Crock pot ideas/Recipie

[spokewench]

If you've never had cilantro before- you might want to tast it first and decide if you want to use a slightly smaller amount the first time. We have grown to love it and can never put "too much" in.
Let us know how it comes out!

To the Cilantro newbie: Be careful how much cilantro you put in. Some people adore cilantro and some people JUST cannot stand it! It really is one of those spices that can turn some people off of their food.

Me, I love it! but be careful CB (Cilantro Newbie)!

[emily_in_nc]

I love cilantro! DH just made delicious black bean soup a few nights ago, but discovered to his dismay that the lovely green stuff he brought in from the garden (it had volunteered, and we've grown both parsley and cilantro in the past), was flat-leaf parsley rather than cilantro as he'd thought. Sigh! I kinda suspected it since I know that parsley can winter over but wasn't so sure about cilantro.

So, cumin went into the soup instead (good, but not as good), and the chopped fresh parsley went on our side dish of corn.

Enjoy your soup!

Emily, whose mother doesn't like cilantro either, go figure....

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I made lentil soup for dinner in my slow cooker/crockpot today. I followed the vegetarian cookbook recipe almost exactly (I substituted bok choy for the kale strips though, since I had it on hand), and I used some of those pretty little dark green "French lentils" from the health food store.
DH liked it well enough, said it was tasty. In fact it WAS tasty, but....I still don't like lentil soup. Oh well.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I bought a shopping bag ful of fresh apples today at the farmer's market.
My husband is a BIG fan of apple butter on toast. Last year I made tons of it as a 2 day project.
This year I have a little less time available so i'll make a bit more modest amount of apple butter this weekend. Even just a few jars will make DH very happy. If I can manage some extra I can give some to daughter and DIL when they come for Thanksgiving and they can take it home.

Here's my recipe for apple butter, which I make in my big crock pot:

First, you cut up a whole SLEW of apples and fill a big spaghetti pot on the stove with them and cook covered on medium-low for about 45 minutes or an hour with an inch or so of water. Stir and mash occasionally....and you get apple sauce. Add a little sugar if its too tart.

Then, to make that into apple butter, you take the apple sauce you just made and transfer it a large crock pot and continue cooking on LOW for hours with the top propped open a little, to let it evaporate and get thicker. I use slow cookers for this, about 6 qt size ones. Be sure to leave at least an inch of space at the top when you fill the crockpot with apple sauce.
After about 12 hours in the crockpot on LOW (not on the high setting!), with an occasional stir every few hours, it's brown and thick but tastes like very concentrated apple, not burnt tasting. It should be stiffer than apple sauce.

I then add some sugar and a little allspice and cloves (I prefer this to the usual cinnamon)....to give it a hint of spiciness. You could try coriander or mace too. At the end if it's too chunky, I give it a quick zap with my hand held blender stick to make it a bit smoother than my usually chunky apple sauce.
Let cool and pack into containers and freeze.
Note: Unlike stovetop cooking, you can safely leave your crockpot cooking on LOW overnight if you place it on a safe surface and prop the lids open a crack with a metal teaspoon handle or large unbent paper clip. The lid needs to be open a crack to allow the apple butter to thicken while cooking.

[tulip]

I love making lasagne in my crock pot. Layer all the ingredients, don't cook the noodles, and cook on low for 4-5 hours. So easy and not messy!

[OakLeaf]

Oh what a great idea Tulip! I don't even have a crock pot but I might get one to make lasagne!

[tulip]

Oh what a great idea Tulip! I don't even have a crock pot but I might get one to make lasagne!

Yeah, I've never had a crockpot before my kitchen renovation started. The lasagne is fantastic. I use a whole bag of fresh spinach in there (just layer it with the other stuff!)

[mudmucker]

I made lentil soup for dinner in my slow cooker/crockpot today. I followed the vegetarian cookbook recipe almost exactly (I substituted bok choy for the kale strips though, since I had it on hand), and I used some of those pretty little dark green "French lentils" from the health food store.
DH liked it well enough, said it was tasty. In fact it WAS tasty, but....I still don't like lentil soup. Oh well.

I never really cared for lentils too much either, until I started cooking Indian once and a while where to really make it authentic it is recommended to use lentils (dal) grown in India rather than the U.S. What a difference ! The asian lentils are so much sweeter, have more flavor, and are less mealy. I buy toor dal (yellow lentils) at an East West store in the town where I work. There are other dals that I get but these are my favorite. I make a perfumed spiced puree with these to dip flat breads in. The toor dal is so flavorful to me I started using them in my general pea soup recipe with ham bone stock. I'll never go back to the green or black western lentils again.

I use the crock pot alot too, mostly in the winter. I had a bad health scare about 10 years ago so now I try to remove as many artificial ingredients as possible from my food. That means preparing most things from scratch, including breads, rolls, soups, desserts etc. It really doesn't always have to take up alot of time. As for beans, I used dried black beans and cannenelli beans, provided I remember to soak them. But I have a pressure cooker for those times I simply can't wait to soak beans overnight and then cook them. You can get beans ready in 40 minutes that way. And of course though, you don't have to soak lentils.

[OakLeaf]

Does it really make a difference where they're grown? I've bought channa and rajma (chickpeas and kidney beans) from the Indian grocery before and they didn't taste any different from what I'm used to. Indian-grown rajma are maybe a little smaller than American kidney beans, but I didn't notice a flavor difference.

Of course there are lots of varieties of beans that are traditional in Indian but not European, East Asian or American cooking, and vice versa - but I know there's US-grown moong and masoor dal anyhow. Those two are probably my favorite for puree-style dals and Indian soups.

Do you use the oily or dry toover dal?

[mudmucker]

Of legumes and flavor differences let me refine - I was speaking mostly of a kind of lentil I like and meant to emphasize that. I re-read it and it does sound like a general collective statement that all asian lentils seem to taste better.

That said, I do find that toor dal is much more flavorful and has a little bit more of a silkier texture than that of the green or brown lentils of the west. I was actually surprised at the difference when I discovered them. For me I find that these particular yellow split lentils are very different and I find I like them much better as far as lentils go. I buy the dry kind vs. oily.

But you do bring up a good distinction. I also use mung dal and urad dal and I don't find that much of a difference. Of the other legumes like the chickpeas or kidney beans I don't find that much of a difference either, but I don't mind the flavor or texture of what you can find U.S. grown so I'll just get the dried version of those.