make it & forget about it - cajun style
Last Sunday, while paging through my cookbooks in search of some new recipes, I found a recipe for Cajun pork chops in the Slow Cooker & One-Pot Meals section of one. I had no idea what "converted rice" was, and I couldn't understand why you'd have frozen green peppers...but the final product sounded creamy and hearty, which always seem to be a good combination. So I added the necessary ingredients to my shopping list, and last night, we gave it a try.
This is definitely not a dish that is easily classified as pretty while you're making it. But trust me when I say there are a lot of yummy ingredients in that mix - cream of celery soup, chopped green peppers (fresh, not frozen), chopped onions, powdered onion soup mix, and oh - Cajun seasoning, of course.
All that yumminess gets poured into the crockpot on top of Old Bay-rubbed pork chops, which rest on top of vegetable broth (made using one of these awesome bouillon cubes I found at the local grocery store) and converted rice. Which, I learned, is an actual type of rice, sold next to the instant, but (judging from the ingredient descriptions on the boxes) somehow processed differently. (Eventually, when I've run out of the converted rice, I may see how regular instant rice works.)
The best part is that, after about fifteen minutes of prep time, I got to put the lid on the crockpot, set it to low and not worry about it for four hours. Meanwhile, dinner was cooking away (and dispersing a mouth-watering smell through the apartment in the process).
Even as a finished dish, it's a monochromatic, almost bland-looking dish. But don't let that fool you. The flavors are delicious, and we will definitely be having this again in the future. It was even better than I expected, and the pork chops were tender enough that knives weren't necessary. The only thing I would do differently? Having french bread or rolls to wipe the bowl clean with!
This is definitely not a dish that is easily classified as pretty while you're making it. But trust me when I say there are a lot of yummy ingredients in that mix - cream of celery soup, chopped green peppers (fresh, not frozen), chopped onions, powdered onion soup mix, and oh - Cajun seasoning, of course.
All that yumminess gets poured into the crockpot on top of Old Bay-rubbed pork chops, which rest on top of vegetable broth (made using one of these awesome bouillon cubes I found at the local grocery store) and converted rice. Which, I learned, is an actual type of rice, sold next to the instant, but (judging from the ingredient descriptions on the boxes) somehow processed differently. (Eventually, when I've run out of the converted rice, I may see how regular instant rice works.)The best part is that, after about fifteen minutes of prep time, I got to put the lid on the crockpot, set it to low and not worry about it for four hours. Meanwhile, dinner was cooking away (and dispersing a mouth-watering smell through the apartment in the process).
Even as a finished dish, it's a monochromatic, almost bland-looking dish. But don't let that fool you. The flavors are delicious, and we will definitely be having this again in the future. It was even better than I expected, and the pork chops were tender enough that knives weren't necessary. The only thing I would do differently? Having french bread or rolls to wipe the bowl clean with!
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