25 August 2009



This recipe came from Allrecipes.

Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:
1 (2 lb.) pork tenderloin
1 env. onion soup mix (I like Lipton’s Onion Mushroom flavor)
1 cup water
¾ cup red wine
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch (optional)

Directions:
Place pork tenderloin in a slow cooker with the contents of the soup packet. Pour water, wine, and soy sauce over the top, turning the pork to coat. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top of the roast during cooking as possible. Cover, and cook on low setting for 4 hours. You can remove the cooking liquid, add cornstarch, and bring to a boil to make a gravy out of it. Or you can serve it on the side as au jus.

Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Information
Servings Per Recipe: 6
Calories: 180
Total Fat: 4g
Cholesterol: 66mg
Sodium: 918mg
Total Carbs: 6g
Dietary Fiber: 1g
Protein: 25g


Contrary to the original recipe's title, I thought this was just okay. Mine came out kind of dry. I think it might be due to two factors: 1. My slow cooker is 6 quarts, so the cooking liquid didn't cover as much of the pork as it would have had it been in a smaller cooker. Not much I can do about that except add more liquid. 2. Since we had just gotten back home from out of town the night before, my pork wasn't completely thawed when I put in the cooker. To make up for this fact, I cooked it on high instead of low. That very well could have dried out the pork more. So next time I make it I will make sure the pork is completely thawed and I will cook it on low instead of high. Because most of the reviewers say this comes out pull-apart tender and mine wasn't anywhere close to that.

I had decided to thicken the cooking liquid to make a sauce out of it. I took it out of the slow cooker and put it in a small saucepan. I first put in ½ tsp cornstarch and let it come up to a boil. It didn't seem to be thickening at all. So added another ½ tsp and brought it up to a boil again. It thickened up a little, but not as much as I was expecting. So I served it the way it was. It was still runny enough that it ran all over the plate. When Jim went to eat the leftovers the next day, he said the sauce was really thick. I don't know why I have problems getting cornstarch to thicken sauces. I guess I have to make a day in advance! Either way, the "sauce" was really tasty. It almost had a deep, beefy flavor to it. Probably from the red wine. It was really good.

I served this with Mashed Sweet Potatoes.

So, the only bad thing about this dish was that it was the one I was making when I ruined my slow cooker. :( Yes, I actually caught my slow cooker on fire. I doubt too many of you are that talented! Here's what happened: I set my slow cooker on the stove top when I use it because outlets are scarce in my kitchen and there isn't enough counter space near the outlet. When I took the liquid out to make the sauce, I scooted the slow cooker back to the back burner and put my small saucepan on the front burner. I thought it was far enough away. I start mashing my sweet potatoes on the other front burner and I happen to look over and I see the front of my slow cooker in flames. Apparently it wasn't far enough away. I blew it out and the fire didn't spread, but my slow cooker was ruined because the plastic covering the element and the insulation had melted away and the display melted also.

So, be careful and don't make the same stupid mistake I did!




Looking forward to trying this recipe again with better results.





Tagged: , ,

0 comments:

Post a Comment