![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
I finally joined the twentieth century (yeah, only a handful of years late) by buying a crock pot. It's a leetle one (4qt). There's still no way it will fit on my counter.
Now I have to figure out what to do with it. Do cats try to steal food from crock pots when you're at the office? Does it work better if you plug it in? Should I wash it with like colors??
So please, pretty please, post your favorite crock pot recipes here! I'd love to have a recipe YOU tried and liked. (I can google on my own.) If you have fifty favorites and want to narrow it down, here are some ideas that tickle my fancy:
- Anything starting with boneless skinless chicken breasts.
- Anything involving rosemary.
- Anything involving capers. Can you make chicken piccata in a crock pot?
- Veggie stews would be great.
- No fish or seafood for me, thanks, and I'm not a big fan of mushrooms or eggplant either. Of course, other people may love seafood a la portabello, so I certainly won't feel bad if you leave those recipes here too. Someone other'n me may love 'em.
I am hoping for easy stuff. I spent money on this object because I hoped it would help me AVOID WORK. My dream recipe says "Buy two pounds of this and a bunch of that and three firm ones of those, bring it all home, wash it, chop the veggies, and throw it in the pot with these herbs."*
On a separate but related note, my entire house smells like piiiiiiiie. Mmmm!
________________________________________________
* My nightmare recipe says "Remove the excess body parts from this, sear it in the pan and use the drippings in a complicated sauce you make on the stove, pull out the fancy marinated sauteed that-and-the-other-things you made last night, add the obscure spice you can get only in downtown Very Large City, tie the meat in a number 457 macrame knot, throw all of it in the pot, and every half hour use an obscure tool you can get only by mail order to do thus to the mixture." I mean, leave that one here if you want, but it'll take me several lifetimes to work my way up to it.
Now I have to figure out what to do with it. Do cats try to steal food from crock pots when you're at the office? Does it work better if you plug it in? Should I wash it with like colors??
So please, pretty please, post your favorite crock pot recipes here! I'd love to have a recipe YOU tried and liked. (I can google on my own.) If you have fifty favorites and want to narrow it down, here are some ideas that tickle my fancy:
- Anything starting with boneless skinless chicken breasts.
- Anything involving rosemary.
- Anything involving capers. Can you make chicken piccata in a crock pot?
- Veggie stews would be great.
- No fish or seafood for me, thanks, and I'm not a big fan of mushrooms or eggplant either. Of course, other people may love seafood a la portabello, so I certainly won't feel bad if you leave those recipes here too. Someone other'n me may love 'em.
I am hoping for easy stuff. I spent money on this object because I hoped it would help me AVOID WORK. My dream recipe says "Buy two pounds of this and a bunch of that and three firm ones of those, bring it all home, wash it, chop the veggies, and throw it in the pot with these herbs."*
On a separate but related note, my entire house smells like piiiiiiiie. Mmmm!
________________________________________________
* My nightmare recipe says "Remove the excess body parts from this, sear it in the pan and use the drippings in a complicated sauce you make on the stove, pull out the fancy marinated sauteed that-and-the-other-things you made last night, add the obscure spice you can get only in downtown Very Large City, tie the meat in a number 457 macrame knot, throw all of it in the pot, and every half hour use an obscure tool you can get only by mail order to do thus to the mixture." I mean, leave that one here if you want, but it'll take me several lifetimes to work my way up to it.
Easy BBQ briskett
Re: Easy BBQ briskett
no subject
Pick your favorite number of chicken breasts and dump them (frozen) into the crockpot.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and rosemary.
Add either the juice of a lemon (2-3 TBS or so) and a couple cups of water
OR
2 cups wine and enough water to keep the chicken moist.
Carrots and potatoes are yummy when cooked along with the chicken, but not necessary.
Stick the lid on, turn it on, and leave it alone. It'll take 4-6 hours to cook thoroughly, but you can leave it in as long as 12 hours if you need to. Crockpot cooking is very forgiving.
The cat should leave it alone unless he's got a fetish for really hot things (the outside of the crockpot gets really hot when it's on--water will sizzle when dropped on the metal). I've never had a cat or dog bother the crockpot while it was working....after it was done and had cooled down a bit is a different story.
no subject
Thanks for the tip about the pot getting hot. I'll keep a bit of space around it.
no subject
The wine doesn't matter....other than don't cook with anything you won't drink straight. Red or white or whatever tastes good as long as you like the wine.
no subject
no subject
If you're going to just be gone or leave it alone for 4 or 5 hours, then just enough liquid so it doesn't boil dry will be fine. Longer cook times need more liquid since some of it does cook off during cooking.
Tinker with it. Quite a few recipes only get better with longer cooking times (like chili).
no subject
crock pot cooking... the 4-8-12 hour meal
a) Natasha has left the crockpot alone & hasn't stolen anything from it because the contents have been well protected by the crock pot lid.
b) It definitely works better plugged in. (I forgot to plug it in once. Jemstone managed to rescue dinner by cooking the crock pot contents on high instead of the original low slow all day simmer originally planned.)
c) We've taken out the crockery pot from the electronic bits & washed it and the (plastic) lid either in the sink or the dishwasher. We've used a sponge to clean the outside of the electronic bits (do not immerse electric bits in water).
As to recipes... I'm not sure if Jemstone has really measured it out & I think it tends to be a little different each time... but some key ingredients in making a crock pot beef stew (from memory) are:
- stew beef (cubes)
- carrots
- potatoes
+ spices & herbs
I'd have to check with
Good luck!
Re: crock pot cooking... the 4-8-12 hour meal
I like the idea of slight changes from time to time. Imprecision's okay. Anything imprecise can be fiddled with, and then I'll like it better each time! ;-)
no subject
no subject
no subject
Although I'm still hashing out the recipe, so I guess it doesn't come with guarantees. I'm working on developing more of them.
Also, remember with boneless chicken breasts, either cook 'em for less time (or they dry out) or cut them up small for chili or soup.
For bone-in chicken, toss in four chicken legs (remove skin first) arranged in a neat circle. Chop an onion (or buy a bag of frozen chopped onion) and toss that in on top, and a big heaping spoonful of that chopped garlic from a jar. Pour in one jar of your favorite barbecue sauce on top of it. Let it go on low all day. I do this one at cons in my room and serve it with hard rolls and salad.
no subject
no subject
no subject
My problem, since I'm not a cook, is figuring out what flavors and herbs to add to stuff. I could think "Okay, chicken" and pull out some meat, and then I'd start to mess up. I'd think "I like rosemary" and "I like capers" and "I like chipotle" and "I like sesame", and y'know, it just doesn't all go together. :-)
Potato Soup and stuff
6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 or 2 onions [one, leave whole]
1 carrot, sliced [can use more]
1 stock celery, sliced [keep in big chunks]
4 chicken bouillon cubes [1 1/2 knorr's vegetarian vegetable bouillon cubes]
1 tbsp parsley flakes [optional]
5 cups water [too much! try 4]
1 tbsp salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup butter or margarine [optional]
1 can evaporated milk [the big can - 15oz?]
chopped chives [omit - use grated sharp cheddar instead]
[do all the prep the night before. put potatoes and carrots in a bowl with water and stick in the fridge. have other stuff on standby on the counter. in the AM, drain potatoes/carrots, and dump everything in]
put all ingredients in crock pot, cover and cook on low 10-12 hours. [fish out onion and celery] if desired, mash potatoes before serving. serve with chopped chives [omit chives, use grated sharp cheddar instead].
i like a thick potato soup -- almost runny mashed potatoes -- so i've worked it to be less soupy.
for Split Pea soup, i think the pea:water ratio is 1:3. that's another easy one.
i seem to recall
Re: Potato Soup and stuff
no subject
1 hunk of meat (whatever you've got in the house)
1 pile of root vegetables (whatever you've got in the house) or 1/3 cup of starch (usually rice or barley)
However many fresh veggies I feel like cutting up from zero to lots
1 pile of whatever seasonings attract my attention while I've got the spice cabinet open, especially things like rosemary and bay leaves that take a long time to extract the flavor from
1 bottle of beer or 1/2 bottle of wine
Optionally: 1 can of some kind of tomato product (especially nice with lamb)
Plug in, go to work, come home, eat.
No matter what I do to each of the variables in the above, it comes out yummy, and the effort (minimal) and worry (none) levels are just right.
Sometimes I'll leave the starch out of the crock pot and instead throw a batch of rice in the rice cooker about 20 minutes (white rice) or 45 minutes (brown rice) before I'm ready to eat. Cooking the rice with broth from the crock pot instead of some (or all) of the water makes the rice extra yummy.
no subject
no subject
Follow Your Nose
Lots of spice bottles have a blurb on the back that tells what foods they go well with. My mom used to have this poster-size spice selection chart from Spice Islands up on the inside of a kitchen cabinet door. I have no idea where you'd get something like that now, but it helped me when I was learning.
no subject
My nightmare recipe is much like yours, except that it starts with:
The rest goes pretty much like you described.
Then the guests arrive, you finally serve the food (which is ready about an hour later than planned, so you miss the first hour of the dinner party), and much to your relief it actually tastes good. Your guests never mentionthe food, but spend the whole time talking about last night's episode of Nip/Tuck.
no subject
This is why I don't cook. I sometimes throw food together; I'm perfectly capable of boiling an egg or fixing a meatloaf; but I don't COOK cook.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
aelfie's corned beef in beer
ambar's chicken in dressing