Moroccan-Style Pork Shoulder Roast

From allrecipes.com

4 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder roast
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
8 ounces assorted baby sweet peppers OR coarsely chopped and seeded sweet peppers
1/2 cup dried fruit mix, with apricots, plums and raisins
1 (15 ounce) can lite coconut milk
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cooked couscous (optional)

1. Trim visible fat from roast. Drizzle roast with soy sauce and rub all sides with curry. Brown roast in hot olive oil in a Dutch oven. Add remaining ingredients around the roast, cover with lid and place in a 350 degree F oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until roast and potatoes are tender.
2. Transfer roast and vegetables to a serving platter. Return pan with sauce to stove top and bring to a boil, cook for about 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Coarsely shred meat and serve with sweet potatoes and peppers and sauce. Serve over cooked couscous, if desired.

Try #1 - For small group, Feb. 24
I drizzled the roast with soy sauce and rubbed it with curry, then placed it in the crockpot on top of the vegetables (I used 5 smallish sweet potatoes and two red peppers). I put the dried fruit in (minus plums), then poured the coconut milk and orange juice (I used 3/4 cup) around the meat. Set for low heat (8 hrs).

After 5 hours, I added two russet potatoes, a green pepper, and a can of garbanzo beans, because I was afraid it wasn't going to make enough... hopefully the potatoes will cook in time. Update: potatoes cooked no problem!

Final results:
Delicious, but would do a few things differently next time.
#1 The pork was REALLY fatty (and I didn't trim the visible fat beforehand). We ended up having to skim off half a can of fat. Next time I would use a less fatty meat, or cook the meat beforehand (chicken, beef, or lamb would work well) and put it in with the vegetables. (You can see the gross fat pre-skimming... I'll post a better picture the next time we make it!)


#2 The raisins, apricots, and almost all the sweet potatoes pretty much disinegrated into the sauce. It made the sauce delicious and thicker, so maybe that's ok - but it was a little mushy. The russet potatoes stayed together. Maybe next time I would put half of the sweet potatoes in a little later so some of them retain their shape. I didn't mind the dried fruit disinegrating, because I don't really like the texture of them when they're puffed up with liquid (as they were halfway through cooking).
#3 I might try it in our kazan next time, because I think the slow cooking is what made things disinegrate.
#4 The garbanzo beans, potatoes, and green pepper were all excellent additions! You could also add carrots and onions. This could be a vegetarian meal if you doubled or tripled the amount of beans. Click here for my vegetarian version.
#5 Great over couscous! Bread also soaked up the extra juice nicely.