Easy slow cooker recipe - crock-pot BBQ pork steaks
Crock-pots or slow cookers are a brilliant invention! They're great for all kinds of easy and delicious dinners. My slow cooked pork steaks in a rich and tangy BBQ sauce melt in the mouth - just the thing to come home to after a long day at work.
This recipe could be served with some nice crusty bread for dipping and moping, but for the ultimate comfort food I'd go for mashed potato.
To serve 4 you will need
Six to eight nice lean pork loin steaks, trimmed of any fat
One large onion - sliced
Two sticks of celery - chopped
A few mushrooms - sliced
A 400g tin of good quality chopped tomatoes
A little oil
Optional (see note at the bottom of recipe) McDougalls thickening granules*
In a jug mix together the following:
200ml boiling water
A beef OXO cube (for this recipe OXO works best)
Two tablespoons of tomato puree (paste if you're in the US)
One tablespoon of malt vinegar
One tablespoon lemon juice
One tablespoon of Colman's English mustard
One tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Three tablespoons of soft brown sugar
How to do it:
Heat up a large frying pan and add a glug of oil. Put the pork steaks in two or three at a time and sear quickly. Remove and pop them into the slow cooker. Important - if you are not planning to switch your slow cooker on straightaway please do not add the pork until you are ready. It's never a good idea to leave meat just sitting there.
Don't bother washing the pan and add the onions and celery. Cook them over a medium heat stirring until they colour slightly, and then add them to the slow cooker.
Pour the sauce into the slow cooker.
Give everything a stir and set your slow cooker to low and leave to cook for seven to eight hours.
*Since cooking in a slow cooker tends to make liquid as it cooks, you may find the sauce needs thickening. I think McDougalls thickening granules are the very thing, you just stir them in and the dissolve without a trace. They're always displayed with gravy (not flour) in a supermarket.
