Thursdays the tribe is coming over, which means not much time to cook, and then we're gone to the YMCA from 5:40 till almost 8. We either have to have an early dinner or a late one, and minimal clean-up, please. Unless we just decide to eat cereal and fruit, that means the slow-cooker. (Reheating leftovers does NOT produce minimal clean-up.)
The Ugly Dinner, Including Side Dishes
- Chops or any other cut of pork, 3-6 ounces per person, or more if your family likes generous portions of meat. I used a package of 2 pork chops weighing 1.1 pounds to feed my family of five. You could easily do a whole roast this way — cut it into a few flat pieces first. Do not bother trimming fat or treating the pork in any other way.
- 1 package refrigerated sauerkraut, 16 to 24 ounces. Canned will do in a pinch and has the benefit of being shelf-stable.
- Turnips, trimmed and peeled, sliced 1/4 inch thick, enough to be the main vegetable of the plate. I used one big turnip, softball-sized and quartered before I sliced it, but many small ones also work.
- 2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced
- 1 small baking potato per person (optional if you have bread)
- Some broth or stock if you have it, or maybe some white wine or apple juice, but it's really not important
- Black pepper to taste
- Applesauce (from a jar is totally okay) or just some sliced tart apples
- Bread if you have some
Use a big slow cooker. Cover the bottom with 1/4 inch thick slices of turnip. On top of that, place the pork in a single layer. (No browning!) On top of that, a layer of sliced onions. Dump in the sauerkraut with all its juices and add maybe a half to one cup of stock, wine, or apple juice if you have it. (Don't bother if all you have is water). Grind the black pepper on top, cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours.
Towards the end, produce plain baked potatoes by your favorite low-maintenance method. I put them in a low oven while we were gone; you could also microwave them or use your second slow cooker. Alternatively, the potatoes could have been sliced and put into the pot with the turnips. Even more alternatively, you could have put the apples sliced in with the turnips as well.
To serve, extract the meat, discard any bones, slice it, and either pass it separately or mix it back in. Give everybody a split baked potato (butter and sour cream are optional and coordinate with the color scheme) and a side dish of applesauce or raw sliced apples, and a big ladleful of turnips, onion, and sauerkraut, with some of the meat.
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