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January 2016 Challenge, Slow Cooking

21K views 319 replies 33 participants last post by  kaneohegirlinaz 
#1 ·
As I sit here in the middle of the desert of the South West United States,

it's chilly and snowing and my mind wanders to slow cooked dishes

that warm the body and soul.

Soups, Stews, Braised Meats and Vegetables, huge pots of Chili

Basically what we're talking about here is,

foods left to cook for a long time,

be it on the back burner of your stovetop

or in a Slow Cooker aka Crock Pot[emoji]174[/emoji].


(I own this model)

This is an old-is-new cooking trend, especially cozy now in the Northern hemisphere;

a way to make a cheaper cut of meat or those gnarly bits of leftover this-or-that, delicious.

I saw a recipe the other day for some sort of dessert,

can't remember what it was,

but it was made in a Slow Cooker, REALLY, I mean

COME ON MAN!

That lingering aroma wafting through the house,

it's even been known to keep me up at night,

as I've left the Crock going for more than a day.

This is my favorite time of the year to cook!

I'm a visual type of individual; I like to see photos, especially of scrumptious dishes.

So if you can, please, include some pictures of your creation.

I love 'food-porn' /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smoking.gif

HA!

And you thought I was going to call for SPAM[emoji]174[/emoji], Glorious SPAM[emoji]174[/emoji]!

HEY!

A Slow Cooker Spam[emoji]174[/emoji] dish, Hmmm, now there's a challenge @teamfat
Let's get cookin' everyone
And Have A Great Time Doing It Too!
 
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#6 · (Edited)
@homecookproject can't wait to see what you put on the table

@MaryB I'm always up for a roast /img/vbsmilies/smilies/licklips.gif

It was brought to my attention that October 2014's Challenge was Stew
[thread="82360"]October 2014 Challenge Stew [/thread]
It might be a good thing, as my girl Martha likes to say, to state

that this month, let's go with the cooking technique of Slow Cooking,

be it in the oven, on the cook top, Crock Pot[emoji]174[/emoji], on the BBQ, the Imu


(have you ever had Kalua Turkey? MMM)

heck, even Sous Vide is a way of slow cooking, I saw a recipe that took 96 hours!

In other words, a dish that takes a long period of time to cook, roast, braise, simmer, smoke;

that covers a pretty broad range.
 
#8 ·
I scored a $5 off chuck roast the other day so I let it hang out on a rack in the ice box and gathered my root vegetables and made stew today.  Chuck dusted in well seasoned whole wheat flour and browned in bacon drippin's and olive oil, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, golden beet, parsnip, potatoes, fresh bay leaf, thyme, parsley, red wine, vegetable and beef stock.  Oh and a dried chili.  Seasoned with smoked salt, and freshly cracked pepper - what an amazing flavor after being in the dutch oven for hours - very good with biscuits.  
 
#12 · (Edited)
@Mike9 whole wheat flour rather than AP for dredging, how does this effect the dish?

AND fresh bay leaves, WOW, that's fantastic, do you have a laurel tree? I have never used fresh before.

Any photos of that pot-o-goodness?

How long was it in the oven?
Yes we received a laurel tree as a gift last summer - it's growing every which way - LOL. Wasn't in the oven it was on the range - I use less gas that way. I'll get a pic of the left overs tomorrow - their in between the back doors at the moment. We also brought thyme, parsley and kale in doors for he winter - so far - so good.

Yeah I moved to whole wheat flour last year and so far for things like dredging and roux it's been fine. I had to get into a fresh bag of unbleached whole wheat today and it was OK. I also have self rising corn flower if I need I'll have to check that out before the big cook feast for the birthday party in a few weeks.

I'm making a wild boar and venison stew with biscuits [and a large chicken for the non believers.] [there's always a few + I'm considerate that way]
 
#16 · (Edited)
We had a very nice Bottom round for New Years day dinner. About 5lbs reduced for quick sale in the meat dept so a $22 cut turned into a $11 cut. 

Light rub of veg oil then coarse sea salt and black pepper only on all sides, into a smoking skillet for 2 minutes per side and then a 450deg convection roast oven for 15 minutes. Reduced heat to 225 and used the same time formula I've used for Prime rib for the last 35 years. I've mentioned it before but for the sake of the thread theme......that 10 minutes per pound at 225 and reduce to 140 (actually changed ovens and moved things to the Advantium for this step) for 3.5 hours then back to the Profile convection on hold for the remaining hour or so. Normally, in my pro kitchen I would've had a nice 'sham to use and the temps are a bit different as well as the times plus you don't have to change ovens at all but.....I'm not dropping 5 grand just to have a roast a couple times a year. Not yet at least but that level of senility might not be that far around the corner. Anyhow......I've done this whole complete set of procedures in a Vulcan, Blodget, Southbend or GE Monogram/Profile oven a couple dozen times and had a perfect rare.

The meal was served with fresh made mashed taters(skin on but scrubbed with a green scrubby), sweet corn, broccoli and cheese sauce and some of the best lightly seasoned gravy I've been able to get from drippings in a long while. Sadly the holiday meals haven't been good for the diet so I just had beef, Broccoli (-minus cheese sauce), a scant amount of gravy and some corn. 

No pics but maybe I can take a pic of the remaining roast. It's been food-saved and actually looks very good in the sealed bag. At least you get a mouth-watering picture of the rare. Doing the German style ribs for our next meal. We do this one often but it's the DW and DD's favorite so if they're happy, I'm happy!
 
#18 ·
Sure gonna heat up the 'Q... What's a little bit of snow when it comes to BBQing? ;)
Now that's a wink of destiny. The slow-cooker is one of the clearly underused "toys" in our kitchen!
HMMM,


Dualing SO's perhaps?

Now that would be fun!

Love the 'Q

and I too should pull out my Crock Pot,

I know it's around here somewhere...

but yes PD, I agree, a most neglected piece of equipment, with some many uses indeed!

Like on the sweet, rather than savory side of the house, eh?
 
#21 ·
...
I'm making a wild boar and venison stew with biscuits [and a large chicken for the non believers.] [there's always a few + I'm considerate that way]
Had some Wild Boar Chili at this great place in Montana last year, YUM!

... and how sweet of you to think of the palates of others!

That's real ALOHA!
 
#22 ·
Due to my meager Fill the Pot efforts I use a slow cooker at least once I week. I was quite happy when I got to go from an ancient 3 quart to a more modern 6 quart unit. I'll be posting a dish tomorrow involving it.

mjb.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Good evening all! It's snowing here in Boston. I usually like to slow roast my lamb shank, but for this challenge, I decided to do a braise in a porter beer. Then, I had the idea of straining the braising liquid and using it in a mole...

I don't own or want to own a slow cooker, so this is all stovetop and oven. The beer was Berkshire Brewing Company's Coffee Porter and the chocolate was a oaxacan stone ground chocolate with guajillo chile by Taza chocolate. I had this leftover from holiday things. All local stuff for me.





There's no tomato, so all that red color is from chiles. What can I say? I like it hot hot hot!
 
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