Currently cooking out of Make It Fast, Cook It Slow by Stephanie O’Dea

After buying a slow cooker for this dish, I found myself looking for more slow cooker recipes. Like most other people, I like being able to throw a bunch of ingredients in the pot and let it cook all day with me lifting nary a finger. Plus, there’s usually lots and lots of leftovers. I like leftovers.

This is my newest cookbook, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, by Stephanie O’Dea. O’Dea also has a blog called crockpost365.blogspot.com. The idea behind the blog is that O’Dea spent a year cooking out of her crockpot. This cookbook came out of that project. Most of the recipes in the cookbook can also be found on her blog, with comments by other readers. This is nice if you are looking for substitutions or just want to know what others thought of a particular recipe. Another really nice plus is that all the recipes in this book can be made gluten-free (or not, if you are so disposed).

The first dish I chose to make was this Hirino Psito. I have no idea what Hirino Psito means, other than slow-cooked pork. In this case, a hunk of pork shoulder or butt is covered with various spices, such as sage and rosemary, brown sugar, salt and pepper and dropped into a slow cooker. A healthy dose of Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, honey, cranberries and beer are added to the pot and the whole thing cooks on low for 8 to 10 hours, or until the meat shreds easily. I served the meat over brown rice.

The meat has a slightly sweet flavor from the honey and cranberries, but that is balanced by the spiciness of the mustard. I’m a little ambivalent about the sweetness in this dish. It isn’t my favorite, but I like it enough to eat the leftovers quite happily. One thing I noticed when I reheated leftovers is that the meat really dried up, and I had to use the (sweetish) liquid to make things edible. Again, I didn’t hate it, but I don’t think this dish will be a favorite of mine.

Here’s the link to the recipe on O’Dea’s blog: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/03/crockpot-hirino-psito-slow-roasted-pork.html