Slow Cooking

Having a half hog and side of beef in our freezer results in a lot of roasts and other cuts of meat that require some time to make them tender and tasty.  From time to time on the weekends we'll play around with smoking items on our grill, but during the week we don't have time to babysit dinner for 4+ hours.  Our crock pot however gives us the opportunity to start something in the morning, head to work and have a meal ready when we get home.  It's probably one of our favorite and most indispensable kitchen appliances  This is a picture of our heavily used crock pot.  The knob on the top is a replacement knob made for pots.  The lid used to have a couple other parts that have since broke off, but the appliance itself still works well.  We use it about one to two times a week in the fall / winter and closer to once a week during the warmer months.  I'd say the absolute best feature of this crock pot is being able to program the time to the half hour and then flips to "warm" after the time has expired.  There are many slow cooker options that say they're programmable, but the only options are 4 or 6 hours on hi or 8 or 10 hours on low, being able to zero in a little bit better than this is invaluable.  It's perfect for making large amounts of food and having plenty of leftovers to enjoy the rest of the week or throw in the freezer for later. 

Recipes that we use our slow cooker for are all very easy, since our purpose is convenience.  For roasts we typically put the roast up on a bed of onions or sweet potatoes or something else that would support the roast.  Stews, soups, stocks are even easier, since we just toss everything in together and give it a stir.  Here are a couple of our favorite recipes:

Pulled Pork/Beef 
-3 lbs pork or beef roast
-1 medium onion - small dice
-1 bell pepper - small dice
-2 to 3 stalks of celery - small dice
-1 Tb pickling spice tied in cheesecloth or a tea ball
-1 tsp dry mustard
-1 tsp salt
-1 cup water
-4 oz tomato paste

Add all ingredients to slow cooker.  If you're putting the roast in frozen, set the timer for 8 hours on low, if thawed, 6 hours on low should be fine.  Once you get home and the time has expired leave the pot on warm and take the lid off, let the roast cool a bit and shred the roast either by hand or with two forks.  It's going to be very hot, so by hands is usually not my favorite option.  There should be plenty of juice in the crock, once shredded mix the meat into all of that juice and let everything sit together on warm for 20-30 minutes.

We vary the spices on this for whatever we're feeling like.  Sometimes a little more Mexican, sometimes Thai, or just barbeque.

Barbeque Short Ribs
-1.5 lbs of short ribs
-Favorite barbeque or steak rub, we found an awesome coffee barbeque rub that works well
-1 large sweet potato / 2-3 small, skinned cut into even sized chunks, inch or so high
-1/4 cup of water

Pour the water into the crock.  Place the sweet potatoes on the bottom of the crock, use these as the bed that you will set your short ribs on.  Give the short ribs a good rub down with the spice rub and place on top of the sweet potato.  Set the crock pot for about 6 hours if frozen and 4 hours if thawed.  Once complete pull the short ribs out, the top will have a bit of a crust formed, the rest should be tender and moist.  Pull the potatoes out, they're going to be plenty soft, and we typically just mash them with a little butter, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper and have them as a side.  Jess like a sauce on most of her's so she will use some sort of bbq sauce, I usually just put a couple spoon fulls of the broth at the bottom of the pan on mine.

Chicken Stock 
- Carcass from chicken including neck, and any other unused innards
- 3-4 stalks celery
- 1 large onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 carrot
- Sage
- 2 Tbs vinegar
- Parsley / Oregano

Add all ingredients to crock, except parsley and oregano if using fresh.  Cover completely with water, but make sure you leave yourself an inch or so at that top of the crock. Set cooker on low for 12-14 hours. Throw the fresh Parsley and Oregano in during the last 2 hours.  Once complete let cool and strain the stock into mason jars.  Let cool completely before putting in freezer/fridge, otherwise too drastic a temperature change can cause the glass to break, fridge not as big a deal.  The fat will rise to the top once in the fridge/freezer, this can be removed.  You'll notice homemade stock has a jello-y giggle to it, trust me, it's good for you and it all liquifies once heated.  I don't salt until I actually use it in a dish.  The vinegar gives it a little zip in the background that I really like, but it's obviously option and not necessary.

Chilli
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 onion - chopped
- 3 cloves garlic - chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper (or other favorite hot pepper) - chopped
- 1 bell pepper  - chopped
- 24 oz  salsa - we like Trader Joe's red salsa
- 36 oz  diced tomatoes, retain juice as well
- Chilli powder and cumin to taste
- Hot sauce to taste

Mix all ingredients together.  If you brown the beef beforehand, you can cook for as little as a couple hours, just to get the flavors to come together.  If you're not browning the beef then plan on 6-8 hours.  We'll swap in a half pound of hot Italian sausage sometimes as well for a little different taste, much more than that we've found too overpowering.  We also toss in some fresh parsley and oregano.

How do you use your slow cooker?