Pork and Apple Lasagne (Slow Cooker)

Intro: Pork and Apple Lasagne (Slow Cooker)

I had previously bought some pork mince on discount and directly substituted it for beef mince in a lasagne, the result wasn't great. I did some research and some thinking and I found that pork and apple is a popular combination with the herbs sage and rosemary commonly used with it, additionally, I have made a pork and potato bake more than a few times which uses a white sauce spiced with mustard so I thought I would try this combination for my lasagne.

STEP 1: Preparation 1 - Meat

Brown the pork mince in batches in frying pan then transfer to large bowl, add a tin of tomatoes, the diced apple, sage and rosemary and mix together.

STEP 2: Preparation 2 - White Sauce

Place the butter and flour in a bowl and microwave 800w for 30 seconds then mix until it clumps together.

Start adding the milk in small amounts, mixing it in and turning the clump into a thick smooth paste; do this until you have added around 150ml of milk.

Microwave for 1 minute and then stir the mixture until it is smooth again.

Microwave for 1 minute and again stir the mixture until it is smooth.

Mix in the rest of the milk, ensure the mixture is smooth.

Microwave for 1 minute and stir.

Microwave for 1 minute and stir, at this point my sauce started to boil up my mixing jug, so watch carefully.

Microwave for 30 seconds more and you should be finished.

Finally add in the mustard and allow to cool, the sauce will thicken some more as it cools.

STEP 3: Assembly

Add half the meat to the bottom of the slow cooker.

Cover with lasagne sheets.

Put half the cheese on top and cover with half of the sauce then add a further layer of lasagne sheets.

Add the remainder of the meat and cover with lasagne sheets then add the rest of the sauce making sure it spreads to cover all of the sheets or they won't cook properly, then finally top with the last of the cheese.

STEP 4: Cooking

Cook on low for 5 hours.

The internal temperature hit 80 degrees C in my cooker at this time.

The first helping out of the slow cooker was somewhat sloppy I put this down to the sauce still being hot and the amount of liquid in the tomatoes, I have previously drained a tin of tomatoes through a sieve into a jug and the liquid amount ran in at around 250ml. Food in a slow cooker does need liquid to cook safely so I am reluctant to experiment with reducing the liquid content at this time, I have added this note for completeness.

Comments

[sabrinam24]

MMM YUMMY! 😋😍🤩

[jessicar24]

heyy pookie dookie cookie loopy shmoopy doo doo bear 🥰

[ThePCMedic]

I say! I finally understand what Mr. Shaw meant by two peoples separated by a common language, not to mention completely disparate kitchen measuring systems! LOL That notwithstanding, this recipe sounds simply marvelous, and I cannot wait to try it out!

One question, if you please. Your recipe does not state what is to be done with the white sauce. Based on your comments about the pork and potato bake you have made previously, am I correct in subsuming the white sauce is blended into the meat sauce?

Many thanks for sharing!

[Mr_Glenn]

Hi PCMedic,

The white sauce is not blended into the meat sauce but is used as separate layers as follows:

You have a bottom layer of half the meat which you cover with pasta sheets then pour over half the white sauce and add half the cheese then cover this layer with more pasta sheets.

Then add the second layer of meat, cover with pasta sheets then cover that with the rest of the white sauce and top with rest of the cheese. The photo's in the assembly section show the process in order.

Hope this helps clear any confusion.

The pork and potato bake if anyone is interested:

https://experience-fresh.panasonic.co.uk/recipe/pork-potato-bake-recipe/

I see from re reading the recipe that they spread the mustard over the chops, I must have got lazy when I started adding it directly to the white sauce.

[stealexander98]

Hi Mr Glenn,

Your recipe sounds good, one thing bothers me though. What type of mustard do you use, Dijon mustard or the regular yellow hot dog mustard?

[Mr_Glenn]

English mustard

[charlessenf-gm]

A couple decades ago, my quasi-father-in-law expressed restrained joy over a jar of mustard I'd used in a meal we shared. As it as nearing Christmas, when 'gifting' is top of many (if not most) minds, I thought "I'll get him a fancy mustard!"

At the time I was between Broward and Palm Beach and had never experienced anything close to a food dessert. So, when I went to the local grocery store's "Mustard Section," I was impressed by the plethora of choices spread over six or eight feet in width and arrayed on several shelves rising a bit above my sixty-five inch (measured) "eye-level."

That potato chip ad sound bite came to mind "Bet you can't each just one!"

So I decided to purchase one of each - and did. I filled a pretty decent sized cardboard box (with thirty or so containers of mustard) and set it aside pending wrapping.

Would you believe I 'lost it?' Within two weeks - and I was far from senility then! Somehow, I misplaced the damn thing and went to another store and bought one of 'everything' on their "Mustard Shelves."

In doing so, I noticed that this store offered several brands I'd not seen before and a few that I recalled purchasing for the first box were not to be found on their shelves!

I mention this in light of your question posed as a binary choice between (but 2 grams of) either 'yellow hot dog' or Grey Poupon' posed to a guy who's touting combining apples cheddar cheese and ground pork in a lasagne!

Dying to hear his answer!