Grandma Edna's Cajun Pork Recipe- Taste of Home

Let me start by saying that I have absolutely no idea who "Grandma Edna" is.  I had a brief subscription to Taste of Home magazine before I decided that the number of recipes that I was clipping wasn't high enough for me to be a subscriber.  This one made it to the file, though, and has been there for quite a while as a potential dish for us.  I had a pork tenderloin in the freezer and decided to thaw it out for dinner this week.  This recipe seemed really tasty and I like the crock pot feature.  The original idea was to make it Sunday night for dinner on Monday but it was still a solid rock!  Note to self: 2lb pork loin takes 2 days to thaw....  On Monday night we made due with sandwiches and I put together the recipe for dinner the next night.  It was fairly simple.  I started by sauteeing chopped celery, peppers, and onion until soft and then added the spices and a touch of hot sauce.  At this point I forgot to add salt & pepper- more on that later.  I sliced the tenderloin in 1 inch slits that went almost to the bottom of the roast, but not quite.  Stuffed the vegetable mixture into the slits and put the rest on top.  It looked quite beautiful, actually, and I wish that I had taken a photo at that point.  One of the 1700 things that I love about my crockpot is that it has a removable crock.  This way, I can put the dish in the fridge with the lid and then transfer it to the base in the morning before I head to work. 

Most crockpot recipes call for 6-8 hours, but you can cook things longer without issue.  Its in the crock at such a low temp that there's little danger of overcooking.  I usually end up with my dinner cooking for about 12 hours because of my work schedule.  The roast was moist and fork tender, but just on the verge of being overdone.  There was an icky layer of fat around the bottom of the crock, but it came off quite easily.  I threw it away and figured it made my dish just that more healthy!  I followed the recipe for the suggested side dish and sliced 2 white potatoes and 1 sweet potato lengthwise into wedges, tossed with with oil, salt & pepper, and then baked them for 20 minutes at 450.  I flipped them and coated them with a mixture of chopped garlic and parmesan cheese, and baked them for another 20 minutes. 

Just before it was ready, I poured the juices from the roast into a sauce pan and added a slurry.  A slurry is a mixture of equal parts of corn starch and cold water that is combined and added to juices to thicken them up into a sauce.  Cornstarch adds a smoother quality to gravy that you would find with flour- similar to the texture of chinese food sauces.  You boil it, then quickly bring the temp to low while whisking the sauce.  The gravy thickened up pretty quick, too quick, so I added a little chicken broth the thin it out. 

Once it was all finished, I sliced up the pork, topped with the gravy, and paired it with the potatoes.  It was not a pretty meal.  Very messy and brown.  The tastes were good, but not great.  My earlier missed step of omitting the salt and pepper really showed later on.  I did add it to the final product, and the gravy, but I could tell that it affected the overall flavor of the meat.  I'm not even a big salt person, but it was needed.  The potatoes were just okay; they were cooked, but some were burned and others were mushy.  I think a different temp would be better as would thinner potatoes.  In my defense, Shawn enjoyed the meal more than I did.  I also have a cold, still, so it could have affected my mood and tastes.  Its always tough to be honest on the blog when things aren't really that great but this just wasn't all that great to me. 

HOWEVER, 2 days later I chopped up the leftover pork (that still was stuffed with the veggies) and used it with some chopped veggies and low sodium Zatarain's Jambalaya mix.  I swear by this stuff- its the best way to get rid of leftover meat and veggies.  Its easy, flavorful, and always delicious.  Plus, it costs less than $2.  The pork really rocked in the jambalaya and when I paired it with the frozen biscuits (which thawed beautifully) it was a fantastic meal. 

Grandma Edna's Cajun Roast Pork- Taste of Home; Decmber/ January 2011
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Grandma-Edna-s-Cajun-Pork

Two Tone Potato Wedges- Taste of Home; December/ January 2011
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Two-Tone-Potato-Wedges