Slow Cooker Asian Style Pork - First Way: Over Egg Noodles with Spinach, Mushrooms, and Onions

Okay, so I needed a sort of cost efficient meal that would last at least 3 days.  So I decided on a slow cooker pork recipe because I can use the shredded pork over a course of like four days and do something different with it each day.  I came across a recipe that I really liked that inspired this idea.  My inspiration came from SkinnyTaste once again.  Then because I couldn’t find a five spice blend at my normal grocery store (I didn’t want to go to the Asian grocery store), I ventured off onto Google to find a different Asian flavored slow cooker pork recipe hoping to come across something that didn’t include five spice.  I wasn’t that successful but this second recipe did wow me and I love these flavors so I decided to use this recipe (minus the five spice blend) and incorporated how SkinnyTaste puts her meal together. 

I wasn’t surprised that this dish was going to be pure gold!  As soon as I came home from work, I didn’t even need to imagine how delicious this would be, the smell alone was awesome!  It was freaking yummy!  Try it out!

Recipe for the sauce I ended up using found on the MyRecipes website my changes or adaptations are italicized. 

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce (I ran out of normal soy sauce so I used what I had which was a Mushroom Flavored Dark Soy Sauce)
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil (allergic to sesames so opted out of this)
• 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder (didn’t have any on hand, opted out of this too)
• 2 pounds boneless Boston butt pork roast, trimmed
• 1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

• Additional items for this specific meal:  whole wheat egg noodles, handfuls of fresh spinach, one red onion, 8oz of mushrooms, and of course Sriracha
  

Directions

1. Combine first 8 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Place in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add pork to bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator at least 2 hours, turning occasionally.  I didn’t have time to marinate, so I just seared the pork on all sides in a skillet (method from SkinnyTaste) and created the sauce mixture and put the pork and the mixture into the crock pot all at once. 
2. Place pork and marinade in an electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.  Again, this was very last minute, so I cooked this on high for 4 hours. 
3. Remove pork from slow cooker using a slotted spoon; place on a cutting board or work surface. Cover with aluminum foil; keep warm.
4. Add broth to sauce in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or until sauce thickens. Shred pork with 2 forks; serve with sauce.

This next part I used SkinnyTaste’s recipe for inspiration and for what to do with the veggies. 

I removed the pork from the slow cooker and let it rest in foil.  I put an 8oz container of baby bella mushrooms into the slow cooker along with sliced red onions.  I let this cook on high for 20 minutes while I shredded the pork. 

I cooked two servings of whole wheat egg noodles and right before draining the egg noodles I put a few handfuls of spinach in and cooked it for a few seconds. I then took some of the egg noodles/spinach and tossed it in with a bit of sauce from the slow cooker to get a good coating. 

I topped the egg noodles/spinach with the shredded pork, the mushrooms/onions, and garnished with scallions and sriracha! 

Congee with pork belly, century eggs, and crullers (or what I like to call “Jook!”)

Have you ever had Congee before?  I love it!  Reminds me of food my mom and grandma would make for me growing up.  Congee is similar to porridge, so I guess it’s basically a rice porridge.  You can add lots of different flavors to your porridge depending on what you like.  I have always grown up eating congee with usually some sort of pork meat and when we had it, century eggs!  I love love love century eggs!  I know it looks a little daunting and maybe a bit scary if you didn’t grow up eating something like this but I promise you it is yummy.  No, it’s really not a century old, simply put, it’s a preserved egg and a chemical reaction causes it to turn from the normal egg color to this.  Here’s a link to a wiki site to further explain the century egg if you’re interested. The egg is just so good.

I was always a little nervous about posting something like this since not everyone will think this is one of the best things in the world but thanks to Jeannie over at Goddessofscrumptiousness and her photographic depiction of the century egg, it made me feel a little less anxious to post something so “strange!” =)

Anyways, my second favorite part of congee is the crullers!!  We always toast them up and then slice them into pieces to dunk into our congee.  I like to top mine with scallions, fried red onions, and white pepper.  If you like it to have a little kick you could also add in Sriracha. 

This is definitely a meal that I always had when I was sick.  I guess it was my chicken noodle soup for those days that I wasn’t feeling well.  If you ever get a chance to eat or order congee, you should definitely give it a try.