Slow cooking has become a favourite cooking method of mine. Meat and vegetables are much more flavourful and tender due to the long cooking; braising or stewing them in the oven or on the stovetop. Slow cooking also means that you can leave it to cook without supervision and this is really great when you’ve other things to do or if you’ve to go out, whereupon on your return, dinner is ready to be served. 🙂

This casserole is from “500 Casseroles” by Rebecca Baugniet. The recipe asked for red wine but can be replaced by equal quantity of white wine. Individual portion-sized casserole dishes can be used too.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 450g pork tenderloin, cut into 5cm cubes (I used pork shoulder)
  • 3 slices bacon, roughly chopped
  • 1 galic clove, minced
  • 55g shallots, finely chopped
  • 55g cremini mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tbsp Italian parsley, finely chopped
  • 250ml red wine (I used white wine)
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. Heat oil in large casserole dish over medium-high heat, then add pork. Brown abt 4 mins per side. Add bacon and continue for another 2 mins. Transfer pork and bacon to a bowl and set aside.
  3. Add garlic and shallots to same casserole dish. Sautee till shallots are tender, about 4 mins. Add mushrooms, thyme and parsley, and cook for another 4 mins.
  4. Return pork and bacon to casserole. Add red wine (or white wine) and stir. If desired, divide mixture between 2-3 individual portion-sized dishes.
  5. Transfer casserole(s) to oven and cook for 1.5 hours, uncovered. Remove from oven, stir and add salt and pepper to taste. (I didn’t put any seasoning at all. In fact, I was saying it was a little salty and then I remembered that I didn’t add any salt at all!! Maybe it was salty due to the bacon.)

We had the casserole with some instant Mushroom Dumplings, which we bought in Germany.

I was intrigued. The dumplings were packed into 6 individual plastic “balls” and there were loosely packed dried grains in them. Put the balls in a pot of cold water and leave them for 10 mins. Set the pot with the dumplings to boil for 10 mins. Drain the boiling water and put them in cold water for a few seconds, then drain away the cold water. Tear the plastic wrap away and serve immediately.

Dinner was interesting. The mushroom dumplings were delicious; and it goes very well with the casserole, although I prefer to have more sauce. 🙂



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