Crock Pot Cooking

Alright.....so after talking to a few colleagues of mine....they all mentioned that they love their crock pot/slow cooker.

I am not a crock pot expert, but I do have some helpful recommendations that benefit from crock pot cooking.

1. Choose the right meat -

• Beef - Highly recommend chuck, or short ribs.
• Chicken - thighs, drumsticks with bone in add richness, whole chicken cut in half works as well.
• Pork - Shoulder or pork butt work the best.
• Lamb - Leg or shoulder would both work.

2. Choose liquid to cook in -

• Chicken, beef, pork, lamb, veg stock 
• Chicken broth, beef broth
• Tomato sauce with combo of above liquid

3. Vegetables should be cut relatively large (size of a golf ball), unless you want them to disintegrate

• Of course, the classic Mirepoix (50 % onion, 25% carrot, 25% celery). 
• Other root vegetables, radishes, parsnips. 

4. Aromatics (things that give it a nice smell as well as taste).

• Rosemary 
• Thyme
• Sage
• Pepper corns (crushed)
• Bay leaf
• Parsley stems

5. Other things that might add a little dimension/complexity

• Wine (red or white)
• Tomato paste
• Garlic
• Ripe cherry tomatoes

While this isn't the end all be all for crock pots, these are good recommendations to consider. For the meat section, if you slow cook these for long periods of time, the size that you cut them will influence the amount of time it takes to cook. smaller = shorter.  while,  bigger = longer.

Easy recipe tip
Rustic Beef Stew (classic)

Ingredients:
1. About 2 lbs Chuck cubed into golf ball size portions.
2. One can of tomato sauce.
3. Standard Mirepoix, use one onion- Ratio to onion is (50% oinion, 25 % carrot, 25% celery).
5. About 2 cans or favorite brand of beef stock.
6. 2 bay leaves
7. Flour for dusting
8. Salt and pepper to taste
9. Oil for browning meat

Directions

1. Dry cubed chuck and season with salt and pepper. Lightly dust with flour and brown is separate pan. Do this in 2 to 3 batches at a time. NOT ALL AT ONCE OR YOUR BEEF WILL NOT BROWN. Remember the more brown the meat gets the better your stew will taste (trust me).

2. Put browned chuck into crock pot and cover with beef stock, tomato sauce and the rest of ingredients. Cook in crock pot for about 4 to 6 hours if on high, if on low cook beef for 10-12 hours.

I don't own a crock pot but I am basing this off the manufacture's directions.The basic idea is to cook meat low and slow in liquid. Browning the meat and just covering it with liquid is known as braising. I plan to talk about that in a seperate post.

Here's a manual(PDF Link) I referenced for the crock pot cooking.  Check out the directions for yourself to get a better idea what works best for you.

Serve with rice :)

* If you are absolutely pressed for time mix beef stock and tomato sauce with 1 spoonful of flour and then add all ingredients and cook until meat is soft (the above recipe is recommended though).