Two For One Meals: Roast Pork and Pork Panini with Garlic Aioli

I hate this time of the semester.  What sadist timed the end of every quarter and semester to fall near a holiday of one kind or another?  While this can be tiring at the best of times, with 5 weeks to go and a husband often working too late to be of any use around the house this year is brutal!

In an attempt to make sure everyone is still fed, I once again gave the old slow cooker a whirl.  I hate the slow cooker.  No matter how many times I hear... oh this is fantastic, it rarely is.  However, faced with a night alone after a late meeting, and a working late hubby, and child I wanted to do something that didn't involve calling the local pizza place (being that I did that on the Monday and thought twice in a week was probably pushing it).

I had a pork roast in the fridge that was suppose to be all dolled up and served with fingerling potatoes and fried brussel sprouts but it looked like just me and the little man, and while I didn't know if he would eat that stuff to begin with, I knew he wasn't going to leave me alone long enough to safely make anything fried.  So out of desperation I typed Roast Pork Slowcooker recipes in the search engine.  I figured, it was better than nothing, and better than throwing the pork out.  Here is the recipe I got back, and it was simple, and fast, and tasted GOOD, and will be made again and again this weekend, especially after our new arrival makes sleep more important than cooking.

Recipe 1 (no photo because even if it taste good crock pot food rarely looks good):

Slowcooker Roast Pork
(not sure... the internet somewhere)

Ingredients

3 pound roast pork
6 potatoes
6 carrots
1 envelope dried onion soup mix
1 cup water

Method

Peel and chop veggies, place in bottom of slow cooker
Cut roast in half, lay on top of veggies, fat side up if you have a fatty side
Combine soup mix and water
Pour over entire thing
Cook on low for 10-12 hours.
That's it!

I was certain this would be nasty, but it wasn't... it was good, and it was nice to come home late and have the house smelling of dinner and then to only have the one pot to clean as everything was in there. 

Now you may have noticed that it says 3 pounds of meat, and that I said there were two of us eating, which meant a lot of leftovers.  Not only did I used to hate  my crock pot I used to hate leftovers, but they have become my favorite thing in the world as I become more and more exhausted and overwhelmed.  So what to do with all that pork... why turn it into one of my favorite things... the Panini!

A month or two ago my husband went to a highly recommended lunch place and I had a Pork sandwich with garlic sauce... super simple, dry as all get out!  I looked over at my husband while trying to choke it down and said... we could do so much better than this... and did we ever.  Here is your super simple recipe #2.

Pork Panini with Garlic Aioli
from Eileen's little pea brain

Ingredients

Leftover pork from above, shredded and reheated
Fresh ciabatta bread
1/4 cup, plus a good dollop more, of mayonnaise
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
green of your choice
cheese of your choice, I used American because it's what we had but I would go for provolone next time

Method

Cook bread
Cut into servings, trying not to burn yourself like I did
Layer cheese, greens, and pork onto bread
In a small bowl combine remaining ingredients to taste
Throw on the sandwich

Serve with your favorite chips or fries

Coming up... Christmas Baking... hurrah!

Smoked Gouda & Prosciutto Panini

The first celebrity chef I ever recognized so many years ago was Wolfgang Puck.  The only food of his I have ever eaten (before this panini) was the pizza in his take out joint in Chicago which I doubt he's ever been to, but I secretly love it anyway.... my standards drop when the options are reheated pancakes at the Chili's or dealing with really rude McDonald's workers.  If you've ever been to the McDonald's at O'Hare you know exactly what I mean.  Well without an oven for close to a month I could easily have fit in with those women.  I was becoming crankier by the day.  This was the last oven-less meal I made before the oven was installed after lots of work by the husband and a few friends... thank you all!  Ta Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....

However, you may leave your standards where they are because this is amazing.  Paninis are so much better than just a grilled cheese, but really you can make most of the paninis I make just like you would a grilled cheese because I put cheese on everything.... a lot of cheese... a WHOLE lot of cheese... an amount that cannot even be considered diet friendly.  This time I made it just as stated so you can blame Wolfgang for the super rich and tasty and non-diet friendly sandwich. 

I wanted to make this with a Moroccan Tomato Soup kind of an adult version of grilled cheese and tomato soup, but I got tooooooo lazy.  Oh well next time... and there will definitely be a next time... like maybe this weekend.  Oh yeah, it was that good.  We served it with mini gerkins to help cut the creamy richness, and some chips, but next time if we serve it as is without soup I would make sweet potato fries.  Now I want fries.

Insert amazing photo from your mind here of what the soup could of, would of, should of looked like had I not become so ridiculously lazy thanks to my imense disappointment with my kitchen after the gaping black hole where the oven should be sucked my will to live... well cook.

Smoked Gouda & Prosciutto Panini
adapted (or not) from Wolfgang Puck

Ingredients
2 slices good-quality sourdough bread, each about 1 inch thick
2 tablespoons good-quality prepared mayonnaise, extra-virgin olive oil, or unsalted butter
2 ounces thinly sliced smoked Gouda cheese
2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto or cooked ham
2 tablespoons very thinly sliced red onion
2 thin slices ripe Roma (plum) tomato
1 ounce shredded Fontina cheese

Method

Combine everything, squish between two slices of bread, put onto a hot panini grill and and smash with lid.  Cook until cheese gets all gooey and fantastic.

Steak Panini with Horseradish Mayo

What a boring photo.... really... this doesn't do it justice, I mean by the looks of this photo the cheese and horseradish mayo doesn't even look like the melty, gooey, amazing, mess they were.  Geesh... someone better tell this photographer to get off her bum and take a food styling, or photo class pronto.  What's that?  Oh she said she would get right on that after changing her two year olds daycare, helping her teenager, and creating a new baby in unbearable heat, while finishing her Masters degree.  Sorry... did that sound like I am feeling sorry for myself?  It did?  Oh good just the sentiment I was trying to portray. 

That's right.... this photo looks  uninspired, becasue it's hard to be inspired when you feel SICK ALL THE TIME.  Actually maybe I could pull off that my life is drab in the withering heat as it turns everything from green to brown so I left out the green as a symbolism of something or other.  No?  Okay fine, let's move on.

So today is the first day it hasn't been in the high 90s in the remeberable (is that a word?) past but it's so humid I feel like I must bring an oxygen tank to walk to my car.  Really... I'm a Northern girl, I can't wait for August to be done so I can go outside for longer than the time it takes me to sprint from one air conditioned place to the next.  Until then... we will continue to turn out quick and easy meals that require little skill, little heat, and are PERFECT for my core audience that "doesn't cook", or as is more likely doesn't have time to cook.  However, if you happen to be a talented food blogger or chef and have wandered onto this site somehow this is going to taste really, really, good.  Promise.

If you are lucky (like me) you have a father who loves food as much as you do.... and feels really sorry for you and your exiled status in middle American and lack of good ingredients.  Sorry enough that he gave you a jar of this!

Home canned fresh (can you say fresh if it's been canned?)  horseradish!  Oh yeah... that'll open the sinuses on a clouy day.  Or you can used freshly grated horseradish if you are so lucky as to have some available.  I used half this and half that prepared cream horseradish stuff from the grocery store.

Flank Steak Sandwiches
from the binder of recipes with no known origin in my kitchen
Ingredients

1 recipe Horseradish Sauce (see recipe below)
1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed
1-1/2 teaspoons ground coriander 
1 teaspoon salt (I used freshly ground)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 large sweet onions, such as Texas 1015 or Vidalia, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about 4 cups)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 pounds beef flank steak or boneless beef top sirloin steak, cut 1-inch thick
6 purchased bakery sourdough rolls or 12 slices sourdough bread, toasted if you're  not going to squish it
OR... a loaf of ciabatta

Method

Prepare Horseradish Sauce; cover and chill. In a small bowl combine oregano, coriander, salt, and pepper; set aside. In a 12-inch nonstick or cast iron skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onions, garlic, and half (about 2 teaspoons) of the spice mixture. Cook, covered, for 13 to 15 minutes until onions are tender, stirring occasionally. Uncover; cook and stir over medium-high heat for 5 to 8 minutes more or until onions are golden. Remove from skillet; set aside. Wipe skillet clean, or not, I didn't bother.

If using flank steak (I used sirloin this time because I was hoping it would make for a less messy sandwich... I was wrong), score meat on both sides by making shallow cuts at 1-inch intervals diagonally across steak in a diamond pattern. Rub steak on both sides with the remaining half of the spice mixture. Heat the same skillet over medium-high heat until very hot. Add steak. Cook, uncovered, for 12 to 16 minutes or until meat is medium-rare (145 degree F), turning once. Remove meat from skillet to cutting board; cover with foil and let stand 10 minutes.

Thinly slice steak across the grain.

I have started slicing these a whole lot thinner since this photo was taken

To serve give both sides of cibatta a good smear of horseradish sauce, arrange steak on bottoms of rolls, top with cheese of your choice if you want then onions.  Add roll tops.  Squish in Panini grill if available to melt the cheesy goodness or serve as is.   Makes 6 sandwiches, or 3 sandwiches and enough steak for your child that eats it as steak with a side of bread.  

Horseradish Sauce: In a small bowl stir together 3/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 to 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed.