In honor of the question, "What on earth do I do with that Costco-impulse-buy Crock Pot sitting on the kitchen counter," I present: Crock Pot Cooking: Low and Slow is the way to go! (Part I)
Ah, the formerly avocado and mustard colored cooking wonders of the Seventies have climbed back to kitchen counter popularity.One result of the economic downturn is a focus of our collective cooking attention on home cooked meals. Crock-pots, a.k.a. slow cookers, answer the question: How to get a home -made dinner on the table, while multi tasking all day long, without channeling Kelly Ripa in a Electrolux commercial!
Slow cookers are best used for recipe results that benefit from low cooking temperatures over an extended period of time. Traditionally, slow cookers have been valued for stewing and braising tough cuts of meat that tenderize and fall apart during a long simmer, as well as soup, chili, and stew.
It's also a great tool for sweating down those mounds of onion for French onion soup!
Recipes and cookbooks for slow cookers flourish alongside the popularity of the appliance. My favorite title is Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook and I might have to try Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker: Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the World.
