Dinner Tonight: Leftovers become an awesome Asian soup

An amazing soup comes from adding some simple ingredients to leftoversThe other night I made a Five Spice Pork and had some leftovers in the bottom of the crock pot.  I saved them and put them in the fridge thinking that it would be good for lunch the next day, but then I had a better idea.  Since there were such classic asian flavors in the pork, I could make an easy Asian broth to turn them into a soup.  Here's what I did.

Ingredients:

8 cloves of garlic

Large piece of fresh ginger

32oz Vegatable Broth

Leftovers from the Honey Apple Five Spice Pork

Bok-choy or raw spinach

Directions:

  1. Seperate pork from the the other pan drippings and solids in the leftovers and set aside
  2. Add remaining leftovers to pot
  3. Peel garlic and slice thinly, add to pot
  4. Peel ginger and cut into 1/2 inch pieces, add to pot
  5. Add vegatable broth
  6. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20-30 minutes
  7. In a frying pan, saute greens in water until wilted
  8. Place some greens in each bowl
  9. Brown reserved pork until crispy in same frying pan.  Divide and add to each bowl
  10. Cover greens and meat with broth and serve!

Dinner Tonight (and tomorrow) - Apple Honey Five Spice Pork

Great crockpot asian pork with Chinese Five Spice

A very common combination in american cooking is apple and pork, but I was looking for a way to bring something more to the flavor profile this time.  When I started thinking I realized that a lot of the same flavors that we use with apples are present in Chinese Five Spice recipes, and thought this would be a great combination.  The pork came out fall apart perfect with a great combination of flavors.  It was at once both familiar and exotic.  This one will get made again here in Fat Boy Heaven.

Apple Honey Five Spice Pork

YIELD
 6 servings
ACTIVE TIME
 20 minutes
TOTAL TIME
 7 hours, 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

    •  Pork Loin, 2.5-3 lbs.
    •  Red Delicious Apples, 3 sliced
    •  Honey, approx 4 T
    •  Chinese Five Spice, 2 T

INSTRUCTIONS

    1. Lay the apple slices (from two of the apples) in the bottom of the crockpot.
    2. Sprinkle with five spice.
    3. Cut slits in the pork loin (approx 1/2″-3/4″).
    4. Drizzle some honey into the slits.
    5. Then place apple slices into the slits.
    6. Place the pork loin into the crockpot.
    7. Drizzle the top with the remainder of the honey.
    8. Place the rest of the apples on top.
    9. Then sprinkle the whole thing with five spice.
    10. Cook on low for 7 hours

NOTES

Serve with veggies