Swine is fine.

Had this one in my recipe folder quite a while & visited the international district in Seattle to shop for some ingredients. Of course this was after the kid & I gorged ourselves on some serious dim sum – if you haven’t done it – do it.

Very tough to find some asian slower cooker recipes as most of those are super thick & heavy on the gravy end. Also kind of lost, cause there is no more football & didn’t have my cavalcade of folks coming over to imbibe. I forged ahead anyways.

So here it goes.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped (bigger pieces work best) carrots
• 2 medium white turnips, peeled and cut into wedges
• 3-3 pounds boneless pork shoulder, (picnic or Boston-butt), trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced, white and green parts separated
• 1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons medium or dry sherry, (just used a bit of red wine)
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 2-4 teaspoons Chinese chile-garlic sauce (used this instead: spicy chili crisp – it is the bomb)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 star anise pod, (see Ingredient Note) or 1 teaspoon aniseed
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds for garnish (forgot)

Directions:

• Put carrots and turnips in slow cooker
• Add pork and scallion whites
• In sauce pan bring broth, water, soy sauce, wine, ginger, vinegar, chile-garlic sauce & garlic to a simmer over medium-high heat – then pour over the pork and vegetables
• Push star anise and cinnamon stick in mixture – meaning shove in bottom
• Cook on LOW for 6hrs
• Remove the star anise pod and cinnamon stick
• Skim or blot any visible fat from the surface of the stew (eeewyheew)
• Serve sprinkled with scallion greens and sesame seeds (Oops, forgot this step – will do so on leftovers)

Serve over rice – um, I screwed up rice. How can this happen, seriously – messing up rice… So, I made some noodles to make up for it (this was for the best actually). You can do rice or egg noodles – I think rice noodles would work best.

Have to say, was just expecting this to be a decent dish – my expectations were exceeded. This dish was (expletive-ing) amazing! Throughout cooking you could really smell the star anise & cinnamon, but at end there is just a hint of taste & maybe it just takes edge off the spicy chili… BTW, it really isn’t that spicy so the kids can eat too.

This is definitely in my top 5 of crocks.