My husband and I bought a pig. Half a pig, actually, and it is currently sitting in our MASSIVE freezer in the garage, waiting to be turned into delicious meals. I’m all about this – we know the farmer who grew, fed, and cared for the pig, know what the pig ate, know that is was butchered properly and as humanely as possible, and can feel good that if we are going to eat an animal, we did it in the best way possible, both for the environment and for our health. And…buying pigs this way comes out to less than $2/lb., which is a steal for organic meat. The only problem? I don’t know my way around a pig! I can handle bacon (duh!) and sausage, but what exactly do you do with a “fresh ham steak” or a “pork roast?” I’ve never cooked these things before…
I can google with the best of ‘em, and google I did…but it turns out that there is a difference in how you cook an “uncooked” ham vs. a “cooked” one, and I have no idea which one we have. So…I did what you do when you have no idea what to make for dinner. Throw it all in a crock pot!
Crock ‘o Pig:
1 fresh ham steak (upon examination, I would say this puppy was definitely not “cooked”)
1 medium/large sweet potato, sliced scallop style
2 medium potatoes, sliced scallop style
3-4 carrots, cut into thin sticks (I used carrots that a good friend – with a green thumb – had just pulled out of her garden. So sweet and yummy! A bit smaller than your standard store kind, so I just used a big handful)
1 cup frozen peas
splash of wine (I think both red and white would work – I used white – probably 1/4 cup?)
2 T whole grain mustard
sage leaves
heaping 1/2 T brown sugar
1 T or so apple cider vinegar
drizzle maple syrup
How it went down:
Throw the potatoes into the crock pot, top with carrots. Smear the veggies with 1T or so of the mustard. top with the ham steak, and smear on the rest of the mustard and the brown sugar. Crumble in some sage leaves, drizzle with the maple syrup (you can skip this or just use a dash more brown sugar) and vinegar, and splash on the wine. Throw in peas (don’t spill half of them on the floor, like I did). Cover, crock for 8 hours or until the ham steak is done.
The verdict?
It was great – when doused with sweet chili sauce (for me) and BBQ sauce (the hubby). The “ham” tasted more like plain pork, without that salty, smoked, sweet ham taste, and thus the need for the extra sauce. Next time, I would DOUBLE all of the spices at least, or just dump in some sweet chili or BBQ. This completely blows my theory that you can dump anything in a crock pot and have it meld into a fantastic dinner…
