The Great American Slow Cooker Book (102 page)

1
Stir the sweet potatoes, pineapple juice, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt in the slow cooker.

2
Cover and cook on high for 2½ hours or on low for 5½ hours, or until the sweet potatoes are very tender and glazed in the sauce.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
The classic holiday side dish is so easy! Unsweetened pineapple juice will be slightly tarter than regular pineapple juice and so offers a better spike.

•
Add up to ½ cup chopped pecans.

•
If you miss the marshmallows, don’t stir them into the slow cooker; they’ll melt. Instead, spoon the finished dish into a broiler-safe baking dish. Top with marshmallows, then broil on an oven rack set 4 to 6 inches from a heated broiler for up to 4 minutes, until the marshmallows soften and begin to brown.

1
Stir the carrots, onions, and butter in the slow cooker until the vegetables are greased. Drizzle the honey over the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours, stirring twice during the cooking, until the carrots are tender when picked at with a fork.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
This easy side dish would be best with anything grilled, particularly if it had a spicy, Cajun-style or Tex-Mex rub on it before it hit the heat.

•
We suggest an herbal honey, such as one made from rosemary or thyme flowers.

•
Spinkle in up to ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon with the salt and pepper, or up to ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg, or up to ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
By cutting the onions in half, the resulting slices don’t become unwieldy rings. To do so, slice the onion through the root, then place it cut side down on your cutting board and slice it into ½-inch-thick rings.

1
Toss the carrots, parsnips, turnips, and red onion in the slow cooker.

2
Whisk the vermouth, olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper in a large bowl until it’s like a vinaigrette. Pour over the vegetables.

3
Cover and cook on high for 3½ hours or on low for 6 hours, or until the vegetables are fork-tender.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
The most important part of this recipe is your knife technique: the vegetables should be cut into similarly sized pieces so they cook evenly.

•
Dry vermouth has a slightly herbaceous edge that will work better than white wine with these root vegetables. But if all you’ve got is white wine on hand, use it. Or substitute low-sodium vegetable broth if you don’t want any alcohol.

•
There’s no call for an aged syrupy balsamic vinegar here. Use a good-quality but rather inexpensive bottling.

•
Substitute peeled and chunked rutabaga or even white potatoes for the turnips.

1
Stir the beets, orange zest, and salt in the slow cooker. Tuck in the thyme sprigs. Pour the water over the beets, then drizzle with olive oil.

2
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or until the beets are tender but still somewhat firm to the touch. Discard the thyme sprigs before serving with a slotted spoon (so as to keep the plates from getting waterlogged).

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
These beets are best if they’re still a little firm to the bite, although tender throughout.

•
Beets can, of course, stain everything in sight. It’s best not to serve this dish to young children who can easily wipe beet juice onto furniture or linens. You’ll also want to dish them up with the bowl quite close to the slow cooker, to avoid drips from all that purple juice.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
To avoid stains on your hands, wear rubber gloves when peeling beets. If your hands do get stained, remove all jewelry, then rub your hands with fresh lemon juice, working it
around your fingers and palms, until you notice that some of the stain is lifting off. Rinse well, then pour a small amount of coarse or kosher salt into your hands and rub them together. As the salt dissolves, more beet stain should lift off. Rinse and repeat to get off even more. Use a hand moisturizer when done, since the salt will dry out your skin.

1
Mix the broth, rice, onion, celery, almonds, cherries, sage, thyme, pepper, and salt in the slow cooker.

2
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, or until the wild rice is tender and almost all the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off the appliance and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes before serving.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
Since this simple side dish offers big flavors, like those in the dried sour cherries, it will work best when paired with sweet-and-savory dishes—anything with a sweet barbecue sauce, or a deep pot roast braise with dried fruit in the mix.

•
Look for roasted unsalted almonds either in the specialty foods aisle of your supermarket or in the nut section near the produce. Chop the almonds into bits so they blend throughout the dish, no piece of almond greater than a grain of rice.

1
Place the chiles, scallions, jalapeño, and garlic in a large blender. Pulse a few times to get everything going on the blades, then scrape down the sides, add the cilantro, and blend into a paste.

2
Scrape this paste into the slow cooker. Stir in the rice and broth. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.

3
Stir well, then cover and continue cooking on high for 1 additional hour, or until the rice is tender and almost all the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off the appliance and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes before serving.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
Here’s a spicy, flavorful side dish that’ll go great with your next Tex-Mex meal. If you’ve got a second slow cooker, make
refried beans
, too.

•
The jalapeño will carry the slightly sour, spiky heat into the dish, rather than the duller heat that would come from canned hot green chiles. Once again, there’s no added salt here because the green chiles are notoriously doped with the stuff. Pass extra salt at the table.

•
There’s a ton of cilantro here—it
is
green rice, after all. Use down to half that amount, if you fear the herb.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
Cilantro leaves can be quite sandy and leave behind unwanted grit. To wash them, clean your sink, then fill it halfway with cool water. Add the leaves, submerge them, agitate a bit, and leave them be for 5 minutes. Any grit will now sink to the bottom. Fish out the leaves without draining the sink and dry them on layers of paper towels laid out on your work surface. Finally, drain the sink to wash away the grit.