Category: Grub Garage
Crockpots are great for people that work full time and don't have much time to cook for themselves at home. You could prepare something the night before or that morning, put it in the crockpot before work or school, and it will be ready when you come home. There are numerous recipes you could make. I make my homemade spaghetti sauce in a crockpot and it comes out fantastic. What are some recipes that you have made in the crockpot?
Roasts in the crock pot are absolutely amazing!
I tend not to put a whole lot of vegetables in there with them, as I don't like vegies getting all mushy like your grandmother cooked them. However, it's a great way to do cheap red meat: the more muscular rump cuts and the like.
I find more than actual recipes, it's beneficial to see how given staples and ingredients ffunction in a slow-cook environment, and which ones you want to brown first, etc.
Also, if you're doing anything that will go over noodles, cook those the night before and keep them in a plastic bag in the fridge. Then either add them to your crock at the end, or pour your crock over the noodles in a bowl or pan whichever.
What's a crock pot?
Mite be a stupid question, but i dont cooke lol.
LEO, if you, like me, don't like you're vegies getting all mushy, use higher starch vegies. Pearl onions, red potatoes, small carrots, most of the root veggetables will go great with a roast, and won't get mushy. They'll get a little soft of course, but they won't lose their structure. Its delicious.
I make all kinds of things in the crock pot. There are several IPhone apps dedicated to nothing but crockpot cooking.
a crockpot, for the poster who asked, is a large pot. It is electrically heated, but very slowly. you can put your food in it, turn it on, and it will cook slowly, which A. takes a long time, and B. allows longer for the flavors of the food to blend. Its a great way to make food.
They also come in different sizes too, from two quarts to 6 which I think is the largest, but there may be larger sized ones.
I make chilli that people in this house seem to like. No, it's not completely made from scratch, I do take some shortcuts but the result is fantastic. Please note, this is a mild chilli because I'm the only one with any tolerance for spicy food here. So I have some stew meat that's already been browned. We put it in small zip-lock bags and freeze it, so I'm not sure of the amount it actually is. Just use as much as you like. I use the canned stewed tomatoes that have onions and peppers and spices added and a packet of mild chilli seasoning, I think the brand is McCormick. Sometimes I leave it like that with just the meat, and other times I'll add a can of either black or pinto beans and I make sure to drain the beans. I just put everything in the crock pot and cook it on low for eight hours and it rocks. I try to stir it once in a while too just to make sure everything cooks and blends.
Wow thanks Cody and the rest sounds great too.
JD, also, something I learned when our crock of 20 years burned out a couple years ago: The new ones have an outer part that heats the ceramic inner part, and you can completely remove the inner part which looks like a oddly-shaped caserole dish. They clean real nicely now too!
I make meatballs in mine all the time and roasts of course. lately I have also been making chicken wings in mine and they've been coming out great. I put the wings in there with some bbq sauce and some hot sauce let them cook on low for about 9 hours and yum.
Oh wow! Gonna have to try and get frozen wings like that, I take it you get just wings? Or do you get the ones already batterd?
No the one's I use are not battered their just frozen wings. I let them onthaw all the way before I make them too.
Wow. Not a bad idea. I love bbq wings, so there you go.
I make bean soup like so (note: this depends entirely on taste and the size of your crockpot):
1-2 cans mixed beans (with juice)
1 can water (use the can from the beans)
blackpepper
red pepper flakes
garlic
2 cups picnic ham (that pre-cooked ham you can get in the stores)
2 carrots
1 onion
2-3 stalk celery
Open your can(s) of beans and pour them with juice into the crockpot. Add a can worth of water.
Chop the ham into cubes (NOTE: a little goes a LONG way)
add the spices and stir slightly.
Turn crockpot on low for 8-9 hours.
About halway through the cooking, chop your carrots, onion and celery and add to the soup. Stir lightly again and replace lid on crockpot and just let cook.
This is absolutely awesome, and it freezes well, too!
Sounds good. I like having soup but especially when it is cold and there is snow on the ground for some reason.
Oh yeah... and nothing is better than soup on a rainy day
Sounds real good. I really like soups and this sounds real easy.
Yup. Here's my chili recipe.
1 lb ground beef or tuckey
1 can red kidney beans
1 can corn
6-8 mushrooms, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 14 oz. can tomato sauce
1 tbsp cuman
1/2 tbsp chili powder
garlic powder, pepper to taste
You can brown your meat first, but if you're pressed for time, you don't have to.
Combine all ingredients in crockpot, stir thoroughly and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 5.
You can also cook some breakfast dishes in the crock pot. like certain egg casserole dishes, maybe let them cook over night and have them ready to eat by morning. I've only started using the crock pot recently and have mainly just cooked roasts in it so haven't tried anything else yet but it sounds like something I might experiment with.
One piece of advice regarding browning meat before it goes into the crok:
old-schools 90s-style health people should skip this part:
Brown your meat on really high temperatures just so you get the outer part browned, then cool. Then pick it up, take a paring knife, and pare it into the crock pot, juices and all. Otherwise you end up with crumbly, flavorless meat which can only take on the other flavors in the crock. Good for the yesterday health / animal liberation types, but not really very flavorful.
By doing it at a high temperature, then cooling it and paring it into the soup, the inside (still partly raw) meat will go straight in and mix / marry the flavors.
Although rare beef is safe, rare hamburger generally is not. So even if your crock recipe calls for putting it on low, put it on high first, and after it reaches temperature keep it that way for 20 to 30 minutes, so all the meat has exceeded the 165 degree temperatures to kill any bacteria, which would have died on a slower traditional brown on the stove. Then turn it down and cook on low like your recipe calls for.
Just another way to have added your browned meat.
I personally just throw the whole lot unbrowned into the crock, breaking it up so as much of its surface gets heated as quickly as possible. Also I wait to put the meat in until it's at temperature - it's bubbling / steaming - so that I know it's going to be bacteria-free. None of this really applies to a whole roast or other beef products that aren't hamburger.
Good call. Leo! I thought the point of the crockpot was to prep food and forget about it! LOL
Billy, how do you make your spaghetti sauce?
If you did a breakfast caserole in the crock, wouldn't the eggs stick?
I have never done one, but if I were going to, I would not put the eggs in the crock, but simply do the hash components such as meat and potatos in there overnight, then whip up the eggs in a bowl, scramble 'em, and put 'em on top. Spray down a 9X13 glass baking dish with the oil of your choice, plop in the hot potatos / meat, on top with the fluffed scrambled eggs, mix a little not too much, grate a mound of cheese over the top, slide that bad boy into a hot oven, maybe 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, slide it out, let it stand for 3 to five, and you can cut that into squares or maybe trapezoids depending on how half-asleep or distracted by the kids you are.
If you got teenage mouths to feed, you best score your piece of it first, or there won't be any left. They're sure to inhale that, while texting, chattering, and planning how they're gonna spend the 20 bucks you just gave 'em, or they're planning on asking you for.
It's a modification of how I do hash with various components, though I have never done the crock thing the night before. The crock would be a way to not have to use leftovers, and you'd have to drain off any juice to keep it firm before you pour the crock's contents into your baking dish. I cook with the baking dish open in this case so the top gets all crisp and bubbles up.
For us apartment dwellers, I'd have to say that steak is much much better in the crock than on a Forman grill, especially if you have a good strong flavorful marinade. Grilling just dries the meat out and renders those hours of marinating pointless.
That's why you're not supposed to use a marinade on steak. Steak is already full of juice, its not going to absorb much of the liquid around it. Use a rub for steak, and don't use a george forman. Use a very very hot pan, preferably cast iron. Then you won't dry out the steak, you'll get a delicious crispy crust around it, and you will be happy. Oh, and let the meat rest, all meat needs to rest before you slice it. Unless its ground beef or something.
I don't think I'd do steaks in the crock pot. I don't like wet cooking methods for steak. Hot and dry is best for steaks. I'd use the crock for stewing meats, like pork roast or lamb. Those are best for the wet cooking methods.
Steak in the crock? Iww, I don't think so either. I don't believe steak is supposed to be wetcooked and I'm not sure I would eat it if it was.
Don't knock it till ya try it.
you can do oatmeal in a crock overnight. get the old fashioned kind and make as you would for a big batch. then add stuff like dried fruits apples, cinnamon or whatever. it cooksw while we sleep and you can put the left overs in the fridge to heat up the next day)s). added benefits are that the house smells wonderful.
swiss steak is good in the crock. get a nasty cut of meat like bottom round. stick it in there with stewed tomatoes, that dry onion soup powder and mushrooms. it's really not bad and the sauce tastes great over mashed taters.
bbq ribs are heavenly in a crock pot. just throw them in and dump a bottle of prepared sauce in.
Okay so i have the same question as an earlier post about the eggs now. Won't the oatmeal stick in the crock?
It depends what kind of oats you use. if you use rolled oats, or worse, steel-cut oats, then yeah they will. If you use pinhead oats, then they probably won't. You can also put some butter or oil of some sort to keep them from sticking. And if they do stick, just wash the crock pot. You're going to do that anyway.
they don't stick badly i use the old fashioned rolled ones or the steel cut ones. sometimes there is like a little of the starch left but it's not a big deal.
enjoy cooking pot rost in the crock pot we have not cooked that for a while.
For the sides i make mash patodadoes and gravy.
you can by the ones in a box or you can make your patoes from scratch I make mine from the box and the gravy from the can.
talk to to you later.
made some beef stew yesterday, but it turned out too watery. Always have found this. How do I make sure a recipe is thick enough. Had put gravy mix in but still the stew was watery.
Great thickener for stew is a rue made of flower and some of the stew juice plus a little butter, browned in a saucepan and then added to the stew.
I make breakfast dishes all the time and they always turn out good. They make crock pot liner bags and they are awesome. U can use them no matter what you cook. For my breakfast caserol I put about a half bag of frozen southern diced hash browns in the bottom of it, then a half cup of cheese, just o cover the hashbrowns. Then take some meat of your choice, I use cubed ham and put a nice layer of that then a bunch of cheese. If you scramble you eggs in a bowl witha little milk then pour them on top of the cheese layer the egg soaks down in to the rest of it and it cooks evenly. Make sure and add salt and pepper every layer if you like flavor. Depending on what kind of crockpot you use the time varries.I have a smart crok and I think it is a six quart so I cook mine on low for about 5 hours then it kics off in the middle of the night and turns on to warm. Its done at five when I get up for ork and smells great and tastes even better!
Great topic. I haven't used my crock pot in a while, but now that summer's almost over I'll prob break it out again. I love the official Crock Pot IPhone app, it's pretty VO-friendly and has lots of yummy recipes. My favorite is a chicken and dumplings stew that's very filling and perfect for chilly nights. I've also made pork with apples that's quite good, and of course you can't go wrong with a good old pot roast.
Pork with apples? Eeeeewwwwww!
Like post 34, I do a breakfast casserole in the crock every Christmas and it's awesome! Spray the crock with Pam spray to avoid sticking as well. Give it a try, it's really good, especially if ya add some hot sauce just before serving.
I love my crock. It's a great way to cook without heating up the kitchen, and here in Texas, that's a very good thing. lol
Here's an amazingly simple yet wonderful recipe for beef tips and noodles.
Get a packaged of beef tips. We like a llot of beef so I think I usually use about 1.5 to 2 pounds. I usually cut the tips in half as well to make it go a little further. Add 1/2 cup red cooking wine, 1 packet of lipton dried onion soup mix, and 1 4 oz can of mushrooms undrained. I usually then add about 3 cups of water just because I'm paranoid about my stuff drying out. I can't remember how many the recipe calls for but next time I make it, I'm going to back off to 1.5 cups. Cook on low for 8 or more hours or on high for about 6. Before serving, boil a package of egg noodles in a separate pan for 12 minutes. Drain them, rincing with cold water. Then add them to the beef tips and serve. It's awesome!
Campbells.com has a ton of really simple but tasty crock recipes. There are also several recipe books. I have tons of crock recipes and love them all.
Here's a couple more.
Chicken Licken Porkchops.
Mix together flour, basil, and black pepper. Coat pork chops with this and then cear them on the stove top. Do this by cooking them in about a tablespoon of canola oil for about 4 minutes per side over high heat. After that, put them in a crockpot with 2 cans of condensed chicken and rice soup. Cook for about 4 to 6 hours on high or 8 or more on low.
Ya know, I was just thinking, and I'll bet you could do the pork chops on the stove ahead of time, freeze them, and then thaw them out the night before you want to make the dish, throing them in the crock that morning. I'll have to give that a try.
Those all sound good. It's a shame I'm not allowed to have a crockpot in the dorm room. I can't afford an efficiency dorm, otherwise I would be allowed to have one.
Billy, i'm surprised they won't let you have one...I have a crock but dunno how to use it..yet! :) Lots of these recipies sound great!
Crockpots are some of the easiest appliances to use in the kitchen. you may need someone to help you label it, but once you get it labeled you are set.
Mine's easy. Just has a low, and high setting. You just turn the dial one or two clicks.
Mine has 3 settings: Low medium and warm. off is all the way to the left. The dial clicks.
A friend of mine showed me how to use my crockpot so tomorrow I'm making my 1st ever pot roast. Any suggestions?
Add gravy mix to it that you can get in an envelope. Or, if you have mushroom soup add that instead. If you want to, you can put your potatoes in there too. Just cut them in half, and let everything cook. For even more flavor, put onion soup in with the mushroom soup. Boulion cubes work if you have none of these ingredients in the house.
The main advice I have is to make sure there's enough liquid in with the roast so it doesn't dry out. Bee made some grate suggestions.
I did one the other day and seasoned it with beef stew mix, woostisure, and water. It was super good! It's best to cook it low and slow for tenderness.
Good luck and welcome to crockpotting. Hope it's yummy!
I'm going to cook it on high for about 4.5 hours. Only reason is that I want to make sure the meat is cooked all the way through. I have potatoes, onions, salt, pepper, carots, a can of beef broth, I'll ad a little cup of water and I've coded my crockpot a bit with oliv oil. Anything else I should do? I don't have a can of soup or anything but that sounds great! My 1st time of doing this so I'm sure it'll get better as I continue to make them.
Correction, I'm putting it on low for 8 to 9 hours haven't decided how long yet. It's a small rump roast.
A roast in worcestershire? Iiiiiw!
Hey, don't knock it til ya try it. lol
8 to 9 hours on low ought to do quite nicely.
OK, I'll try it if there's a vegetarian worcestershire out there. The regular stuff is made with anchovies, and I hate anything fishy.
I've never used a crock pot in my life althoughI'd like to. A couple summers ago while visiting a friend we had barbecued chicken prepared in a crock and it was damn good. I'm not much of a cook mainly because I don't get any real pleasure out of it. I think that has more to do with the fact that, when it comes to stove cooking at least, I've never found a way to keep the pan centered over the burner or to judge when it's cooked enough. And as for the crock pot I've just never had an opportunity to try using one myself.
so glad there is a topic about this. :) I use my crockpot quite often. in fact, I've got chicken and dumplings cooking right now. :) I think everything is so much tastier when cooked in a slow cooker. The food is just so tender and flavorful.
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Once I'm done with school I will more than likely use mine this summer to make some of the things you mentioned.
I've heard you can do chex mix in a crockpot. This would be a good thing since chex mix is one of my favorite non sweet snacks.
Tried pork chops in the crock for the first time recently. Yumm.
I'm supposed to be getting one sometime over the next few months and I can hardly wait.
Yeah, pork is great to do. A lot of people think it's disgusting but I love pork and sourkraut. Checks mix? I have no idea how to make that.
The smell of kraut is enough to make me want to puke.
I absolutely hate Rosts!, Porck Chops, lamb Chops, all of that stuff I can't stand! I'm not too fond of meat. I do like good stakes and filets and ground meat recipies, but I can't stand meat that tastes too strong. Just personal preference, not saying it's bad. Anyhow, I like Vegetables in the Crockpot, I've tried preparing them and they're quite good. I'm going to try making breakfast, see how they turn out.
Here's a link to the Chex Mix recipe.
http://unsophisticook.com/slow-cooker-chex-mix-recipe/
Ooh, cooking, my favorite (well one), of my favorite topics of conversation.
One of my specialties for crockpot is this variation on traditional pork and beans.
Take a cup of dry pinto or black beans (I guess if you really must you can used canned), however if going natural, let the beans soak in water over night.
Then take 1 pound of pork chops and chop it up in to nice little chunks; then set the chunks in a marinade of soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic powder, and a pinch of red wine refrigerated over nite. (the wine is optional)
The next day in a tablespoon of olive oil brown the pork cubes. While pork is browning, place the drained beans in the bottom of your crockpot.
Next, add about half a table spoon of cumin, 1.4 cup of tomato paste, or really in a pinch salsa or spaghetti sauce will do the trick. Add about a teaspoon of salt and pepper for flavoring.
Add 2 cups of chicken or beef broth, (though water will do if you have none of the afore mentioned broths on hand), then add the now browned pork cubes to the rest of the ingredients now in the pot.
Now, because I'm all about flavor, I like to peel and chop 4 cloves of garlic, 1 onion, one pepper (green or yellow or if you're feeling adventurous a few jalipenos), and I saute them in the recently vacated pork pan for about 5/10 minutes. When these veggies have reached a point of softness, I add them to the crock pot as well.
I cook all this on high for about 2 hours, then on low for 6. The result is a tasty filling meal that stands on its own, or will taste good in a tortilla, or served over rice.
sorry for rambling but I love love cooking of any kind! :)
The resulting meal will make you blow the house up with your nuclear farts and shit.
Lol. There's so much you could season pork and beans with. Everyone in my family hates eating franks and beans but I'll definitely give this a try too.
Does anyone have any good chicken or beef crock pot recipies? I just don't like pork.
I cook flank steaks in the crock, and pork chops, but that's about all. I use various marinades on them, even Italian dressing sometimes.
I'm more of a chicken guy myself. I'll eat beef or pork but I prefer chicken.
I like all three, just depends on how they're prepared.
That's true. I do like barbecued ribs prepared in a crockpot.
Ooh, tell me how. I want ribs. Haven't had 'em in years.
I don't actually know. I've never actually used a crockpot myself. My folks have one though and I'm supposed to be getting one soon and I look forward to experimenting with it.
Ribs in a crock pot - best with baby back ribs, my version:
Dry rub them first and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours defrosted.
Coat the inside of your crock with olive oil or nonstick spray, sides and bottom.
Now drop the ribs in, and pour whatever concoction you want over them, barbecue sauce, Bourbon, what have you. Plenty of sites more eloquent than I on barbecue sauces, how to make, merits of each and so on.
If your concoction doesn't leave fluid above the ribs, totally drowning them, put a cup or two of water in there. You're kind of brazing them.
Now here's the important part: Run on high until it's at full boil, and keep it that way for 30 minutes, adding liquid (water, beer, citrus juice, whatever's your pleasure).
Then turn it down to low and cook for six hours or so, even more if you want.
If your dry rub contains brown sugar, be really careful about adding extra fluid into the mix because while it's on really high like that you really don't want your sugar to carmelize and burn. It will a little bit especially over time. The reason for bringing the temperature up and sustaining it for 30 minutes is to make sure you've killed all bacteria. It's a food service precaution.
And, it will stay up after you turn the temperature down to low (not warm).
Here's a sort of recipe I use for both beef and pork. It's basic, and does better by beef, but you might like it.
Defrost your roast of choice a bit, so it's starting to soften but isn't completely pliant. Put it in the crock with about two-thirds of a cup of water, and a packet of onion soup dry mix. Add in about a tablespoon of Montreal steak spice. If you want, put the water and spices in the crock first and stir it around so that it permeates better.
Put it on high for about forty minutes, till it's good and boiling, then turn it down to low. Leave it for about five hours.
Now, I like carrots, parsnips and potatoes a fair bit, so I usually use at least one of those ingredients near the end, but you don't have to.
Take a couple of carrots or parsnips and peel them. Then cut them into bite-sized pieces and chuck 'em in on top of your cooking roast for about the last forty-five minutes. Please note: if you have one of those roasts that creates a ton of its own gravy, you may want to do this even closer to the end, unless you don't mind mushy carrots.
Now, as for potatoes, here's what I was taught. Cut up a couple of potatoes into roughly bite-sized pieces (large bites, though). Crush a clove or two of garlic into a bowl, add some butter or margarine and heat gently (use the microwave) till it's melty and fairly thick. Pour this thickened mixture into a ziplock and then put your potatoes in with it. Seal the bag, squish the potatoes around in the butter-and-garlic mixture till they're well coated, take them out, put them on a cookie sheet or baking tray and pop 'em in the oven for approximately forty minutes, or until they're slightly crispy. If they finish at the same time you want to take out the roast, that's fine; if not, toss them in on top of the meat for fifteen minutes or so. It will take a long time for potatoes, especially when roasted, to get even close to soggy, and this will allow them to absorb some of the juices from the roast.
The result, if you do it the way I do it, is yummy if you like a traditional Sunday-style roast. It won't win any awards and the taste isn't exactly the most complicated in the world, but I'm still learning, and I haven't yet gotten any complaints. I did it with a pork roast over Christmas, the sort of thing that cooks so well it falls apart, and Meglet said she liked it quite a bit.
A note on parsnips: for those who don't know, parsnips cost just a bit more than carrots, but they're sweeter and nuttier. Basically anything you can do with a carrot, you can do with a parsnip. If you have both and aren't sure which is which, parsnips taper more than carrots and have a more pebbly skin. The crunch of a parsnip is also just a little different than a carrot, but it comes down to preference. If you never have, try 'em sometime.
That sounds so good! I will def. try this at some point with beef! What kind of roast do you suggest I get for this? How big? I don't think I've ever had parsnips but they sound good!
I'm not horribly picky when it comes to the sort of roast. The one I used was called Eye of Round Half Oven roast. Probably almost anything will do. I don't know how you get your groceries, but certain roasts will be kind of fatty and make their own gravy. You...probably don't want this unless you want to make gravy. If you do, then that's a little more complicated but probably a bit more tasty as well. If you go to someplace to get our groceries, just ask whoever's taking you, or even ask the butcher if you get your meat fresh, what would be good for a small crockpot (whether you want gravy or not).
Also, this has probably been said, but you'll notice I said five hours for a roast after the first forty. Feel free to stretch that. The worst you're going to do is dry it out a little...and that's not great, but it won't burn and won't become inedible unless you leave it cooking for a day and a half or something. How long you cook a roast depends in part upon its size and how frozen it was when you started. I actually think that I cooked a two or three-pound roast for approximately seven hours from frozen, maybe seven and a half.
And yeah, make sure to try parsnips. They're boring raw, but very flavourful when cooked.
Wondering if plain liquid smoke would be a good braising liquid?
No no no! Use extremely sparingly. It's a great additive, but only a drop or so.
Am glad to have found this thread... I recently got a slow cooker and am trying it out for the first time today... I am making Lamb rogan josh, an Indian curry made of lamb, tumeric, and a whole bunch of other spices, some onion and garlic and a smidge of cream.
If any of you would like the recipe, please let me know and I'll post it here.
Is it anything like vindaloo?
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Roganjosh has a lot mroe tomato in it. Vindeloo is very spicy, and roganjosh is a bit less so. There are probably other differences as well, but those are the ones that jump out at me from the little bits I remember about Indian food.
I love this idea of coating and baking the potato bites. I have a friend who used to do this with lipton onion soup mix and a pack of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix.
I honestly know nothing about indian food. What're the 2 dishes that've been mentioned?
Vindaloo is a really really spicy hot curry with chicken usually.
I'm glad people are finding this topic helpful and still posting stuff to it. i didn't think there was this much that you could make in a crockpot. When I got mine back around when I created the topic the only thing I could think of to make in it was the conventional stuff like stew or a small roast, and my homemade spaghetti sauce.
I think I'm going to try the breakfast recipe when I buy another one.
cool! I hear there's a cake you can make in the crock pot as well. :)
I want to appologize to the person who asked for my homemade tomato sauce before. Apparently I am wayyyyy behind in responding to that. I didn't see it for some reason. On the plus side, this last time it has tasted better than ever before so you will get the best there can be up to this point. Here it is.
This recipe will fit best in at minimum a 4 quart crock pot.
Ingredients:
8-10 regular, medium to large tomatoes, preferably ripe or slightly over-ripe (sofft but not completely mushy)
1/4 of one onion
2-4 cloves of garlic depending on your preference
1 green pepper
4-6 mushrooms
1 small can tomato paste
1 can of rotell if you want a little kick, or some chopped chilli peppers
1/4 cup milk
1/4 or 1/3 cup red wine
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
a sprinkle of bassal to preference
a sprinkle of oregano to preference
Instructions:
1. Chop 1/4 of an onion, cloves of garlic, pepper, and mushrooms.
2. Pierce tomatoes one or two times with the tip of a knife. This does not have to be done, but it makes it easier to peel the skin off of them. Place in a medium or large pot and put water in pot until the tomatoes are covered, and bring to a boil. Once you hear the water bubbling, let boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Strain the pot, run cold water over the tomatoes, and remove them. Then, peel skins in to one bowl or in to a garbage can, and place the remains in another bowl. Your hands will get messy and it will feel strange. Be sure to remove the cores.
3. Put 1/4 cup or 1/3 cup olive oil with a pinch of salt in a medium or large frying pan. Bring to medium or medium-low heat, or a heat you are comfortable sauteing at. When the oil is ready to cook with, put chopped vegetables in pan, stirring occasionally every 2 to 4 minutes. If the vegetables stick add a little more oil.
4. When tomatoes are peeled and cored, add 1 can of tomato paste and 1 can of rotell, stopping to stir occasionally. Then, add 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 or 1/3 cup wine and stir until mixed well.
5. If vegetables are done before the previous step is complete, remove from heat source and dump in to crock pot.
6. Add tomato mixture to crockpot and mix well.
7. Add in the remaining ingredients (1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and sprinkles of bassal and oregano to preference.
8. 8. Cook at low heat for 6 hours or more. Stir every once in a while, but if you can not, or if you won't be home while this is cooking, it won't hurt anything so long as you stir it when you get back. On high, cook 2-4 hours until the sauce is at a taste and texture that you like.
Tips:
If the sauce is more liquidy than you would like, add a pinch of flour to make it denser. Likewise, if it is too heavy add a small amount of water.
Sometimes, the spices lose their taste after being cooked for a while. To comprimise this, either wait a while before adding them, or simply add more before it is complete. I am a crazy fan of bassal, so I end up adding a lot of it throughout the time it is cooking.
Hope some of you enjoy this recipe! I am not sure exactly how many servings that is, but my guess would be between 5-7 people, depending on your appetites of course, and if you add things like meatballs or sausage to it. Don't be afraid to change some of the measurements of the spices to your preference.
I should have said this. During step two, when you are peeling the tomatoes once they are peeled, you can either pull them apart in to the bowl and remove the core, or you can remove the core and mash them down with a spatula if you are squeemish about getting messy hands. But either way I think they will end up messy. Lol
mmmmmm I"ll try doing that sometime next month ryan...
What size can of tomato paste? I know it says small, but do you have a specific measurement you use?
I think it's the 6-oz or so. You'll know, they only come in small or large.
Yeah, it is the 6 ounce can. And another f y i: don't count on my spelling of rotell. I'm not sure if that's how it is spelled but that is how it is pronounced.
There are apparently quite a few cakes and desserts one can make in a crockpot. I may have to modify some recipes since while I did get my grandma's old crockpot it's only a two-quart one. That's about all I could really see myself needing though since it's just me. But I like it since all the electronics are in the base and the pot itself can be removed so you can wash it. My mom and I are just going to have to mark the various temperature settings so I know what's what since unlike some crockpots I've seen the temperature knob on this one doesn't click at each new setting. The really hard part is going to be deciding what to try to make first. Leaning toward chex mix though.
I'm absolutely going to try ribs.
Rogan Josh
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Temperature: Low
Cooking Time: 8-10 Hours
Serves: 4
25 gm (1 oz) Butter
750 gm (1 1/2 pounds) Lamb fillet, sliced
2 Onions, chopped
3 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
2.5 cm (1 inch) Root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp Ground Tumeric
2 tsp Ground Coriander
2 tsp Cumin Seeds, roughly crushed
2 tsp Garam Masala
1/2 tsp Crushed dried red chillies
2 tbsp Flour
400 gm (13 oz) can Chopped tomatoes
300 mL (1/2 pint) Lamb Stock
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) Double Cream
1 small bunch Coriander, leaves torn
Red onion, thinly sliced
Preheat the slow cooker, if necessary; see the manufacturer’s handbook.
Heat the butter in a frying pan, add the lamb a few pieces at a time until all of the meat is in the pan, then fry, stirring, over a high heat until browned. Lift out of the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to the slow cooker pot.
Add the onions to the pan and fry, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened and just beginning to turn golden. Stir in the garlic, ginger, spices and chillies and cook for 1 minute. Mix in the flour, then add the tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, stirring.
Pour the tomato mixture over the lamb, cover with the lid and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until the lamb is tender. Stir in the cream, garnish with coriander and red onion, if desired, and serve with pilau rice and naan bread.
Yummy! Thanks!
I'm not usually a huge fan of ribs but crockpot ribs are probably the best I've ever had.
I assume the recipe that was just posted is really really spicy. Anything you can do to make it less so? also, does the meat have to be lamb? Could it be beef or chicken?
I hope my question doesn't afend I'm sorry I don't know hardly anything about this food.
Less peppers.
The dish could be made with beef or chicken or even jumbo prawns.
In regards to the spiciness, I'd rate it about a medium... I don't like spicy curry at all (I always go for mild), but when I tried this, I didn't think that it was overpoweringly spicy.
You could try, as Imprecator has suggested, less chilli pepper, slightly more cream (say perhaps 1/3 of a cup instead of 1/4 cup) and perhaps 1 tablespoon of sugar.
You can make cake in the crockpot (you can even use regular old boxed cake mix) but you have to be aware of one thing: removing the cake from the crockpot when it's ready is difficult. I have, silly as it sounds, had to tip the thing over and let the cake fall onto a flat surface because it was firmly stuck. Honestly I would not advise it unless you either have no other way to bake it, (i.e. you don't have an oven) or you find a more informative recipe online. I have only tried this a couple of times.
Did you spray the pot with cooking spray first?
RE ribs in the crock pot:
This is a great time to use liquid smoke, or smoked salt.
If you use liquid smoke, use only one or two drops: it's extremely concentrated.
To smoke salt, you need a foil pan and a smoker or grill. If using a grill put wet wood chips over the hot charcoal, preferably chips that have been sitting overnight in water and then strained out. Strain out the water really good for this, because you don't want to get any kind of steam in there, just smoke. You can also dry smoke the salt using dry chips but you have to feed it more often.
Then after you have cooked your other food on the grill, put some chips over the coals, put your foil pan on the grill and close the lid.
The salt in the pan should be a nice layer but not in a heap in the middle. Spread out good. It can be thick but should be even.
This you can do at someone's house who has a grill after you all have done a cookout, then remove the salt to a jar once you're sure it's all dry after the smoking.
Seal the jar or container, even Tupperware, and store in the pantry not in the fridge.
Then back at your place you can add this to ribs or other meats in the crock pot, even scrambled eggs if you want, and your crock will turn out grilled food!
The two nonvisual properties that humans enjoy from grilling are the charred / carmelized taste - which you can get from a stove top searing, - and the smoky flavor - which you can get from the smoked salt.
Remember, grilling as we now know it is actually relatively new and doesn't really resemble ancient fire cooking methods. Your crockpot actually does, because it's a lot like food wrapped in something and buried under, or placed on, coals. Add liquid smoke or smoked salt and you can have what amounts to fire-cooked methods to near paleolithic proportions.
The juice loss that can attend modern grilling (when a grill fork is used), or the extensive searing that comes from a direct flame, is relatively modern. Even roasting on sticks used more of the indirect fire method.
So even in your dorm room with a crock pot, your cooking methods will create things more akin to your paleolithic ancestors than some of us who lived in burbs and had big nice modern grills.
Don't get me wrong: I love grilling also. But you can get the same properties in your food with a few modifications like liquid smoke or smoked salt, and pan-searing the meat first like Kate and others suggest, so the outside has that flavor.
I am so fortunate now as to have a gas stove again so this even becomes just a bit easier.
This will fill up your crock pot, so I hope you invite a friend over. This was originally a stovetop recipe, but I doubled it for the crock pot. You can leave off the jalapenos for a less spicy version.
Green chili chicken soup
1/4 Cup butter
1 small chopped onion
2 clove garlic minced (I just call a teaspoon a clove and buy the jars from the store)
2 tablespoons flour
2 32 oz boxes chicken broth
6 (4 oz) cans chopped green chiles plus about 1 oz chopped jalapenos
2 large potatoes peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper or to taste
2/3 cup whipping cream
cooked shredded chicken. I always buy a whole roasted chicken from the store and pull it off the bone and shred. You can always boil chicken breast and shred that.
In a large sauce pan over low heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and garlic, cover and cook on low for about 5 minutes.
Once done, scrape contents of pan into crock pot.
Add the flour. Gradually add the chicken broth, green chiles and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. You might not want to add the full amount of the second box unless you have a monster crock pot.
Cook on high until potatoes are very tender. This will take a good five or six hours.
(Add chicken)
Stir in the cream and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Pour into bowls and top with cheese if desired.
Am I lazy or are you all just more ambitious?
If I'm cooking something in a slow cooker, it goes in, the lid goes on and I come back when it is done.
If something needs cooked in the oven or on the stovetop and then transferred to the slow cooker, I'd rather just do the whole thing with the stove/oven.
Not lazy, VH, just how humans and pre-homo-sapien hominids cooked for millennia. Only they didn't use crock pots, they used small pits and covered the wrapped food in hot coals, then covered it up with dirt to keep the heat in.
Crock pits.
LOL yeah.
Yes, I did use cooking spray. Possibly not enough of it, mind you. I also agree that I find slow cooker recipes that require multiple steps using oven or stove to be irritating. I'd rather just cook conventionally if I'm going to be using most of the conventional tools anyway. I like fix-it-and-forget-it recipes.
Some convenience food cooking is really good too, but I don't mind making some things homemade. Trust me my sauce is well worth the work :)
does this mean you're asking me over for dinner?
I mean, don't I deserve something after you called me ugly AND told everyone I was an easy pick up at the bar? :P
haha yeah I do have to make it up to you for doing that :P
Clean her house, cook her food, and sit by her while she rests after work. That should do it.
I know it's not a crock but you could use a crock to do it in:
I cooked a lamb shank in my clay pot for the first time using it yesterday. Then shredded it over rice. It had been dry rubbed with savory herbs from my mother's herb garden, they could call those organic because of where my parents live, and how they conduct their gardening.
Fantastic.
you could do this in a crock also, just be sure to put it on high for awhile and cover the meat in water after you dry rub.
hi guys, i am attemtping to become a better cook. so, i have been reviewing some of the ideas on this thread. i am curiois about indian food made in a crockpot. specificley curey. chicken curey. anyone have a simple or not to complex receipt? also, i eat a lot of chickeen, besides bbq, and rubs any ideas of what i can add to it while in the crockpot? thanks,gizzy
It's curry, and google is your friend.
Good god damn, does that homemade tomato sauce recipe sound really,really good. Going to write that one down now, and thanks for posting. I've got a crockpot and have plans to use it often. My only problem is: finding recipes to serve one or two, not six. My crockpot isn't that big, and I don't want to wind up with a whole shitload of leftovers in my fridge or freezer.
You can also bake bread in a crock pot and it comes out just as addictively tasty as bread baked in an oven; at least in my humble opinion. If you'd like the top to have a traditional crunchy crust, you can just stick it under the broiler for about 5/10 minutes when the bread is finished.
For anyone who's having trouble with desserts and breads sticking in the crockpot, either up your oil when spraying the inside, or use crockpot liners, they work like a charm. :)
I used to do this recipe that called for a beef roast, and a can of golden
mushroom soup, but would put a little Dales or soy sauce and garlic on it along
with the soup to flavor it up before I turned on the crockpotand it tasted
amazing; it went great with mashed potatoes and green peas. I make this clam
chowder recipe when winter comes, that calls for 2 cans of cream of potato
soup, a can of clams with the juice and all, a can of clam chowder, a cup of half
and half, or you can just use milk, and half a stick of butter, then let it start it on
low for about 2 hours so the milk doesn't start boiling, set the timer for an hour
at a time, stir it after the timer goes off, and sense it should only take about 3
hours for it to cook, at around the 3rd hour, turn it up on high, so it will thicken.
I also buy/sell mixes from this company called thegourmetcupboard, and they
recently came out with some slow cooker mixes that you add ingredients to, one
of them being a chicken parmesan recipe, that you make pretty much in the
same manner as if you were going to fry it, then just put the chicken
breasts/thyes, whichever you choose to use in the crockpot, put spaghetti sauce
over them, cook them about 6 hours, then about 15 minutes before it's time to
serve them, put some grated cheese over them, and serve them with pasta, and
it's to die for.
The thing with the mushroom soup sounds awesome.
it is, I'd make it more frequently, except I'd be the only one eating it at this
point, sense at this point, nobody else in the household likes beef, and I'd get
tired of it really quickly, aside from that being an unhealthy thing to eat so
many days in a row, and not having anybody close by to share it with.
Anyone used a beer as a braising liquid for meat? If so, what kind of beer, and how'd it turn out?
What's the difference between a slow cooker, crockpot, and pressure cooker?
A Crockpot and slow-cooker are the same thing. A pressure cooker is another gadget altogether. Google it.
On that note, does anyone here use a pressure cooker?
I'm afraid of them! My mother never had one, and I haven't considered getting one, although my sister raves about hers. So I'm just not familiar with them. I understand modern ones are much safer and different from those I'm probably thinking of, from the 80s, but still... not for me. I'll stick with my crockpot and electric skillet. I'm not in that much of a hurry that I need to cook at high speed.
I agree, I prefer one pot meals, and fix it and forget it recipes. There's a cookbook from NLS with this in its title; I'll find and post the title, later. I especially like that it advises you on what size crock to use. Most books fail to provide this info.
In the meantime, here's a stew I make, fairly often.
Herb Chicken Stew
4 carrots, sliced
4 Yukon Gold potatoes
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery
2 teaspoons thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1.5 lbs chicken thighs (boneless, skinless)
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream (that's whipping cream, not whipped cream!)
1/2 cup flour
2 cups sugar snap peas (optional)
In a 5 or 6 quart crock pot, place carrots, potatoes, onion and celery. Sprinkle with 1 tsp thyme, salt and pepper. Top with chicken and broth. Cover and cook on low, 7-8 hours.
In the last 10 minutes of cooking time, add sugar snap peas.
With slotted spoon, remove chicken and veg. (Best to put it in whatever container you will use for storage.)
In a small bowl, mix whipping cream, flour, and 1 teaspoon thyme, and stir it into the remaining liquid in the crock pot. Cook on high for 10 minutes. Pour the thickened liquid over chicken, and serve.
This one tastes even better, the second day. Oh, and the reason to use Yukon potatoes, if possible, is because they don't get as mushy after 8 hours of cooking as other potatoes will.
Beer for brazing?
It depends on what you want the brazing effect to be. If you want the tenderizing aspects I would opt for an IPA of your choice.
If you want the meltier flavor to come through I'd use a porter. Stout I wouldn't use except in soups or sauces.
this is a fantastic thread. I wish I had time to get on there more often as I've learned a lot. why would you want to cook bread in a slow cooker? I mean it takes long enough as it is? just curious. some one asked about pressure cookers. I have one and love it. actually it is a slow cooker and a pressure cooker. the theory behind this appliance is that steam builds up pressure which causes stuff to cook more quickly. the electronic ones like I have contain all kinds of safety features. my daughter has the old fashioned kind you use on the stove. ditto on the safeness. I prefer pressure to slow cooking as it's quicker and the integrity of individual tastes is maintained. I mean a carrot is tender but it tastes like what it is and not some random item that is mushy and covered with slimy sauce. if you want more information, i'll be happy to give it but don't want to maunder on and bodre folk to death.
I have the 8 quart oval pressure cooker from Cooks Essentials, (QVC>) I absolutely love it. It's big and bulky, and that's my only complaint. It browns, steams, simmers, warms and pressures. It even has a delay timer, which I've never used.
is it easy to use? does it have buttons or touch screen? I've seen iton the qvc a lot but never knew anyone who used one.
mine has 3 big square buttons on either side of the screen, and everything beeps.