Pork and Potato Hot Pot wiith Vegetables
Slow cooking makes the pork so very tender and allows the potatoes to soak up the delicious juices from the meat.
This recipe keeps to simple ingredients, no fancy hard to get herbs, no turnips etc., they are not needed to improve on the flavour of pork, potatoes, onions and a few other simple ingredients.
Pork loin is taken from the top of the pig roughly half way along the back, above the belly. It is taken from both sides. Normally it is boneless (as in this recipe) although it is possible for the bone to remain.
It is a lean cut of pork with just a section of fat running down one side of the loin. Pork loin is more suited to slow cooking compared to pork chops.
4 Pork loins
25g / 1 oz Butter
15 ml / 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large Onion very thinly sliced
2 Garlic cloves
225g / 8 oz Button mushrooms
½ teaspoon Mixed herbs
900g / 2lb Potatoes thinly sliced
750ml / 1¼ Veg or chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Peel, top and tail and thinly slice the onion
Peel, top and tail and finely chop the garlic
Slice the mushrooms (see picture below)
Peel and thinly slice the potatoes (see picture below)
Use 15g / ½oz / 1 tablespoon of the butter to grease the base and the sides of the slow cooker pot. This will help prevent any of the ingredients sticking to the side of the pot.
Grease sides of slow cooker pot
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onions and gently cook for about 5 minutes until they are see-through.
Lightly fried onions
Add the garlic and mushrooms to the frying pan and cook for a further 5 minutes until they are softened. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the mixed herbs.
Garlic and mushrooms added
Spoon half the mushroom mixture into the bottom of the slow cooker pot, then arrange just under a half of the potato slices on the top, season with salt and pepper.
Start to layer the hot pot
Place the pork chops on top of the potatoes in a single layer, then pour about half of the stock over just to cover the potatoes to stop them going brown.
Pork chops in the layers
Repeat the layering of the mushroom mixture. The final layer is the remaining potatoes neatly arranged and overlapping.
Pork and potato hot pot nearly ready for cooking
Pour over the remaining stock so as just to cover the potatoes, dot with the rest of the butter and cover with the lid.
Hot Pot topped up with final stock and butter
Cook the hot pot on high for 3 - 4 hours or until the meat and potatoes are tender.
Cooked Pork and Potato Hot Pot
Serve with your lightly cooked favourite vegetables on warmed plates. A glass of white wine or sparkling apple juice both make excellent drinks to go with this meal.
Pork and Potato Hot Pot served with vegetables