Slow Cookers and Simple Curries

My default rule, when trying a new recipe "as written," is to double all of the spices for my jaded palate. That worked pretty well for the Crockpot Butter Chicken I bookmarked from the New York Times this summer, and finally cooked when Chicago winter started coming.

My modification:

• Chop 3.5 lb. of chicken breasts into chunks (I cut each breast into eight pieces) and put them in your Crockpot.

• Dice two small onions in the cuisinart, then saute them lightly while you turn back and dice six cloves of garlic and round up 6 tbsp of ginger. (You could dice fresh ginger, but I don't usually have it on hand, so I used pre-chopped ginger from my freezer.) Add these to the pan and saute another few minutes.

• Add a small (6 oz.) can of tomato paste and 2 tbsp of garam masala, plus 2 tsp of salt. Stir it up again. Pour the whole thing over the chicken, along with the juice of half a lemon, 2 tsp of lime zest, and about a cup of coconut milk. Stick it on high for 5 hours.

Overall, pretty good, especially with some hot sauce and greek yogurt over rice.

N.B.: I don't believe in using the "low" setting of my Crockpot after reading a Cooks Illustrated article concluding that "low" and "high" cook at basically the same temperature, except that high gets to that temperature faster -- and therefore, I think, is probably slightly better from a food safety point of view.

Also I must confess, I don't love my Crockpot. My dreams of having easy, no-fuss dinner waiting for me every day when I get home never quite seem to come true. It usually takes too much prep to get everything going; some things (like beans) always end up too watery; it's always a pain to clean, even in the dishwasher; the insert is heavy and hard to handle, especially when hot. And yet I keep using it, month after month, including twice this weekend. It may be the most unrewarded workhouse of my kitchen.

Tiki Tinkering

I have been playing around lately with mocktails, and given my recent tiki obsession, that has been the overarching theme.  Here's where we are so far.

Tiki Tinker #1

One part passionfruit juice. (I like Aunty Lillikoi the best, and you can buy it from Tutu's Pantry.)
One part lime juice.
One part falernum.
One part water.

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour a little soda water into cocktail glass, add mocktail, and umbrella.

Notes: I originally tried this with much more passionfruit juice, but as much as we love it the juice is so pungent and bitter that it was too overwhelming. Also, I like to add the soda water first because then you don't have a strong cocktail on the bottom with a weak float on top.

The Border of Mississippi and Mexico

One of my favorite kinds of recipes to try is the kind where you learn not just a new dish but a new cooking technique, one that can transfer to lots of other dishes and emboldens you to try and invent new recipes. Believe it or not, that is my reaction to the quasi-viral article on Mississippi Roast.

First things first. Forget that silly New York Times version of the recipe -- unless you are such a snob that you are unwilling to try the ordinary version and need the Times to push you over the edge. I used this version from "The Supermom Chef," whose ingredients are, I kid you not, one chuck roast, two flavoring packets (Ranch dressing mix, Aus Jus mix), a stick of butter and a bunch of pepperocinis from a jar.  You put them all in your slowcooker on low for a long time and then eat them.

The results are delicious.  That is not to say that the recipe cannot be improved -- it has way way too much butter for my taste, and the Aus Jus is a little salty even for me. (Ranch dressing mix, though, turns out to be a pretty neat spice hack.)

But, really, the most interesting thing to me was the basic technique. It turns out that you can cook a giant hunk of meat in your crockpot without adding any liquid at all.  This is the real secret genius at the heart of the Mississippi Roast. Cheap, fatty roasts like chuck roast and probably various kinds of pork slowly melt down into pieces if you just cook them slow and low for a long long time, which is your crockpot's specialty. I have been tinkering with this and suspect you can eliminate the butter entirely, though I haven't gone that far.

So here was last night's attempt to innovate on the basic concept and make a simple shredded beef for tacos:

• One chuck roast
• Two tablespoons butter (I'll try omitting this next time)
• Two tablespoons Penzey's "Adobo" seasoning (mostly garlic and onion powder with a little bit of black pepper, cumin, and oregano)
• A bunch of pickled jalapeno slices from a jar

• Cook for ten hours in your slow-cooker on low
• Splash in some of the jalapeno pickle juice at the end for a bit of acid to balance the richness

This basically falls apart and goes right into tortillas, dressed in my case with some pickled radishes, a bit of cheddar cheese, and some chipotle hot sauce, but you can do whatever.  Yes, there is still lots of room for improvement (I will probably add ancho chili next time, and omit all the butter), plus add some salt. But this discovery may have saved me from a lifetime of overly watery stews.

If you own a crockpot and are not a vegetarian (do vegetarians use crockpots?) you should be trying to put in a giant hunk of meat.