My crockpot and I have a tempestuous relationship. It has such potential to be a great kitchen tool. The idea of dumping stuff in in the morning and having a yummy meal at night is so tempting. The problem is that it is so hard to find any good crockpot recipes.
I have several crockpot cookbooks but they each have their own problems. The first is Slow Cookers for Dummies. It does a good job of explaining how slow cookers work but there aren't that many recipes in it. I think I've only gotten one or two recipes out of it that I like. Its big things are these Master recipes that you make up and then use in several different recipes. To me, that's just too close to using leftovers in a dish. I HATE leftovers. Zeb has them for lunch but I just can't stand them.
The second is Williams-Sonoma Gourmet Slow Cooker. We've had great success with this cookbook. The problem though is that this is not a dump-and-go slow cooker cookbook. Each recipe calls for sauteeing or grinding or mixing before you can turn the crockpot on. Sort of defeats the purpose. I don't often have 45 minutes in the morning to prepare a crockpot recipe before heading out which means Zeb often does these. Another annoyance with this cookbook is it will call for the crockpot to be on high for a period and then reduced to low. Unless you've got a fancy programmable crockpot, this also throws a wrench into to concept of turn it on in the morning and forget about it until the evening. But the best tasting crockpot meals have come from this cookbook so it's a give and take.
The third cookbook is Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook:Feasting With Your Slow Cooker. It's a compilation of recipes sent in by home cooks. Most of the recipes are from the Midwest - not a region known for its cuisine. This one has the most recipes but most of them are terrible. Canned everything (usually cream of mushroom soup) and too much salt (from the packets of Lipton's onion soup mix). There are some diamonds in the rough including a fantastic Moroccan chicken dish but the majority of the ones Zeb and I tried were horrendous. I'm talking about having trouble choking it down sort of bad. The upside is that all of the recipes are dump-and-go.
The Sacramento Bee Food Section recently did several stories about the re-emergence of crockpots and included several recipes. Last night we tried one - Stuffed Flank Steak with Currant Wine Sauce. It was quite good. The steak was fall apart tender and the stuffing and sauce were delicious. Not to mention that it was a hit presentation wise what with the spiral stuffing. I served it with a side of orzo and the sauce on top of the orzo was quite a hit. As for prep - I spent about 20 minutes getting everything together so it wasn't as much of a pain as the Williams-Sonoma recipes. I think I'm going to have to get this cookbook.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Renee's mom's signature crock pot recipe was a little something I call "liquid chicken." Cook the hell out of the chicken until all of the bones fall to the bottom of the crockpot. Dump a massive quantity of lemon pepper in as seasoning. Apologize profusely as you ladle the chicken slurry to your daughter's apprehensive boyfriend. I love the woman, but, whoa, she is an *awful* cook.
We just bought a very simple steamer for veggies and some fish ... it might turn out well, it might not.
That's what we were getting out of the "easy" crockpot cookbook. In fact, your mom's recipes would be perfect there.
Let me know if you find a way to use the steamer with any regularity. We got one as a wedding gift and I think we've only used it for steaming baby potatoes and eggs. Oh, and the disasterous tamale incident...
Post a Comment