My Wednesday Pantry-Crock Pots and the Art of Slow Cooking

 

      

     After yesterday, I should have called this the Art of Snow cooking. I knew this post was timely when I thought about writing it, but didn't imagine this timely in preparing for winter type meals. Well my coworker was fine with it. See how he maintains his part of the office at the end of the post.  

     I did not care for meals my mom made in the crock pot growing up. She would put a roast, potatoes, and carrots in, and turn it up high, and leave it as crock pots are meant. The outcome as I remember was tasteless, stringy beef, and potatoes and carrots that were both hard and  mush, if that makes sense, soaked in the flavorless beef juice. Now I have to repeat that my mom's idea of seasoning was salt and pepper, and on occasion, some onion might make it's way into her cooking. Oh, I loved my mom-just not her cooking skills. (she was a phenomenal baker though.) For me, the key to crock pots or whatever slow cooker  being used is to make sure the ingredients both go in properly prepared, are seasoned well, and the right setting and time is used. Yes, you can bung it all in and forget about it, but likely the meal will turn out like my  mom's. Here's a few tips I have learned, and I apologize to the experienced  crock pot cooks who have known these things forever. This weeks My Pantry is definitely not  vegan at all either, but there's a few veggie suggestions included. .

Meat like pork loins, beef roasts, ribs, chicken and pork chops: 

• If you plan to eat the meat as the main dish, not for sandwich's, I find it is essential to sear it in a frying pan, griddle, or even you grill to get a good caramelization. Then, make sure to cook on low. Cooking on high I  find cooks it too fast and it will just start falling apart when you go to slice. Which is fine if...
• You want the meat to shred, then cooking on high may work fine if you are short for time, but I still prefer the low setting whenever I cook meat, and will just make sure to add another hour to 90 minutes if I am going to pull the meat apart for sandwiches, soups, or future hot dishes. We'll eat our meal of the roast meat, then keep it on low, or warm or just covered, then  shred in the juices later. 
• Seasoning the meat before you sear will help ensure the flavor gets into the meat while it slow cooks. I like to add more of the seasoning once I put in the crock, then put a bit of water in the searing pan, scrape all the bits away, and pour that in the cooker as well. Flavor!
• Use vegetables, and even fruit, as seasoning, but not necessarily to eat as sides I just find that vegetables and meat do not cook great together as a full meal. The temperatures and times needed are different, and the flavor profiles to have a carrot taste well, like a carrot, is to me, just wrong when cooked together. However, I love to use vegetables in the crockpot as part of the flavoring. Monday I made a low priced pork loin, $2.39 a pound, and into the crock went a few large pieces of onion, 1/2 a carrot in small chunks, and slices of apple.. After we ate meal one, pork loin and baked potatoes, I left it on a bit longer, then shredded the rest in the juice's, pieces of veggie and fruit and all. This will be great to pull out for pieces in fried rice, or to add BBQ sauce for sandwiches for another few meals. 
• If I am lazy, I'll use the crock pot also for things like chicken drumsticks, or wings, if I know they will be loaded in sauce later and grilled or put under the broiler. They just look sickly if not.

Vegetables on their own, or for soups and stews

• Vegetables are another meal ingredient that with a bit more prep, the crock pot meal will turn out so much better. Just as searing the meat first, I find caramelizing the vegetables before throwing to start a soup or stew totally ups the flavor. I start with my onion, then add the carrots, and celery before throwing into  the pot with the broth.
• Right Size your vegetables, or plan to be around to put them in at different times. Carrots take a lot longer to cook in the crock pot than many other vegetables, say potatoes. Either make sure the size of the carrots are quite small, or add the faster cooking vegetables  later in your process. Since I like to have large chucks of carrots in soups and stews, I'll add potatoes, bell peppers later, and if I'm adding greens they really go in  only slightly before serving. . 
• Remember certain vegetables have natural salt content. I tend to add very little salt after the initial searing  of my veg, and allow others to salt to their taste. I do sometimes get a heavy hand on pepper, as evidenced on Sunday when I made a pasta fagiole. DD2 and I loved it, but DH had watery eyes. 

Adding Pasta/Rice or other carbs:

• If I'm making a soup or hot dish with  noodles of some sort, I turn off the crock and add the noodles for the last 20 minute or so, leaving the lid on. If the end result will be a soup, it should be ready after 20 minutes for a good stir, and serve. If it is going to be a hotdish, I add the thickening agent after the 20 minutes, stirring it all in, and keep the lid off so the excess moisture escapes. I rarely have made a hotdish in the crock pot, though I do use the crock pot to reheat a previously made version. 
• The exception to my rarely making a hotdish in the crockpot is my crock pot pasta "recipe". This is basically layering sauce, noodles, veg, cheese, repeat, and plugging in and forgetting about it until 20 minutes before serving, when I'll add a top layer of mozzarella. Basically this is using the crock pot as an oven. After 20 minutes, the mozzarella is all melted, but the dish needs to firm up, so I let it sit another 15 minutes or so, letting the pasta absorb any remaining liquid. I use the quote for recipe, as this is different pretty much every time I make it because I use up  what veg I have, and sometime use cheese, meat, pepperoni, and sometimes do not depending on who will be eating.  The sauce and veg cook the pasta.
• As for rice in the crock pot, I've not had good luck unless it was either instant rice, and used in a very brothy base, or previously cooked rice. Putting hard long grain or wild rice in the crock pot just gets mushy. I think that is because it never gets to a full boil.

So that's how I use my crock pot to make slow cooked meals. There are lots of slow cooker helpers out there in the stores now. They are nice to take advantage of until you feel comfortable with your own blends and timing. YouTube channels are devoted to crock pot use and I like to watch those posts. Feel free to share some of your stories, recipes, or hints in the comments.