I make this stew a lot, and it’s always good, but I am always making little tweaks and adjustments to it along the way.
The first time I made it, I used a whole bone-in pork roast and cooked it for the amount of time the original recipe recommended. It was tasty – but had been too long in the slow cooker. Shorter cooking time, check. Another time, I discovered that preparing and separating the stew the day before, then straining off the fat was a very good thing.
This time? Well, I still cooked the stew a bit ahead, but not the day before, and separated and strained, and really, it does taste wonderful whether you use a pork roast or pork chops. But, let’s get into the details…
INGREDIENTS
Stew:
•6 pork chops
•8 small sweet peppers, halved
•5 cloves garlic, mashed
•6 scallions, white and very light green parts
•1 large yellow onion, sliced
•1 Tien-Tsin pepper, whole
•1 tsp Caribbean Calypso Seasoning
•1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
•1 cup Mr Yoshida’s (teriyaki sauce)
•1/2 cup water
•1/4 tsp (or more) hot chili sesame oil
Toppings:
•Dark green scallion bits
•Dry-roasted peanuts
•Diced carrot
•Lime wedges
•Peanut butter
•Hot cooked rice
Tumble the pork into a slow cooker with the peppers, onion, scallions, seasonings, Mr. Yoshida’s, and the water (not the sesame oil), then cover and cook on low for four or five hours, until the chops are nicely cooked and everything more or less looks like this.
Remove the pork and the veggies with a slotted spoon, then pick out and discard any bones or bit of fat or gristle you come across.
Strain the cooking liquid into a large bowl through a fine-meshed sieve, then drain the boned and shredded pork and veggies over all to get any last little bits of that oh-so-fine sauce.
You can skim the fat off the strained sauce, add that 1/4 tsp of hot chili sesame oil, toss everything back into the slow cooker for a quick reheat, and call it a stew; but I like to stash the sauce bowl in the fridge overnight, separate from the meat mixture, then I pull off the layer of solid fat on the top before putting the stew back together and reheating.
Serve with the toppings listed above, or any others you may like, over rice.
You could also, certainly, stir the peanut butter into the sauce once it’s been strained, but I started leaving it out so that friends with nut allergies could try the stew and found that I really prefer it without.
So, there you have it, Thai-Style Pork Stew.
But, wait?!?
Where’s the ‘twist at the end?’
Here: you would not believe how good this stew is when served over buttermilk smashed potatoes!
Well, I like it; Rich kinda gets freaked out when I mix genres. You do what you want.