Bean soup is a classic filling dish, and an easy dish to make in a slow cooker. For this recipe, I didn’t soak my beans early, so I had to do the quick soak method, by boiling the beans and letting them soak. I adding 1 cup of diced onion and sliced carrots, I also sliced 3 Garlic cloves. I should have added some sliced green beans too for more color. I added the softened Northern beans. As for broth, I started with 4 cups of water, and added 2 chicken bouillon. When I checked the dish at the two hour mark, the broth was very light, and a lot of water had evaporated. So, I added 2 more cups of water and 2 more chicken bouillons. You can easily make this dish vegetarian by using vegetable stock. You can also season with your desired spices before serving. I added my spices at the beginning, and most of the flavor had cooked out. I added 1 tbsp basil and 1 tsp red pepper flakes. This recipe made 4 adult sized servings. I also suggest serving with rolls or English muffins.
The Original Recipe can be found here. I have made significant changes from that, but that was my main source. I don’t have bread crumbs at the moment, so I used crushed potato chips. I also used some Worcestershire sauce in this recipe because it has more flavors and herbs than standard soy sauce.
Katsudon is very good. This recipe, though it seems like a lot, is actually quite simple. Before serving the rice, you could fry it with additional vegetables like peas, carrots or green beans for additional flavors. Since the broth is built on soy sauce, it is very salty. The vinegar and onion adds additional savory flavor, and was very delicious. Finally, the pork cutlet was exceptional. It was very tender and tasted particularly good with the savory broth. The only think I would change is the addition of frying the rice with a veggie, other than that the dish is perfectly balanced, filling. This recipe makes 5 adult sized portions.
Make rice, then keep warm. Combine in a pan, diced onion, water, bouillons, vinegar, soy sauce, worcestershire, sugar, and ginger. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Using a large sided container, add your oil and heat over medium heat. In three separate bowls, add egg, flour, and bread crumbs. Cover your pork first with flour, coat in egg, coat in bread crumbs, coat in egg a second time, then coat with bread crumbs a second time.
Transfer your pork chop to the oil and fry for 3 minutes on each side. Once fried, coat in broth before transferring to a paper towel to strain.
Add your rice to your bowls, top with sliced pork, drizzle broth over top, then sprinkle chives over top before serving.
These English muffins were very delicious. The original recipe calls for instant yeast, however I substituted in active dried yeast instead. They both seem to work well, however instant yeast seemed to provide less rise during cooking. I also believe that waiting 12-18 hours was unnecessary with active dried yeast, since it seemed to only mature the flavor of the dough. My dough almost had no rise, and with active dried yeast you’d probably be fine cooking these muffins in an hour rather than waiting 12-18. I rolled my dough to about 1 cm thick and that was plenty for the rise I wanted. I also rolled some thicker, and it had no real affect on the overall thickness of my muffins, the only thing that did seem make a difference was what temperature you cooked them at. My first three rose very little due to the pan not being fully hot and heated before cooking. The rest popped up like balloons due to the heat within a minute. My oven has heat settings from 1-9 and I used 4 for this recipe.
What You Will Need
2 1/2 cup Flour
1/4 tsp Active dried yeast
pinch of Salt
2/3 cup Milk
1/2 cup Water
1 Tbsp Butter
Directions
In a mixing bowl, combine first three ingredients. In a separate microwaveable bowl, add your wet ingredients and butter. Microwave until liquid is finger warm and the butter can melt.
Slowly add ingredients until a dry dough has come together. Mix until smooth adding additional liquid sparingly.
Leave dough in bowl and cover with a tea towel and let sit for 1-2 hours. Turn out dough onto a floured surface.
Roll out dough to be 1 cm thick, then use a 3 inch cutter or cup to make dough rounds. Flour both sides of the round and place aside.
Rework dough then repeat step 4 until out of dough. Cover with tea towel and let rise another 45 minutes.
Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium to medium-low heat.
Use a spatula to move the dough to the frying pan leaving room for minor expansion. Cover with a lid and leave for 8 minutes.
Flip your dough, cover, and let cook another 3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Let cool before eating.
This side dish is quick and flavorful. You’ll want to eat it quickly or drain it on paper towels. Once this dish begins to cool down the side becomes too greasy to enjoy, so serve it very hot, and plan to reheat if necessary. 3 cups of carrot tops only makes about 1 cup once they are sauteed. You also don’t want them on the heat for too long or the leaves will burn and crisp up. The garlic brings most of the flavor to this dish. The strong garlic flavor compliments the dulled bitter flavor of the carrot tops. Carrot tops can be polarizing your first couple times eating, but I always heard you should try a food 5 times before you make a decision, because before that, you won’t like it due to novelty. This recipe makes 1 cup, which is enough for 2-3 side servings.
Begin by preparing your carrot tops. Clean them, then trim the stem to the bottom of the first leaf.
Begin heating the pan over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp oil. Crush your garlic and break them in half, then add that too. Cook until garlic turns golden.
Add your remaining oil and your carrot tops. Stir to coat until everything has wilted. Remove from heat. Crush the garlic and stir into carrot tops. Remove carrot tops to drain on paper towels, or serve immediately.
First, I wash my beans. I then shake them dry or dry them on a paper towel. I cut both ends off my green beans, then cutting the beans into two or three pieces. I transfer those pieces into a gallon freezer bag, use the water displacement method to remove extra air, then I label with item month and year, then I freeze. I have already done two large harvests this month and was able to fill this bag in just 2 weeks. I planted 12 green bean vines.
To do the water displacement method, fill a large bowl or pot with water. Seal your bag 3/4 of the way and remember the edge that is open. Begin submerging the bag into the water. Leave out the edge that is open, and once most air is removed, seal the rest of the bag. You can then flatten out the contents of the bag for easy storage.
Onions
When I harvested all my onions, I first had to let them dry out. So, I stored them in this container on my kitchen windowsill. The windowsill gets pretty warm but it doesn’t get much sun, just a bit when it’s setting, and it’s not very strong that time of day. Once the tops all browned, I began preserving. If you have a root cellar, you can chop off the tops just above the stem, and clean off the roots, then they can immediately go into storage. If you don’t have a dry space under ground like me, then you can simply dice them and place them in the freezer for future use. I got two full sandwich bags, and I have used them heavily before processing the last of them. I once again used water displacement method to remove air.
Carrots
Carrots can lose nutrients if you pick them and leave the tops on in hot weather. So, our harvest was in two batches. We emptied a bin, took the carrots inside. Cut the tops from the carrots. then repeated with the second batch. Once all the carrots were harvested, I scrubbed them to remove dirt and the roots. Once all were processed, I cut off the tops and the end of the root, then I sliced then and transferred them to gallon freezer bag. I then used water displacement to remove the air, labeled them, then added them to my freezer.
Tomatoes
My tomatoes were starting to go bad, and since I haven’t had any more to harvest lately, I figured one small canner of tomatoes was better than nothing for now. You aren’t supposed to use rotting or damaged tomatoes, however that is how my family has done it for generations. First, cut off any bad spots deep into the tomato. Sanitize your knife and the spots. Then treat them like normal tomatoes. Drop the tomatoes into boiling water, boil for 1-2 minutes, then transfer into an ice bath. After a minute or so, the skin will loosen from the fruit. Remove a tomato and place on a cutting board. Cut off the top stem then peel off the skin. Dice your tomatoes then add to a preheated jar. (I just soak them in very hot water.) Fill your canner 1/2 way with water and bring to a boil. Also bring a small saucepan of water to a boil, then add the needed number of lids and remove from heat. Push down on the tomatoes and add any extra juice from your dicing. Once near to the top, you need to add Lemon juice and salt. For a Quart add 2 Tbsp lemon and 2 tsp salt, and for a pint, add 1 Tbsp lemon and 1 tsp salt. Add more tomatoes/some very hot water to get to 1/2 inch from the upper lip of the jar. You will then need to stick a butter knife down the edges of the jar to remove air pockets. Then you can wipe the rim clean, add the lid and ring, finger tight, then once all are ready, add them to your water bath, add additional water to cover the jars, bring that to a boil, the process for 85 minutes. Once they are done, carefully remove hot jars and place on several towels on the counter, and let cool to room temperature. Check the tops to see if they sealed, remove the rings, wipe down the jars and label, then store in a dark and cool location for the most available storage time.
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