Slow & Easy Does It--A New Cookbook for the Slow Cooker
As you know, I've recently been inducted into the not-so-secret "I love my slow cooker" club. After getting my very first slow cooker, a 4-quart model from Cuisinart, I set forth to become a slow-cooking expert. In just about a month's time I've cooked approximately 15 dishes in my slow cooker (it's been working hard!), first testing the Reader Recipes from our slow-cooker contest. That was a great crash course! I also picked up a new slow-cooker cookbook, Slow & Easy: Fast-Fix Recipes for Your Electric Slow Cooker, by Natalie Haughton. I've bookmarked roughly 30 recipes to try "ASAP" from this cookbook, and I've already made three of them.
Slow & Easy runs the gamut on slow cooking, with chapters devoted to appetizers, dips, soups, pasta, poultry, seafood, beef, pork, one-pot meals, side dishes, breakfast, desserts, and even a chapter on preserves, chutneys, and salsas. There's also a terrific introduction, covering slow-cooking basics, how to select the slow cooker that's right for you, tips and tricks, and other information useful for a novice like me. In my opinion, there could be a few more one-pot vegetarian meals, but in my recent "research," slow cooking seems mostly to be for carnivores, so I'm not too surprised that most books don't focus on the green stuff. Oh, and if you're looking for a book where every recipe doesn't involve a can of cream soup, you're in luck! The recipes here are by nature simple--few ingredients, not many steps--but they also make use of basics from your produce and meat departments instead of prepacked, premade foods you just dump in the pot.
On my ASAP list: Smoky Roasted Cashews, Creamy Southwestern Soup, Simple Zucchini Soup, Gorgonzola and Walnut Ravioli Bolognese, Pulled Barbecued Chicken, Artichoke-Parmesan Risotto, French Toast Bake, Warm Chocolate Lava Cake...and many more!
The three recipes I've tried already are Overnight Oatmeal with Cinnamon and Bananas, Slow Mac and Cheese, and Tamale Pie. The oatmeal turned out great, though if you're like me and used to the instant stuff, it's a whole different experience! My toddler gobbled it up and demanded more immediately. The mac and cheese was a bit more of a baked recipe, than a creamy recipe, so I doctored it up with a little cheese sauce and we've been eating it all week (slow cookers make a lot of food!). The tamale pie is my new favorite dinner recipe! The saucy-beefy filling has both corn and olives, two of my favorites, and it's all cooked between layers of precooked polenta. Served with sour cream and cilantro, it makes a terrific one-pot meal. My one change for the next time I make it--more polenta! I think I might add an extra layer in the middle and see how it turns out. Really, I could eat this dish for every meal!
Tamale Pie
From Slow & Easy: Fast-Fix Recipes for Your Electric Slow Cooker by Natalie Haughton (Wiley, 2009)
Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1-1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 cup coarsely chopped ripe olives (6-ounce can)
1-3/4 cups corn kernels (fresh, frozen, or canned)
1 log (18 ounces) ready-to-heat, precooked polenta, preferably organic
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Sour cream and chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
Directions:
1. In a large skillet, sauté the ground beef with the onion over medium-high heat, breaking up any large lumps of meat, until lightly browned, 7 to 8 minutes. Drain off any excess fat.
2. Stir in the bell pepper, chili powder, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Cook for another 2 minutes to toast the spices. Stir in the tomatoes, olives, and corn. Mix well.
3. Cut the polenta roll crosswise into 10 to 12 rounds about 3/4-inch thick. Use half of the slices to line the bottom of a 4-quart electric slow cooker, trimming the rounds as necessary to fit. Spoon the meat mixture over the polenta, spreading it evenly. Top with the remaining polenta slices.
4. Cover and cook on the low-heat setting for 4 to 4-1/2 hours. Remove the lid and sprinkle the cheese over the top of the tamale pie. Raise the heat setting to high and cook with the cover ajar for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Serve the tamale pie hot, garnished with sour cream and chopped cilantro.
Makes 6 servings.
--KitchenMaus
Colin on February 14, 2009 at 05:48 PM
You are using a 4-quart? I think my 6.5 is way too small, and I am shopping for a 9 or bigger. I love cooking large slabs of meat.
One thing I do that I don't see others adding to meat, add a quarter cup of good olive oil. Keeps the meat so much moister.
I will be looking for this book.
Don in Arizona on February 15, 2009 at 06:32 PM
This recipe was very good ... a keeper, definitely.
I made one modification -- I put the full 16oz of polenta on the bottom, then in the last 1/2 hour I layered on the cheddar cheese and then spooned on Jiffy Corn Muffin mix to form a kind of cornbread dumpling. It was fluffy/muffiny in about that time, and was delicious.
For those who like things a bit spicier, perhaps some Jalapeno's?