Monday, June 11, 2007 4:03 PM
What are some slow cooker recipes?
Q. I would love to utilize my Crockpot more, but I just can't find anything that isn't pot roast or beef stew to make. Any advice?
A: Basically, anything that cooks low and slow in moist heat in an oven or on the stovetop can be made in a slow cooker. I think the only rule of thumb is that you don’t want to use any ingredient that’ll disintegrate after hours of cooking, like carrots or rice. I’ve seen recipes that use both, but seriously, they turn to mush when you cook them, even on low, for as long as it takes the other ingredients in a recipe to cook down.
There are recipes for everything from appetizers (meatballs, artichoke dip, broccoli-cheese dip) and oatmeal to soups and smothered pork chops online, which is where you might want to start. But there are also plenty of cookbooks filled with ideas and recipes for your cooking in your Crockpot, like Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes for Two (Harvard Common Press, 2006) by Beth Hensperger and The Everyday Low-Carb Slow Cooker Cookbook (Marlow & Co., 2004) by Kitty Broihier and Kimberly Mayone. But because I’m a Southern girl, I’ll give you my favorite slow cooker recipe for Shrimp Creole.
Ingredients
1-2 cups diced celery
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped bell pepper
[NOTE: This trio of veggies, known as the “Holy Trinity” of Southern cooking, can be found all chopped, prepped and ready in the frozen vegetable section of your grocery store. Don’t worry about exact measurements of each vegetable—just make sure you have about 3 cups of chopped celery, onion and bell pepper, total.)
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes
1 tbsp. chopped garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. Tabasco hot sauce
1-2 lbs. shrimp, cleaned and shelled
Throw everything but the shrimp in the slow cooker and stir to mix. Cook the “sauce” for 3-4 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low. Add shrimp during the last 1/2-hour of cooking. Serve over steamed rice.