Archive for the 'slow cooker' Category
As promised, I hauled out my Crock-pot today. (Partly to celebrate the shiny new ones that are en route to Maureen and Theresa! I am heeding the request to post winners’ names. Sorry I’m so late.) And last night I pulled out a boneless leg of lamb that had been taking up altogether too much space in the freezer.
When outside it’s the same shade of grey all day long, so that you can’t tell what time it is until it begins to get dark at 4 o’clock, and the gritty snow and slush require you to halt the dog upon entering the house and wipe down his muddy paws every single time he has to go pee or sniff something, it puts me in the mood for a dark, sticky, robust, slow-cooked stew, preferably served over a mound of warm carbohydrates.
I’ve been thinking about braised lamb shanks, but this caught my eye as I flipped through magazines in the car on our drive home. The original is done in a Dutch oven and calls for raisins and figs, but I opted to stick with just figs, which aren’t as sweet as raisins; I imagine dried apricots would work well too. The lamb roast was cut into chunks, half of which are back in the freezer for a future experiment.
I browned and threw the meat/onion/stock component in at noon, and added the beans, carrots and figs at around 4. At 6ish I put a kettle on to boil and made couscous. (1 cup couscous to 1 1/4 cups boiling water; pour over the couscous in a bowl and top with a plate; leave for 10 minutes then fluff with a fork. I don’t even understand why they make instant couscous. Could it really be faster and easier?)
Mike loved this. I liked it more the deeper into the bowl I got; the combination of cinnamon and lamb has always been a little too Medieval for me. I can’t seem to shake the thought that it was once used to mask meat that had gone a little off. It makes lamb taste gamier to me. It was quite tasty though, and I imagine it will be more so tomorrow, and Thursday when I’ll be in Red Deer at dinnertime. This is another Great Thing about slow cookers in the winter: you can just lid the leftovers and set the whole thing outside, or in your garage, and plug it back in to rewarm the next night. (If you suspect any critters in your yard are cunning enough to access your slow cooker, hide it in the barbecue.)
Provided it’s cold enough, of course. Don’t try this in July. Or in Texas.
Middle Eastern Slow-Cooked Stew with Lamb, Chickpeas and Figs
adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
a drizzle of canola or olive oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless leg of lamb, trimmed and cubed
3 large onions, halved and thinly sliced
4-6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cinnamon stick
1 can less-sodium beef broth
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can chick peas, drained
1-2 cups baby carrots
1 cup dried figs, halved
salt and pepper
fresh mint, if you like
Slow-cooker version: heat a drizzle of oil in a skillet and brown the lamb in batches, without crowding the pan, transferring to the slow cooker as you go. (No need to cook them through, just brown them to add flavour.) Add a little more oil and then brown the onions and garlic; add to the slow cooker. Pour about 1/2 cup of water into the skillet and scrape up any browned bits; add to the slow cooker along with the ginger, spices and stock. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. At around the 4 hour mark, add the chick peas, carrots and figs. When you’re ready to eat, season with salt and pepper and if you like, stir in some fresh mint (or scatter it on top).
Stovetop version: Heat a drizzle of oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat; sauté the lamb in batches until browned. Remove from pan and set aside; brown the onions. Add the garlic and 1/2 cup water; cook for a few more minutes, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.
Return the meat to the pan along with the ginger and spices. Add the stock, cover, reduce heat and simmer for an hour. Stir in the chick peas, carrots, and figs; cover and simmer 20-30 minutes or until carrots are tender. Season with salt and stir in chopped fresh mint just before serving, or sprinkle it on top of each bowl.
Serves 8.
Calories:310 (18% from fat)
Fat:6.2g (sat 1.8g,mono 2.5g,poly 0.6g)
Protein:21.4g
Carbohydrate:44.5g
Fiber:6.6g
Cholesterol:49mg
Sodium:542mg
Calcium:90mg
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November 18 2008 | freezable and lamb and slow cooker and stews & braises | 12 Comments »
I love Halloween. I’m sure in part because it’s the day after my birthday and the two went together growing up, and undoubtedly because of the surplus of candy, and because the day after, everything turns all Christmassy. October-December is my favorite quarter.
W went out as Super Elephant, his own creation combining his new Superman PJs and a borrowed elephant suit. On neighbours’ doorsteps, he did this combo of Superman theme song, arms raised out front, and then elephant noise. This was all new to us.
For dinner beforehand, what’s more appropriate than gory, meaty ribs? I wish I had planned it that way; it would have been cereal had I not precooked two racks of ribs yesterday for BT and CBC this morning, and forgot to bring them to CBC. So while the day turned to twilight, the most exciting hour of my childhood (besides Christmas eve); the hour of almost unbearable anticipation waiting for it to get dark so that we could go out, during which we put final touches on our costumes and makeup and lit our pumpkins and sat at the table restless while our Mom fed us a proper dinner, I cut the cold rack into individual ribs and threw them into a pot with some ginger, garlic, soy, rice vinegar and sugar and simmered them while cooking some rice and peas. (These ribs would do well in the CrockPot too!)
Sticky Ginger-Soy Ribs
Put a rack or two of side or back pork ribs on a rimmed baking sheet and cover with foil; bake at 300F for 2 1/2-3 hours. This part can be done up to two days in advance; wrap them in the foil and refrigerate.
Sauté a couple cloves of crushed garlic and about 1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger in a drizzle of oil in a fairly large pot – one that will accommodate the ribs. For about 2 racks of ribs’ worth of sauce, add 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, 3/4 cup rice vinegar and 1/2 cup soy sauce to the garlic and ginger. After baking the ribs in the foil, let them cool slightly, cut them into individual ribs, then add them to the pot. Simmer for about 20 minutes, so that the ribs absorb some of the sauce and heat through. If you want to thicken the sauce a bit, dissolve equal amounts of cornstarch and cold water and add it to the sauce; cook until it bubbles and thickens. Serve the ribs and sauce over steamed rice.
Today’s free stuff comes courtesy of Lou, who was bored/upset when we went out for a few hours the other day after FedEx delivered our Christmas shipment of the new One Smart Cookie. (For those of you who don’t know this was my very first cookbook, all low fat and reduced-fat cookies, squares, brownies and biscotti Lou personalized about a case and a half of them, distributing them throughout the front foyer, hallway and living room. A few were indistinguishable as books and had to go into the recycling bin, but the rest just have minor chews or scratches that range from obvious to barely noticeable but nonetheless unsaleable. (They are worth about $25 apiece; expensive chew toys.)
So rather than draw one name this time, I’m going to draw 20. This is the new, revised edition of One Smart Cookie, slightly licked/chewed. What did you have for dinner last night?
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October 31 2008 | pork and slow cooker | 115 Comments »
When new babies arrive I get the urge to bring over food. (And when it’s #3, there really is no better thing to bring.) The occasion of a brand new person and no sleep calls for casseroles and pots of soup and stew and quick breads; things that are easily reheatable and edible with one hand.
So beef stew, done in the slow cooker with some beef I had in the freezer and the last of a bottle of leftover wine. With it, garlicky cheese biscuits. Remember those cinnamon sticky biscuits I made about 250 days ago? Leave out the cinnamon and sugar, and instead brush the dough with melted butter and garlic, and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Roll, cut and bake. You could turn any cinnamon bun recipe into cheesy, garlicky buns instead.
Beef Stu
1 lb. beef stew meat, flank steak or chuck, trimmed of fat and cut into cubes
olive or canola oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
a few glugs of red wine (optional)
1 can beef, vegetable or chicken broth
1 can diced or stewed tomatoes, undrained (any size – optional)
1 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
2 potatoes, cubed (unpeeled)
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup frozen peas
1-2 cups mushrooms, quartered
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat about a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat and brown the beef in batches. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.
Add a bit more oil and cook the onions for a few minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the wine, broth and tomatoes with their juice, scraping the bottom of the pot to loosen any flavorful browned bits that have stuck to the bottom. At this point you could transfer the lot to a slow cooker, or return the beef to the pot. Add the thyme and bay leaves and bring to a simmer; turn the heat down to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for about an hour. (Or turn the slow cooker down to low and set it for 4-6 hours.) Add the potatoes and carrots after an hour and cook the stew uncovered for another hour (or add the carrots and potatoes after a couple hours in the slow cooker). Add the peas for the last 10 minutes, and quickly saute the mushrooms in a skillet until browned and stir into the stew at the very end, so they don’t get too mushy. Fish out the bay leaves, season with salt and pepper, and serve it hot.
Blood & Gutscakes
a batch of vanilla (or any flavour) cupcakes
a batch of lemon pie filling, tinted green
raspberry or cherry jam or pie filling
frosting and sprinkles
Bake cupcakes as you normally would, cool and then cut a chunk out of the top like an inverted cone. Remove the excess cake from the cone, leaving a flat lid (kind of like a pumpkin) and hollow out a bit of the cake inside. Put a small spoonful of jam and a spoonful of lemon filling inside, swirling them a bit as you do. Top with the lid and frost with whatever frosting you like.
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October 29 2008 | beef and cake and one dish and slow cooker and stews & braises | 10 Comments »
If you didn’t get an email asking for your coordinates so I could ship you a spanking new Crock Pot this morning, sorry about that. I so wish I could have sent one to each of you, but I doubt the fairy godmother/FedEx guy will show up on my doorstep with 200+ new Crock Pots. That was so much fun though – it makes me want to give stuff away all the time – perhaps I will start Free Stuff Fridays (far better than Casual Fridays or Freaky Fridays, don’t you think?) so stay tuned. I’ll try to scare up some more loot.
In the spirit of the contest, and because I just got home last night from foodstyling for said Crock Pot media tour in Edmonton, I decided it was a slow cooker night. (That, and I had to do CBC traffic this afternoon until 6pm.) Besides, when I got home and unloaded all my gear and had Crock Pots all over my counter and scraps of ingredients including a pork roast left over from various TV shows, it made sense to throw it into a C-pot rather than put it away, and let it go overnight. Korey came up with a brilliant recipe combo – pulled pork – which I must say is about as simple but yet better than any pulled pork recipe I’ve made before – and then a Southwestern soup made with leftover pork and the rich pork stock that comes from it. And while you eat your pulled pork the poured-off stock chills in the fridge for a day, allowing all the fat to harden on the surface for you to scoop off. It really is quite brilliant.
Plus, I have to do traffic again tomorrow. AND make a turkey dinner for the Eyeopener crew tomorrow morning (or tonight, if you consider that the turkey has to go in at around 1 am), so I’m fairly confident I will be in no state to come up with dinner tomorrow night if something isn’t already in the works.
Since the pork was done overnight, at 7am I pulled it out, poured off the stock, and threw three cans of beans into the pot without even needing to wash it out. Large cans of red kidney, white kidney and navy beans went in with a chopped onion and about a cup of barbecue sauce, a glug of Worcestershire and squirt of grainy mustard. That simmered for most of the day, and when I got home and had 10 minutes to assemble dinner before A came over to prep the turpigen (tune in to the Eyeopener tomorrow morning for an explanation), it came together in under 5. I wish I could have made a pan of cornbread, or a cheesy beer loaf to act as pedestal for the pulled pork (which is easy to reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop), but I had to settle for a store-bought chewy-crusty bun, which wasn’t half bad.
Crock Pot Pulled Pork
This is unbelievably fast. While the pork is browning, hack apart the veg and throw them in the pot. They are only there for flavour for the pork and stock – you’re throwing them out anyway – so there is no need to be at all dainty about it. Then set the roast on top, pour over the beer and you’re done.
One 2 to 3 lb pork rib roast or shoulder
2 onions, quartered
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bottle dark beer
1 cup barbecue sauce (or to taste)
salt and pepper, to taste
buns or flour tortillas
Season pork roast on all sides with salt and pepper. Over medium-high heat in a heavy skillet, brown roast on all sides. Place onions, carrots and celery into the slow cooker; top with browned roast.
De-glaze skillet with about 1/4 cup beer, scraping up any bits stuck to pan. Pour liquid and remaining beer over roast in slow cooker. Cover; cook on low for 8 hours.
Remove roast and set it aside. Strain the liquid into a container, discarding vegetables. Place the roast back into the slow cooker, shred with 2 forks until it is completely pulled apart, discarding any chunks of fat you come across, and pour about 1 cup of the strained broth overtop; put the rest in the fridge to make soup with. Stir in the barbecue sauce. Set the Crock Pot on warm to keep it that way.
Serve buffet-style with buns or tortillas and if you like, shredded cheese, chopped tomato, lettuce, caramelized onions or creamy cole slaw.
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October 09 2008 | beans and pork and slow cooker | 13 Comments »
I do believe I have achieved one of the most visually unappealing meals possible – the fleshy colour and mushy texture of both chicken and smashed potatoes did not make this an easy photo.
I was all set to make French onion soup tonight, to justify my 25 cent purchase of two soup bowls circa 1972 at a garage sale last summer, when I got a call just after noon to see if I was available to go do traffic on the Homestretch. My first reaction: what can I put in the slow cooker that will be done in 6 hours? And can any of it come from the freezer?
I remembered something I saw on S’s blog recently – chicken cooked in applesauce - and considering my plethora of apples, mushy apples, applesauce and other apple products, it seemed fitting. Plus our nice, non-carnivorous neighbours brought over a box of frozen chicken breasts they got as a freebie-with-purchase last week at Superstore. It seemed like good three-year-old food: chicken with applesauce. I wondered if I had any rhubarb in the freezer too, thinking it would go well with the chicken and apples and would make it a little more than just chicken cooked in applesauce, and I came up with a freezerbagful of pureed rhubarb that I had stashed away for a night of rhubarb bellinis that never happened.
So I put four frozen chicken breasts in, and about a cup each of applesauce and rhubarbsauce. And a bit of cinnamon, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I forgot about the garlic and vinegar, and the chunk of onion I meant to put in was still sitting beside the pot when I got home. It cooked on low for 6 hours.
It still worked. It was a bit odd. W thought it was weird and refused to eat any. Mike liked it. I ate it, but thought I could have made better use out of those chicken chests. Awhile later when I was putting it away I picked at W’s and liked it much more; the sauce seemed to thicken up and the chicken was incredibly moist. It might be worth making using cranberry applesauce, or at least a few cranberries added to the mix.
The smashed potatoes were leftover from our Thanksgiving shoot (smashed potatoes are so much less pressure than mashed – just use thin skinned ones and you don’t even have to peel them), and the beets I had tucked in the oven to roast while I had it on for something else and had to be used; I cut chunks into a hot pan and drizzled them with balsamic vinegar and honey in a lazy attempt to recreate the balsamic carrots and beets I had thought at the time I’d be living on for the rest of summer. Winter too.
Buttermilk Smashed Potatoes with Caramelized Onions
about 5 Yukon Gold potatoes, quartered or cut into 6
1 sweet onion, thinly sliced (or 2 shallots)
1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup(ish) buttermilk
salt and pepper
Cover potatoes with salted cold water in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.
While potatoes are simmering, heat the oil and butter in a skillet and cook the onion over medium heat, stirring often, for about 10 minutes or until deep golden.
Drain potatoes, return to pot and coarsely mash with a potato masher, adding the buttermilk, salt and pepper. Stir in the onions and serve right away.
Serves 4.
(I do believe I have reached the double digits. Gulp.)
September 23 2008 | chicken & turkey and slow cooker and veg | 9 Comments »
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