add garlic and cook for one minute.  Then put the pork chops back in the pan.  Pour on the apple juice until it covers all the meat.  Place a lid on your pot and cook on low for 1-2 hours until meat is tender.

Super Easy, Tasty Egg Rolls

I love egg rolls.  When I am pregnant I crave them for some reason.  Don't ask me why.  I have never attempted making them before because every recipe I come across has weird ingredients and seems to complicated but I found a super simple one with just a few ingredients.

Super Easy Egg Rolls

Adapted from a Taste of Home Recipe

Ingredients:
  1/2 pound pork sausage
  1/4 cup chopped green pepper
  1/8 cup chopped onion
  1 tsp. minced garlic
   one small package coleslaw mix
   1/4 tsp. pepper
   1/8 tsp. salt
   Package Egg Roll Wrappers (about 16)

Cook the sausage, green pepper, and onion over medium heat in a fairly large skillet.  When the meat is fully cooked add the garlic.  Cook for one more minute.  Drain.  Add the salt and pepper.  Now here you can combine the pork and coleslaw to make assembly easier or you can leave them separate.  I ended up with extra coleslaw so I'm glad I didn't combine the pork mixture and the coleslaw. 

For assembly have a small bowl of water in front of you, the sausage mixture, the coleslaw, and a large area to fold the egg rolls. 

Place about 4 Tbsp. sausage mixture and the same amount coleslaw in the middle of an egg roll.  Fold up bottom corner and then fold in the sides.  You can add a little water to the edges to make the stick better if they are being difficult.  Then fold down the top or roll up the egg roll.  Add a little water to that last seam just by dipping your finger into the bowl of water and dabbing on the egg roll wrapper.  You don't need a lot.

Assemble all egg rolls and then heat about an inch of your favorite frying oil in the bottom of a skillet or fryer.  It should be around 375 degrees or pop when you add an egg roll.  Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side of the egg rolls depending on how brown you like them to be.  Drain on paper towels.  Serve with Sweet and Sour Sauce.

My package of egg rolls wrappers had more than 16 I think so I doubled the recipe to fill them all.  They store well.  You can even freeze them but reheat in the oven, not the microwave or they will lose their crunch and be soggy and grosse!