Pork Shoulder with Green Lentils

The other night hubby and I went out for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Glasgow--Mzouda.  They serve Moroccan and Spanish food, and it is a real treat to go there.  For my starter I had lentejas estofadas (or something similar, I am terrible with names) and I wanted to try to recreate it at home.  I searched the internet (of course!) but couldn't find exactly what I wanted.  So I mashed a few recipes together, used my head and some inspiration, and here is what I came up with:

Pork Shoulder with Green Lentils

This was made in the slow cooker (crock pot), and took about 7 hours, though it could certainly cook longer if need be.

1 pork shoulder steak (I don't know how much it weighed, probably about 1/2 a pound)
1 cup green lentils
3 1/2 cups pork (or chicken) stock, I added a bullion cube
Salt and pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bay leaf
2 carrots, diced
1 chopped, onion
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 teaspoon tomato paste
2 organic potatoes, washed and diced (I just scrub, never peel)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro


Directions
1. In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients except the potatoes, cilantro, salt and black pepper.
2. Cover and cook on high for 7 hours. About 1/2 way through the 7 hours I cleaned and chopped the potatoes, and then par boiled them on the stove top (for about 5 minutes).  Drain and add to the slow cooker. I do it this way because I have had poor luck with potatoes cooking how I like them in the slow cooker.  It is up to you, you can add them at the start, cook them fully and put them in at the end, or try my way.  Do whatever suits you.  I like to make sure I give them time to soak up the flavors.
3. When cooked to your liking, stir in cilantro and season to taste with salt and black pepper.

To serve I made up some whole wheat flat bread, which I wasn't impressed with, so I won't share the recipe here.  Next time I will stick to making naan bread, since I have had good results with that.  Any bread would do though, so use whatever you love.

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