Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever (12 page)

This velvety chowder filled with lobster, crab, and scallops is a whole meal in a bowl. Make sure to use lobster stock for this chowder because it gives the soup the necessary richness it needs alongside the luxurious seafood.

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

½ teaspoon dried thyme

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

6 cups lobster stock

2 tablespoons brandy

½ pound cooked lobster meat, picked over for shells and cartilage

½ pound lump crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage

¼ pound bay or sea scallops, cut into quarters

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup finely chopped fresh chives for garnishing

melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, paprika, and thyme and sauté until the vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, whisking the roux constantly. Stir in the stock and brandy and bring to a boil.

transfer the contents of the skillet to the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook for 4 hours on low. Add the lobster, crab, scallops, and cream and cook on low for an additional 1 hour.

serve the soup garnished with chives.

serves 8

This delicious soup begins with a roux, which flavors the soup with Creole seasoning and gives it a spicy quality that balances well with the sweet corn and crabmeat. You can certainly substitute shrimp for the crab, or for those allergic to shellfish, many of my students love this soup with leftover chicken or turkey. Anyway you make it, it’s a winner when served with some crusty bread.

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 medium sweet onions, such as Vidalia, finely chopped

4 stalks celery, finely chopped

½ teaspoon sweet paprika

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

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teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon dried thyme

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

5 cups seafood stock (see savvy)

One 16-ounce package frozen white corn, defrosted

1 pound lump crabmeat, picked over for cartilage and shells

1 cup cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ cup finely chopped fresh chives

melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat.

add the onions, celery, paprika, black and cayenne peppers, and thyme and sauté until the vegetables are softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes, whisking the roux constantly. Stir in the stock and bring the mixture to a boil.

transfer the contents of the skillet to the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker. Add the corn, cover, and cook on high for 2 hours. Stir in the crabmeat and cream and cook on low for an additional 30 minutes.

season with salt and pepper. Garnish each serving with chives.

serves 8

seafood-stock savvy

Your local grocer or gourmet retailer may sell seafood stock. My preferences are More Than Goumet seafood stock or Better Than Bouillon lobster stock. Another way to approximate seafood stock to is mix equal parts clam juice and chicken broth.

Simmered with garlic, oregano, tomato, and lemon zest, this soup will have you dreaming of Greek islands and the blue coastal waters of the Mediterranean. This soup can also be made with fish, such as halibut or sea bass, cut into one-inch chunks.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1 cup dry white wine or vermouth

One 14- to 15-ounce can chopped tomatoes, with their juice

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup raw converted rice

1½ pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

½ cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley for garnishing

1 cup crumbled feta cheese for garnishing

heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, onion, oregano, basil, and lemon zest and sauté until the onion is softened, about 3 minutes.

deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and transfer the contents of the sauté pan to the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker.

stir in the tomatoes, broth, and rice. cover and cook on high for 2 hours or on low for 4 hours, until the rice is tender. Stir in the shrimp, cover, and cook for an additional 20 minutes, until the shrimp is cooked through.

serve garnished with the parsley and feta.

serves 8

Another example of fishermen making the most of everything they catch, this simple soup combines zesty south-of-the-border flavors and seafood to make a terrific one-pot meal for a casual fiesta or weeknight dinner.

Four 6-inch corn tortillas, cut into thin strips

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped

2 medium red bell peppers, finely chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

One 12-ounce bottle Corona or other light

Mexican beer

One 28- to 32-ounce can chopped tomatoes, with their juice

One 8-ounce bottle clam juice

1 pound sea bass, halibut, or red snapper fillets, cut into 1-inch chunks

2 cups cooked long-grain rice

½ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

place the tortillas in the bottom of the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker.

heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeño, bell peppers, cumin, and oregano and sauté until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.

deglaze the pan with the beer, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Transfer the contents of the skillet to the slow-cooker insert and stir to combine with the tortillas. Stir in the tomatoes and clam juice.

cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. Stir in the fish, rice, and cilantro and cook for an additional 1 hour, until the fish is cooked through.

season with salt and pepper before serving.

serves 8

Miso soup, like mom’s chicken soup, is good for what ails you. A recent television show in Japan had contestants do a blind taste test of miso soups and all of them identified their mom’s soup on the first try! Early use of miso soup as a restorative dates back to the 7th century, when it was served to Samurais to heal their bodies and minds. Miso is generally started with a dried sardine-based stock called
dashi
, but vegetable stock works as well. In this soup, the miso and shiitakes simmer to produce a delicious broth that infuses flavor into the shrimp and tofu.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps sliced

¼ cup light miso paste

6 cups vegetable or chicken broth

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 pound firm tofu, cut into ½-inch cubes

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed

6 green onions, finely chopped

Toasted sesame oil for drizzling

Toasted sesame seeds for garnishing

heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and sauté until they are fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and toss with the garlic and ginger.

transfer the contents of the skillet to the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker. Stir in the miso, broth, and soy sauce.

cover and cook on high for 2½ to 3 hours. Add the tofu and shrimp, cover, turn the cooker to low, and cook until the shrimp are pink and cooked through, about 30 minutes.

add the green onions to the soup and serve drizzled with the sesame oil and garnished with sesame seeds.

serves 8

Cioppino is a regional dish from the San Francisco Bay Area. In the days when fishing fleets plied the cold waters off San Francisco, fishermen would return and use the scraps from their hauls to make a delicious stew, which they called cioppino. A quick check with any fishing community will tell you they all have some kind of soup or stew made with bits and leftovers. This one shows its Italian influences in the garlic, tomato, basil, and oregano. In San Francisco they serve this with crusty sourdough bread, which you can purchase in most areas of the country. If you can’t find sourdough, a crusty French or Italian loaf sops up the flavorful juices just as well.

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped

1½ teaspoons dried oregano

1½ teaspoons dried basil

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teaspoon red pepper flakes

1½ cups white wine

One 28- to 32-ounce can plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

3 tablespoons tomato paste

One 8-ounce bottle clam juice

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 large Dungeness crab or 4 large king crab legs, cracked and cut into bite-size pieces (see savvy)

2 lobster tails, split and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 pound sea bass, cut into 1-inch chunks

¾ pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

24 littleneck clams, shells scrubbed

½ cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley for garnishing

heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, bell pepper, oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes and sauté until the onion is softened, about 3 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and bring to a boil. Reduce by half.

transfer the contents of the skillet to the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, clam juice, bay leaf, and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours. Add the crab, lobster, sea bass, shrimp, and clams.

cover and cook on low for 1 hour, until the shrimp are pink and the clams have opened. Discard the bay leaf and any clams that have not opened. Carefully stir the stew, being careful not to break up the sea bass chunks.

serve the stew garnished with the parsley.

serves 8

seafood savvy

The shells from the seafood add flavor, and I recommend that you cut them with kitchen shears so that they are easier to dig into when served.

Jambalaya is a Cajun rice dish that is the perfect one-pot meal. It’s not so much a soup as an explosion of rice, vegetables, spices, seafood, and spicy sausage. I love to serve this to a crowd—it’s simple to get the base ready to go, add the rest of the ingredients, and let the slow cooker work its magic. Serve the jambalaya directly from the slow cooker with an assortment of hot sauces on the side.

1 pound andouille sausage or polish kielbasa, cut into ½-inch rounds

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 medium green bell peppers, finely chopped

4 stalks celery, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

One 14- to 15-ounce can chopped tomatoes, with their juice

10 cups chicken broth

1½ cups raw converted rice

2 pounds cleaned mixed shellfish such as shrimp, oysters, clams, crab, and crawfish

6 green onions, finely chopped for garnishing

Assorted hot sauces for serving

cook the sausage in a large skillet over high heat until it renders some fat and begins to color.

transfer the sausage to the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker. Add the onion, bell peppers, celery, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, oregano, basil, and black and cayenne peppers to the same skillet and sauté until the onion is beginning to turn golden, 5 to 7 minutes.

add the tomatoes and cook until some of the liquid evaporates, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the contents of the skillet to the slow-cooker insert and stir in the broth and rice. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours or on low for 4 hours.

remove the cover and add the shellfish and cook on high for 20 minutes, until the rice is tender and the shellfish is cooked. Remove the bay leaf.

garnish with green onions and serve directly from the slow cooker with an assortment of hot sauces.

serves 8–10