{"id":242,"date":"2008-12-29T20:58:33","date_gmt":"2008-12-30T01:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/?p=242"},"modified":"2008-12-29T21:00:13","modified_gmt":"2008-12-30T02:00:13","slug":"slow-cooker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/2008\/slow-cooker\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Cooker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With winter weather here, we tend to pull out the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crock_Pot\">slow cooker<\/a> much more often.\u00a0 It still gets used in the summer months, but not nearly as much as the BBQ.\u00a0 As an aside I did manage to keep my promise to myself and dig out the BBQ to make some tasty steak <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fajita\">fajitas<\/a> this winter.<\/p>\n<p>You can make a lot more than just stew in a crock-pot. Here are a few of my non-stew favorites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spaghetti Sauce<\/li>\n<li>Beef Vindaloo<\/li>\n<li>Clam Chowder<\/li>\n<li>Pulled Pork<\/li>\n<li>Chili Con Carne<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With a 6-quart pot, we can usually make enough to cover dinner plus either another whole dinner for another night or a couple of lunches.\u00a0 Generally most of the recipes taste better the longer you cook them, and if I&#8217;ve been thinking far enough ahead I cook on low for 2x the time (so 4hrs becomes 8hrs).<\/p>\n<p>Let me also recommend a great recipe book: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Canadas-Best-Slow-Cooker-Recipes\/dp\/0778800245\">Canada&#8217;s Best Slow Cooker Recipes<\/a> ISBN 0-7788-0024-5.\u00a0 Generally you can pretty easily convert many normal recipes for use in the slow cooker, just cut the liquid by half (or more) &#8211; a little experimenting is all it takes to have dinner ready and waiting with almost no effort.<\/p>\n<p>Read on if you want the recipes for my list of favorites above.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Spaghetti Sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chop 3 cloves garlic, 1 big onion, 1 green pepper. Add 1lb ground beef and brown in frying pan. Transfer to slow cooker, removing grease\/fat.<br \/>\nAdd 28oz can crushed tomatoes, 2 cans (5.5oz) tomato paste<br \/>\nSeasoning: 1\/2 tsp each &#8211; pepper, oregano, basil, sugar &amp; 1 bay leaf<\/p>\n<p>Cook for ~4hrs on high.\u00a0 We often add a dash of hot pepper flakes and sliced mushrooms.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beef Vindaloo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Basically a modified version of what you find on the back of the Patak&#8217;s bottle.<\/p>\n<p>Chop 1 large onion and 2 or 3 large potatoes.<br \/>\nAdd 1lb of stewing beef cut into cubes.<br \/>\n4 to 6 tbsp of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Pataks-VINDALOO-HOT-CURRY-PASTE\/dp\/B00024455K\">Patak&#8217;s Vindaloo Curry Paste<\/a><br \/>\n28oz can chopped tomatoes<\/p>\n<p>Cook ~5hrs on high.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Clam Chowder<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Finely chop 4 to 6 slices of bacon, 1 onion and 3 stalks of celery.\u00a0 Cook together in a frying pan until bacon is done. Transfer to slow cooker, removing grease\/fat.<br \/>\nAdd liquid from 2 cans of baby clams (set clams aside).\u00a0 Add 1 cup water, 3 medium potatoes chopped.<br \/>\nSeasoning: 1 tsp Worcestershire, 1\/2 tsp pepper, 1 bay leaf.<\/p>\n<p>Cook 3-4hrs on high (ensure potatoes are cooked)<\/p>\n<p>Remove bay leaf. Chop and add 1\/2 green pepper.<br \/>\nMix 1\/4 cup flour with 1\/2 of 13oz can of evaporated milk (until no lumps).\u00a0 Add mixture to slow cooker with remainder of evaporated milk, and reserved clams from above.<\/p>\n<p>Cook another 30mins on high<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pulled Pork<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Really easy.\u00a0 Buy some pork shoulder.\u00a0 Stick it in the slow cooker over night on low.\u00a0 Add a tasty BBQ sauce.\u00a0 Eat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chili Con Carne<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chop 1 onion, 1 green pepper.\u00a0 Brown in frying pan with 1lb ground beef. Transfer to slow cooker, removing grease\/fat.<br \/>\nAdd 28oz crushed tomatoes, 19oz red kidney beans, 14oz baked beans, 5.5oz tomato paste.<br \/>\nSeasoning: 3 cloves garlic (crushed),\u00a0 1 tbsp oregano,\u00a0 2 tbsp chili powder.\u00a0 1 square bakers chocolate.<\/p>\n<p>Cook ~4hrs on high.<\/p>\n<p>Note: Jenn found a wicked Chipotle Chili powder from <a href=\"http:\/\/epicureselections.com\">Epicure Selections<\/a>.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With winter weather here, we tend to pull out the slow cooker much more often.\u00a0 It still gets used in the summer months, but not nearly as much as the BBQ.\u00a0 As an aside I did manage to keep my promise to myself and dig out the BBQ to make some tasty steak fajitas this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/2008\/slow-cooker\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Slow Cooker&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}