Cooking Strut: Slow cooker edition
G_Balliando
3,916 Posts
'Tis the season of the slow cooker. Please post some slow cooker recipes for the winter. I don't have a lot of them as I just picked up my first slow cooker. I tried the Alton Brown Slow Cooker Pepper Pork Chops the other night, and they were pretty good. Here's the recipe direct from foodnetwork.com if you're interested:2 cups vegetable broth 1/2 cup kosher salt 1/2 cup light brown sugar 2 tablespoons black peppercorns, slightly crushed 1 pound ice 4 (1 to 1 1/2-inch thick) bone-in pork chops 2 teaspoons kosher salt 3 ounces dried apple slices 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, julienned 1 1/2 cups chicken broth 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper 1 teaspoon dried thymeCombine the vegetable broth, 1/2 cup kosher salt, brown sugar and peppercorns in a medium saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Cook just until the salt and sugar dissolve, then remove from the heat and add the ice. Place the pork chops into a 2-gallon zip-top bag along with the mixture and seal. Place in a plastic container and refrigerate overnight. Remove the chops from the brine, rinse, and pat dry. Season on both sides with the kosher salt and set aside Place the apples in the slow cooker. Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 12-inch stainless steel saute pan over medium-high heat. Saute the pork chops on both sides until golden brown, approximately 5 to 6 minutes per side. Once browned, place the pork chops into the slow cooker atop the apples. Add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan followed by the onions and saute until they begin to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the chicken broth to the pan to deglaze. Add the black pepper and thyme and stir to combine. Transfer this to the slow cooker, set to high, cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Decrease the heat to low and continue cooking for another 4 hours and 30 minutes or until the pork is tender and falling away from the bone.
Comments
What is that? Some sort of extra-snazzy George Foreman grill?
Layer the following between 2 pieces of crusted bread, french rolls work OK (unless you can get real Cuban bread):
Spicy Mustard
Ham
Swiss
Slow Cooked pork
Dill pickles
Press it up until the cheese is melted and the bread is toasted and crusty and enjoy. I ate those all last summer after roasting and slicing up some pork that I didn't feel like eating. Really tasty sandwich.
On steroids. I have a cuisinart model called the "griddler" (stupid name). Basically a panini press that opens up flat to 2 sides of indoor grill. Fantastic for grilled fish, vegetables, and pressed sandwiches. Highly recommended for single or just married folks, b/c it's an easy way to cook healthful food quickly.
The thing is, it's easy enough to throw a bunch of ingredients in one and make a meal, but a lot of times I think it can come out mushy or gruelish. Slow cooked (braised) meats are the shit though, and that's certainly one thing you can make. In fact, as soon as I can get some hatch green chiles (paging Herm or any other NM head, you got the hookup on the frozen chiles???), I'm gonna slow cook a pork shoulder and make some good ol' Colorado Green Chile. Not only do Europeans generally not know about that shit, but most of the rest of the country don't know about that. NM has their Green Chile stew which can be increidble, but Colorado has a variation that cannot be fucked with.
1 large can of corn
some egg noodles
half an onion (chopped)
2 cans of chicken breasts
parsley, black pepper, and salt for flavor
cook on low for a few hours
I've also done ribs (I'll post mom's recipe later)and some green chile chicken.
a few chicken breasts
4 small cans or 2 large cans of green chile
12 oz of some American beer
cook about 8 hours.
The contact grill is bomb too. I have one I use often (cubanos?
Here's a recipe my mom makes every Christmas.
Clam Chowder
Saute the following in 1/4 cup butter
1 can minced clams
1 cup chopped onion
Combine the above with the below in your slow cooker
3 cans cream of potato soup
2 cans New England clam chowder
1 qt half & half
Simmer for 4-6 hours in crock pot, stirring every 30 min.
and
WTF? What year are we in? Get your ass off the phone and get your head out of the hood and make dinner - you are ALREADY HOME!
This is the same company that used a song by a local band in one of their frozen pizza ads a few years ago without ever getting permission or even bothering to ask. It is a terrible song, Rise Up by Parachute Club, but one of the most popular Canadian songs of the 80s.
A Tagine? I've been meaning to buy one of these for a while now, but as noted, they are rather large, and my cupboards are already full. Still, Lamb Tagine is so necessary.
Also, I had a neighbor who would whip up a really good beef stroganoff in their slow cooker. Yum...
"It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno!"
Does wifey have the recipe?
I totally agree. I guess it slow cooks at a low temp for a long ass time.
Still, Heat left alone is suspect in my book. Ill leave someting in the oven while I run top the store, and that still makes me a little nervous.
The tenderness it give meat is probably unparalled. Slow and Low w/out the oven being on.
Yeah, she makes Haitian food almost as good as his...white bean style is my favorite on the Sauce Pois...just without the slow-cooker.
Lots of banan pesse too, gotta have that. Although my mother and sister-in-laws clown my wife for sometikmes adding ginger to it...which is apparently a very non-Haitian thing to do.
That's cool.She's gotta put her own spin on it.
Haitian cuisine isnt that big in NYC except for Brooklyn. I wish it would get more notoriety.
Having grown up on Cajun/Creole food, Haitian food became like discovering the source sample for the main loop of my favorite rap song.
Seriously, food that makes you go nuts with enjoyment. That would be my best description of Haitian cuisine.
U should check this book out. Jessica B. Harris explains the similarities and African DNA that permeates all the various cuisines in the Atlantic Rim.
Excerpt from Beyond Gumbo
I was thinking about picking up a slow cooker this week. Tis the season. I'm definitely in the mood for some stews, but reading about slow cooked meat is makin' the mouth water.
Cool, thanks for that.
And just to clarify, when I say "nuts with enjoyment", I am expressly saying (like the hippy that I am) that the food has a spiritual quality to it...like I would imagine Jamaican ital food would have...that has the ability to improve your mood far beyond what typically comes from a food simply tasting good. It's difficult to explain becaue it practically seems like some sort of supernatural phenomenon. But considering that most of us have grown up on processed American food, I think there's a big element of eating that has been diminished within American culture over time. I'm probably preaching to the choir with this less-than-groundbreaking conclusion...for instance I've known some Chinese Buddhists who know the bodily effect that any little thing they put in theirs mouths can have...but still.
There used to be this Hippie food spot on 1st ave btwn 1 &2nd St in Manhattan that were on some -
You have to have good vibes to prepare the food cause u dont wanna transfer bad vibes to the patron.
I agree with this theory. Food prepared by a cook/chef who takes no pride or puts no love into the food he or she is creating can be less than satisfying.
I used to work with a woman who refused to eat meat and fowl because she believed that she was ingesting and absorbing the animals' last emotional state - utter fear and a horrible death - into her body and psyche.