Cider Braised Pork with Apples and Carrots

Cider Braised Pork Roast with Apples and Carrots

Most people have one. A fall back dish. A family favorite they can make with their eyes closed, can whip off in a pinch, without consulting recipes or breaking a sweat.

I love to learn these dishes. I think it tells so much about a family. My friend Loren taught me how to make her mother’s spaghetti with garlic and bread crumbs one afternoon Junior year in college. The smile on her face as our dingy rowhouse kitchen filled with the aroma of garlic and olive oil was priceless. I see the same smile on my husband’s face when he talks about his mother’s meat sauce.

Toddler Juju loving the delicious smells

My fall back dish is a sweet pork roast. Steve has baptized it Pork Rotini. When I first served it to him, I called it a roti de porc, but he thought something so sweet, tender, and just plain yummy, just couldn’t sound so formal. So the pork rotini was born. But to the uninitiated, I would call it Cider Braised Pork Roast with Apples and Carrots.

I used to make this dish in the pressure cooker (note to self, need to blog more about the under-appreciated pressure cooker), but now that I seem to live in my minivan shuttling the kids from one activity to another, I have been making it in the slow cooker. If someone could invent some sort of cooking contraption for the minivan, they would be richer than Miley Cyrus within days.

Being greeted by the aroma of pork rotini when we come in from one of our minivan evenings makes us glad to be at home. It’s a smell that never fails to put a smile on everyone’s face, from youngest to oldest.

Yield: 8-10

Author: Vanessa Druckman

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Cider Braised Pork with Carrots and Apples

This pork dish is such a celebration of fall with sweet apples and carrots and fall apart pork.

Ingredients

• 1 boneless pork butt or shoulder
• 2 apples, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced thickly
• 1 onion, peeled and diced
• 3 cups of cider
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Put the pat of butter in a skillet and add the pork roast and brown 3 minutes on each side. Remove the pork from the pan and place in slow cooker. If you would rather use a dutch oven for the whole dish, you can just everything in it. One pan, more flavor. Winning.
2. Now add the onions to the pan. Saute for 5 minutes on low-medium heat. Add the sautéed onions to your slow cooker.
3. Add the honey, carrots, and beer to the slow cooker. Set to cook on high for 4 hours. If you're using the Dutch oven, just cook it in the oven at 300 degrees for 4 hours until soft.
4. Carefully remove the roast from the pan and slice it into 1 inch thick slices. Serve with the pan drippings, carrots, and apples on top.