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[crumpet]

My slow cooker perished last week...but its already been replaced with a new, posher slow cooker. This one even has a timer so that I can tell it when I want to have my supper ready for me. Yeah!

A black bean and sweet potato chile sounds amazing. Please share your recipe post-experiment!

[marigolds]

My slow cooker perished last week...but its already been replaced with a new, posher slow cooker. This one even has a timer so that I can tell it when I want to have my supper ready for me. Yeah!

A black bean and sweet potato chile sounds amazing. Please share your recipe post-experiment!

I had cooked a batch of the crockpot salsa chicken (dump frozen chicken thighs in cooker, cover with salsa. Add black beans and frozen corn and cook until done.  Then you melt in cream cheese, but it made so much that I split it up -- I only added cream cheese to half, and the other half I dumped back in the cooker with the rest of the ingredients from Paula Deen's recipe. Plus I had three leftover baked sweet potatoes I need to use up, so I cubed those and added them.) it's good!!  Pretty spicy--the green chilies and the Ro-Tel I used were both of the "hot" variety.

Enough for the week, since Sprout wouldn't touch it if I paid him.

[molli_sols]

I know the Not Your Mother's CrockPot book has come up here a few times.  Has anyone tried the Hungarian goulash from it?  I made it up last night and it was pretty watery...nothing at all like my mother's goulash (although we're Polish so that's probably not authentic either).  Has anyone ever tried to put potatoes in the bottom a a stewish recipe that didn't call for them?  I was thinking next time I might try that.

[crumpet]

I made a black bean chile (thanks for the inspiration!).

It was easy and lovely. Basically:

black beans (pre-soaked)
onions
garlic
chile peppers
cumin
red pepper flakes
bell pepper
frozen corn
can of tomato
water/stock

YUM

[alleyoxenfree]

The curry rice is getting me to bookmark.  I've never used my crockpot but this could be the year.

[undisciplined]

I made this recipe last week:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2012/01/25/slow-cooker-spicy-curried-pork/

Delish. I used a 5 lb. roast, so had lots of leftovers. Based on this recipe, I may buy the cookbook from which it comes, _The French Slow Cooker_.

[bamabound]

I made this recipe last week:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2012/01/25/slow-cooker-spicy-curried-pork/

Delish. I used a 5 lb. roast, so had lots of leftovers. Based on this recipe, I may buy the cookbook from which it comes, _The French Slow Cooker_.

Thanks for the link. I have the author's prior slow cooker book, The Italian Slow Cooker, and it's pretty good.  I have too many cookbooks now, so I've started checking them out from the public library and photocopying those pages that look good. 

[altacad]

I'm not sure how many people are dessert-eaters but I'm trying to figure out more recipes for desserts in the slow-cooker.  Recently I tried the following, modified from something I found somewhere--

5 cups chopped apples
1 box (4 oz.) caramel hard candy (Nips)

All in crockpot for 2 hours on high (you could do it longer on low and maybe that would be better--might try next time).  It gets mushy, caramel-y, yummy.  I figured that it's not terrible for you, except that I put ice cream on it so that blows that theory. 

I read you could also use red-hot candies, probably the same amount, for a cinnamon-apple taste, and I think you might be able to use chocolate or butterscotch too.

Does anyone else do dessert in slow-cooker?

[mixedmetaphor]

I adore the combination of black beans and sweet potatoes. I may have to try my hand at some sort of black bean and sweet potato chili myself this week! 

I threw together a pretty tasty black bean and sweet potato chili this weekend:

1 C dried black beans, soaked overnight and rinsed twice
1 1/2 C veg stock
1/2 C water (which, in hindsight, probably wasn't necessary)
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
1 t curry powder (which is my extra special secret ingredient in pretty much every savory dish)
1 small white onion, diced
1/2 sweet red pepper, diced
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into ~ 1/2" dice

I started it on high for about an hour with just the beans and stock because I was worried about the beans being undercooked, but I think I would have been okay regardless.  I let this cook for the most part on low for 8 hours.  Quite spicy, but in a complex way.  Plus, the notes of sweetness from the sweet potato cut through and a dollop of sour cream lent a creamy coolness to my giant dinnertime serving.  I'm thinking about adding a pinch or two of cinnamon next time, and perhaps a cup of frozen corn at the end.

[sugaree]

I adore the combination of black beans and sweet potatoes. I may have to try my hand at some sort of black bean and sweet potato chili myself this week! 

I threw together a pretty tasty black bean and sweet potato chili this weekend:

1 C dried black beans, soaked overnight and rinsed twice
1 1/2 C veg stock
1/2 C water (which, in hindsight, probably wasn't necessary)
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
1 t curry powder (which is my extra special secret ingredient in pretty much every savory dish)
1 small white onion, diced
1/2 sweet red pepper, diced
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into ~ 1/2" dice

I started it on high for about an hour with just the beans and stock because I was worried about the beans being undercooked, but I think I would have been okay regardless.  I let this cook for the most part on low for 8 hours.  Quite spicy, but in a complex way.  Plus, the notes of sweetness from the sweet potato cut through and a dollop of sour cream lent a creamy coolness to my giant dinnertime serving.  I'm thinking about adding a pinch or two of cinnamon next time, and perhaps a cup of frozen corn at the end.

This sounds awesome! I am going to have to try it, and I think I will add some cilantro as a garnish along with the sour cream. Yum! I adore the idea of something cooking all day without me being there and then coming home to a hot meal. I love this thread.

[molli_sols]

Trying something new in the crockpot today and it sounded so yummy I've been thinking about getting home to eat it all day.  It's supposed to be a turkey cassoulet but it has no crust so I'm making some biscuits from a refrigerated can for a side. 

In the crock goes:
1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
4 stalks celery, sliced
2 cans white beans
2 bay leaves
2 cloves minced garlic
1 pound turkey breast cutlets in 1 inch cubes
1.5 cups chicken broth
1.5 cups water
1/4 tsp. black pepper

It cooks on low all day and in the last 10 minutes you add:
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp. salt

I haven't decided if I'm going to cook the biscuits in the oven or lay them on top so they are more like dumplings.  Hope it comes out as good as it smelled as I left the house this morning.

[crumpet]

I had my first epic fail in the slow cooker. I thought I should share it as a cautionary tale.

I found a lovely fish stew recipe online that looked easy and delicious. I had wanted to try to make fish in the slow cooker for a while so I gave it a go.

My entire apartment ended up smelling strongly of fish...and the fishy smell lingered and lingered. The smell was so intense that it completely killed my friend's appetite and almost killed my own.

The stew? Delicious...but I could only eat about half of it before feeling like giving up. Somehow the overly-fishy smell just made it seem...wrong.

[mixedmetaphor]

I've been on a ratatouille kick with the slow cooker these days.  Layer the following ingredients in this order:

1 T olive oil (spread around a bit)
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 small or medium eggplant, peeled and sliced/diced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 yellow squash, sliced
1 t salt
10-15 grinds black pepper
1 can Italian-style diced tomatoes

Takes 3-4 hours on low and is great with rice, couscous, or quinoa.

[crumpet]

I've been on a ratatouille kick with the slow cooker these days.  Layer the following ingredients in this order:

1 T olive oil (spread around a bit)
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 small or medium eggplant, peeled and sliced/diced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 yellow squash, sliced
1 t salt
10-15 grinds black pepper
1 can Italian-style diced tomatoes

Takes 3-4 hours on low and is great with rice, couscous, or quinoa.

Yes.

[mouseprof]

If you're like me and sometimes tend to forget about dinner until dinner time, here is another alternative to the crockpot that is just as easy.  Pampered Chef makes something called the deep Covered Baker, it's part of their stoneware collection.  It's kind of pricey...but you can cook just about anything in there IN THE MICROWAVE! I know it sounds gross, but everything turns out wonderfully; looking and tasting like it was cooked through conventional methods.  You can do an entire chicken in it, or past dishes.  It sounds weird, but it really does work!