Slow Cooking is back! After a few months in the back of the cupboard it is time for my slow cooker’s place back on the countertop once more. I only bought my slow-cooker towards the end of spring so I am still getting used to this new method of cooking.

slow_cooker

Lots of online recipes for slow-cookers sound, quite frankly, revolting. Browning some pork chops and then cooking them for hours in a tin of cream of mushroom soup, doesn’t sound like a good dinner to me. The inspiration for this recipe came from this Slow Cooker Pepper Pork Chops recipe, but it is only very loosely related.

For starters with that recipe you need to marinade the pork chops overnight in this recipe, something I decided was unnecessary when all the ingredients were going to be cooked together for around 8 hours. I also didn’t add any extra sugar, figuring that an apple would add enough sweetness to the sauce. I also subbed chicken stock for chicken broth, which made my sauce fairly runny.

Slow Cooked Pork Chops with Apple

~ serves 2.

  • 4 pork chops
  • 1 small apple (I used cox)
  • 2 small carrots, sliced
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 6 button mushrooms, sliced
  • 240 ml of chicken stock
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tbsp of cornflour

Method

  1. Slice the apple thinly, and line the bottom of the slow-cooker with the slices. Turn the slow-cooker on to high.

    2. sliced_apples

  2. Brown the pork chops in a frying pan under a moderate heat for 6 minutes on each side. Add these on top of the apple slices.

    3. add_pork_chops

  3. Add the onion to the frying pan, for 2 minutes, then add the carrots and mushrooms. Leave them to cook for another 5 minutes.
  4. Pour the hot chicken stock into the frying pan, stir so all the juices stuck to the bottom of the pan are incorporated into the stock. Once simmering, add to the slow-cooker.
  5. Leave on a high heat for an hour and a half then turn down to low for the next 4 hours. Serve with a baked potato.
  6. My sauce turned out a little runny, so I ended up transferring some to a pot under a high heat, and a tablespoon of cornflour to thicken it.

pork_chops

Over the next few weeks I will be posting quite a few slow-cooker recipes, so if you have any good ones please do post links in the comments.

In my little experience it seems that most recipes for slow-cookers are a little bit 70s – the desserts especially. So if you have any newer modern recipes (or of course any classics) I’d love to hear from you.