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I have just bought a four quart crock pot/slow cooker.
Can you please share any favorite crock pot recipes, tips, or sources of recipes? I especially like East Asian and Americana.
I don't eat eggplant, cilantro, liver, broccoli, or zucchini. I dislike cream sauces and traditional gravy, but other forms of soups, sauces, stews, and meat juices are fine.
Can you please share any favorite crock pot recipes, tips, or sources of recipes? I especially like East Asian and Americana.
I don't eat eggplant, cilantro, liver, broccoli, or zucchini. I dislike cream sauces and traditional gravy, but other forms of soups, sauces, stews, and meat juices are fine.
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I don't use the recipes as written very much, though; I tend to use it to find the appropriate time and quantity of liquid for the ingredients I have on hand.
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Soups are also great in a crockpot--bean soups, lentil soups.
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For an easy one, I've heard that there's nothing like a crockpot full of chicken, hot sauce, and beer.
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I haven't ever tried one of the many many recipes of crocker pot cola chicken but this one really stood out for me as it actually has spices in it instead of just barbeque sauce and coke.
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I tended not to enjoy cooking meat dishes in the crock pot because you always had to sear the meat on the stove first, which seemed to me to defeat the dump-it-in-and-ignore-it promise of the appliance.
This issue does not apply to chicken soup, where you don't pre-brown or saute anything. Chicken (really it's better with bone-in pieces or a whole chicken, but you do have to pick the bones out after that way), carrots, onions, celery (include some leaves), parsnip, optionally a clove or two of garlic (recommended if you are sick), salt, a bay leaf, and water to cover it all, cover and ignore all day. Come back, pick out the bones, add chopped fresh parsley and dill. Good for what ails you, especially if what ails you is an upper respiratory complaint.
I most recently used the crock pot for a batch of tofu herder's pie -- our household variety of shepherd's pie made with Quorn crumbles. Mince and briefly saute one onion and one clove of garlic, seasoning with salt and dried thyme. Put in crock pot with 1 bag Quorn crumbles and a goodly amount of frozen corn kernels. Cover and keep on low while you make a small quantity of mashed potatoes say 1 1/2 to 2 cups total -- you can use the instant rubbish, if you like, or peel-boil-mash from scratch, which I do largely because real potatoes are CHEAPER -- spread the mashed potatoes on top of the protein mixture, pop the cover back on, ignore it until you're ready to eat.
I did not do this so much for "crock pot will cook it for you" as "crock pot will keep it ready to serve although I will be out of the house at dinnertime."
I made a really awesome African Peanut Stew from a recipe once, with sweet potatoes and chick peas and green beans, but nobody liked it except me, so I haven't made it again.
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You can get around that if you have the sort of slow cooker where instead of a ceramic crock, the food goes in a removable metal pan that can also be used in the oven or one the stovetop. I have an old West Bend cooker of tht type and routinely will sear meat, brown aromatics, etc. for a few moments on the stove before transferring it to the slow cooker base and dumping in the rest of the ingredients.
I'd second the perfect-bean-cooker -- I use mine all the time for chili, red beans and rice, etc.; it's also my default for soups, stews, and meat or vegetable stocks, and pasta sauce; the only time I cook any of those things stovetop is if I need to make a batch larger than my cooker will cope with. Other than that, I use it a lot for dishes where small bits of meat and/or veg are gently braised in sauces -- Japanese curries, Chinese red cooking, etc.; and I use it for slowly braising tough cuts of meat that I'd otherwise bake at low heat in a Dutch oven...brisket, pot roast, pork steaks with cider, etc. It can even take the place of a double boiler for gently cooking some creamy desserts that are easy to scorch on the stovetop if you're careless -- I make rice pudding in mine fairly often.
(Alas, I don't tend to cook directly from recipes all that much, so I don't have any helpful resources there. In general, so long as you don't mind experimenting to determine cooking times and heat levels, pretty much anything that involves moist cooking in a covered pan at low heat, be it stovetop or oven, can probably be adapted to work in a slow cooker; and even some stovetop recipes that require occasional stirring can be done too, so long as you're home during the cooking time and can pop into the kitchen and check on it briefly throughout the day.)
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basically, slice up a kielbasa into chunks, and combine with slices/wedges of apples, onions, and potatoes, which you've tossed to coat in a spoonful or so of oil (don't have to heat). Season with salt, pepper, sage, cinnamon, and a tiny pinch of ground clove, add say 1/4 cup of broth to increase the steam, put it in the crockpot and ignore it until the potatoes are cooked through.
I tried making a veg version but my fussy eaters did not like the veggie kielbasa.
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Ingredients:
1. A quantity of your favorite meat/poultry
2. A cooking liquid (water, broth, wine, beer, cider, etc.)
3. Vegetables, aromatics & spices ad lib.
Method:
1. Take your meat. If you want it in small pieces, make it so, otherwise leave it big.
2. Optional step: brown your meat (pieces) in a pan. Use your favorite cooking fat (olive oil, butter, Pam, whatever) if you want/need to.
3. Put your (browned) meat into the crock pot.
4. Optional step: cut up an onion/garlic/celery/whatever and brown in the pan where the meat was. You can do this till the onion is transparent, or caramelized, or any stage in between. Put your cooked veg into the crock pot.
5. Put whatever sturdy veg you're using into the crock pot if it isn't there already.
6. If you browned meat and/or veg in the pan, deglaze it with your cooking liquid.
7. Add your cooking liquid to the crock pot. You don't have to cover the meat/veg unless you're making soup.
8. Add whatever other herbs/spices/seasonings you want to the crock pot.
9. Cover and cook on low for a long time (all day works well), or on high for 2-3 hrs. Resist the temptation to keep lifting the lid.
NOTES: Inexpensive, cartilaginous, tough cuts of meat become luscious with long slow cooking.
Potatoes are best added in the last hour or 2 of cooking, unless you like them really mushy/mostly dissolved.
Leafy greens that you're using mostly for flavor can be added at the start and removed before serving (same for fresh herbs on stems), but if you want them to actually look like leaves put them in at the very end.
You can get a thicker liquid by flouring the meat before browning, or making a roux or beurre manie, or adding something starchy like barley, or whatever your favorite method is. Some of these (like barley) soak up your liquid, so you may need to use more.
If you want to use the crock pot for beans, use a lot more liquid, otherwise it's pretty much the same.
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You can also tweak the texture of root vegetables to some extent by cutting them in much larger pieces than you'd normally use, leaving the skins on the potato chunks or using whole, unpeeled baby potatoes, etc -- and potato type will make a difference too, waxy-fleshed potatoes won't dissolve into mush quite as quickly as more floury/mealy baking varieties. If you're cooking cuts of meat large enough to cover the bottom of the pan, you can also layer the veg on top of the meat so the heat reaches them a bit more indirectly. (Alternately, if you want them to practically cook down into a thick sauce, you can put the veg chunks directly in the bottom of the pan and then layer the meat on top of them; I'll do that with big chunks of apple and onion when I'm slow-cooking pork steaks, with a splash of cider and a little more onion on top of the pork steaks, so the juices also run down over the meat as it cooks...)
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Tim's Version of Stew.
First, put about 4 cups of water in the crockpot and start it heating. Drop in a couple of boullion cubes. you can also add a splash of red wine or a bottle of beer. Use less water if adding beer.
Cut up 3 or 4 potatoes -- 3 if big ones, 4 or even 5 if smaller. If they are Idahoes, I peel them. Red potatoes just get cut up as is.
Peel and cut 3 carrots.
Peel and cut other veggies depending on your likes and on availability. I like to use 1 small turnip, 1 parsnip, a small sweet potato, maybe a small yellow squash, maybe a couple celery ribs. sometimes I'll add a leaf or two of sea vegetable. I chop it up fine so my fanily doesn't notice.
Dump these in the water. Crock pot should be on high for now.
Take a pound of cheap beef or other meat (pork works well and venison is my favorite for stews and chili, if I have any). Cut the meat up. Brown it, maybe in olive oil or macadamia oil. Add to pot.
Chop up an onion. Add a little oil to the skillet where you just browned the meat. Caramelize the onion, an dthen add to pot.
Turn crock pot to low and let cook for, oh, four hours or so.
About 15-20 minutes before it's done, add spices to taste. I use some garlic powder, parsley, basil, mustard seed, an dwhatever else catches my eye. Also, I often toss in a handful of frozen corn at this point.
Shut off heat. Eat.
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1. Ribs. Put in your favorite kind along with your favorite barbeque sauce. Make sure the sauce covers the meat and leave to cook.
2. Roasts. We love doing a pork roast with a jar of salsa. The cooked, cut up meat it terrific for burritos and the like.
3. And an actual recipe with mostly ready-made ingredients...
"Chicken Tortilla Soup" (6-8 servings)
4 chicken breast halves
2 15oz cans black beans, undrained
2 15 oz cans Mexican stewed tomatoes or Rotel tomatoes
1 c salsa
4 oz can chopped green chilies
14 1/2 oz can tomato sauce
tortilla chips
2 c grated cheese
*Combine all ingredients except the chips and cheese in the cooker
*Cook on low for 8 hours
*Just before serving, remove chicken and cut into bite sized pieces; return to soup
*Serve with handful of chips and cheese in each bowl
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But it's superior for long-simmering soups -- no boiling, no exposed stove element, no heating the house for one pot.
The easy version of a good one is 1-2 quarts chicken stock, diced celery and onions, a can of garbanzos, good peanut butter (chunky or smooth), a diced yam, and large cans of stewed tomatoes, juice and all. Add curry spices to taste, some browned chicken if you like, and a bay leaf. On high for two hours and low for as long as you like. (The non-slow cooker method involves toasting spices, sauteeing the veg, etc. -- the usual techniques.)
People who dislike curry and think peanut butter is vile will step on granny's neck for this soup.
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I've had bad experiences cooking with wine in the crockpot, for some reason. Beer seems to work OK.
A couple of weeks ago I made this stew and it was both very easy (no browning!) and very tasty. Only caveat is that I used bouillon made from powder, and I think that's why the stew is a bit too salty.
My favorite recipe is chili: brown about 1lb ground beef and a diced onion, add to crockpot. Dump in a couple cans of black or kidnet beans. Add some combination like 1 diced tomato, 1 can stewed tomato chunks, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 small can tomato paste - you can change amounts or proportions of those around, depending what you have on hand. Throw in whatever else you think would be good: minced garlic, sliced chil peppers, maybe some beer if it looks like it needs more liquid. Add a bunch of spices: definitely chili powder, salt and ground pepper, then maybe some Tabasco, Cajun seasoning, oregnao or whatever seems good. Mix it all up. Cook 2-4 hours on high or 4-6 on low. Serve with grated cheese on top, and with bread on the side or over rice or spaghetti.
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Mostly the rest of the stuff we just throw in the crock pot and see what happens.
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I also just kind of throw carrots, beans, and broth into the crockpot and let them cook with some spices. If you are planning on adding other things like orzo or pasta, you'll want to cook that separately and add it in last, otherwise the pasta will overcook and get soggy.
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Root Soup (http://affreca.livejournal.com/68923.html)
Underground Soup (http://affreca.livejournal.com/31822.html)
Mushroom Barley Soup (http://affreca.livejournal.com/24079.html)
Corn Chowder (http://affreca.livejournal.com/19885.html)
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breakfast casserole
Put in slow cooker:
frozen potatoes O'Brien, about 1/2 pkg.
extra veges if desired: onions, peppers, chopped spinach (must be broken up tiny if frozen), etc.
chopped cooked ham, bacon, turkey ham, or vegetarian protein crumbles
seasonings: chopped fresh basil and/or a sprinkle of pepper, or "Mexican-style" seasoning
Mix all that up.
Eggs for cohesiveness and protein: use 2 eggs or yolkless egg substitute equivalent mixed with an equal amount of milk, up to 4 or so eggs-- either cover everything or at least get the eggy stuff mixed in with the solid bits. Instead of milk, you can use sour cream. I have not tried soy milk. (If you skip the eggs it will be a melange but not like a casserole, and you may need to add liquid of another sort.)
extra milk or sour cream-- add a little of one or the other if needed so that everything is moist but not soupy
sprinkle cheese over the top-- type and amount of cheese determined by what will go best with the seasoning you used and your dietary needs/wants
If possible, set for 4 hours cooking and the rest of the night on warm... if you don't have that type of settings on your cooker, put on high for at least an hour (like during supper until you go to sleep) then turn down to warm when you go to bed. Wake up to a carb-and-protein-rich breakfast with vegetables too!