Slow Cook Frying Pan Stew

I just threw a great winter meal onto the stove top - it took me 28 minutes from start to finish, the kitchen clean and everything away. In about an hour it will be ready to eat and this "how-to" will be published.

This is an all-in-one fry pan meal - slow cooked under a lid.

It's really more stewing than frying.

Today I'm eating meat, so the first thing is - out of the freezer comes two thin cut pork chops. I lay them on the stove top to thaw a little - but here won't be much time for thawing.

Next, slice and dice all the vegetables.

I see in the crisper I'm lucky enough to have mushrooms, so that means butter fried. I usually use olive oil to cook, but butter whips up the taste of mushrooms to orgasmic levels - imho. So in a Cast Iron frying pan (the best for even heat distribution and slow cook), I slice off about two tablespoons of butter into the fry pan on low to medium heat to start.

Then I wash the mushrooms and slice them quickly into quarter inch sections. Once the mushrooms are sliced and rinsed again, into the fry pan go the pork chops which are still quite frozen, and round and on top of them go all the mushrooms - lid on - then turn down the heat, just a little.

Now it's back to the crisper to see what else I want to put in there.

Carrot good, one carrot, parsnips, Yum, parsnip GOOD. That looks like about it from the crisper. Under the counter onions, and potatoes but as we're going with parsnips and there's limited space in the frying pan - no potatoes tonight.

First thing I slice and dice is the stuff that takes the longest to cook.

(I put the mushrooms in first even though they are very soft and cook quickly, because I wanted them to fry in the butter at the bottom - on slow cook LOW heat they'll be fine, there's Lots of water coming out of the vegetables down from on top here.)

So parsnips first I sliced them into long french fry segments about 1 1/2 inches long; just pile them on top of the mushrooms and pork chops buried down there somewhere. Next the carrots, these I diced into little pea sized sections the will dance with the rest. Last I thin slice an onion across from pole to pole to make ring discs; and just throw them on top. I season with a little rosemary and a pinch of salt and close the lid. Lid on, now turn down just a little more, because I'm going away to write this in my blog. :)

You know your stove top - everyone's is different; I know the way I've left this - and with the cast iron pan I'm using - that this will cook till the waters all gone before it will burn. And that will be well past one and a half hours - long after everything is cooked to perfection.

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Well the blog piece is done and still about 25 minutes to wait before I'm going to check on it. I can't wait; perhaps an episode of "The Simpsons" - that sounds about right. After dinner some coffee and then in about 2 hours from now the Lunar Eclipse begins!

(FilterBlogs piece on the Winter Solstice, Full Moon - Total Lunar Eclipse (starting at 1:33 AM EST): Late Monday night, in the early hours of the Winter Solstice, a Full Moon - Total Lunar Eclipse.)



Update: 12:27 AM 12/21/2010
Oh My God this is GOOD!!! The pork chops melt in my mouth, the medley of flavours is to die for.

:)

Happy New Year everyone!

One hour 'til the Eclipse starts!



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