The Great American Slow Cooker Book (103 page)

1
Mix the rice, butter, and salt in the slow cooker. Pour the boiling water over the rice.

2
Cover and cook for 2 hours on high, or until the rice is tender and the water has been absorbed.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
We find that without other starches or culinary safeguards, white rice turns gummy in the slow cooker; but brown rice works perfectly.

•
Measure just how much water you need into the saucepan, then bring it to a boil over high heat. Watch closely so you can pour it over the rice the moment it’s at a boil (and so you don’t lose too much water to evaporation). Cover the slow cooker quickly to preserve the heat.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
Cooked rice should be left off the heat to steam a few minutes before serving. The temperature cools somewhat as the steam settles and the grains plump from the extra moisture at the end.

Serve It Up!
Add minced chives or any other fresh minced herbs to the batch, or substitute sesame oil for the butter.

1
Stir the broth, rice, asparagus, cashews, shallot, garlic, thyme, turmeric, salt, and pepper in the slow cooker.

2
Cover and cook on high for 3 hours, or until the rice is tender and almost all the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off the appliance and let stand for 10 minutes, covered, before serving.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
This simple pilaf offers fairly big flavors as a payoff for a simple prep. You can’t beat that!

•
Brown jasmine rice is a tad aromatic for this dish. The rice should simply become the starchy background to the other ingredients.

•
Asparagus stalks can be woody and tough, particularly if they’re more than ½ inch in diameter. Shave the thicker ones down with a vegetable peeler to a more appropriate size; always remove and discard any woody or desiccated bottoms to the stalks.

1
Melt the butter in a large skillet set over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until it softens and begins to turn golden, between 5 and 8 minutes.

2
Add the garlic, stir over the heat for 10 seconds, then dump in the mushrooms and salt. Raise the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms give off their liquid and that liquid reduces to a thick glaze, between 5 and 8 minutes.

3
Pour in the wine and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits in the skillet. Pour and scrape the contents of the skillet into the slow cooker. Stir in the pumpkin, broth, rice, thyme, and pepper.

4
Cover and cook on high for 2 hours 15 minutes, or until the liquid has been mostly absorbed and both the rice and pumpkin are tender.

5
Uncover and cook on low for 15 minutes, until the risotto is creamy and moist without much noticeable moisture. Stir in the cheese to serve.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
This whole-grain side dish could also be a quick evening meal, perhaps started before you head out to the movies and then finished when you get home.

•
It’s important to dice the pumpkin—that is, prep it into bits no larger than ¼ inch. Otherwise, the rice will be done long before the vegetable.

•
The chicken broth gives the dish a bit more heft. Use vegetable broth for a vegetarian side.

SHORTCUTS
Omit the pumpkin and substitute diced peeled and seeded butternut squash.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
Mushrooms are stocked full of moisture, sometimes near 90 percent of their total weight. All that water comes out when they are heated and turns a sauce soggy. Anyone who’s baked raw mushrooms on a pizza knows the problem. It’s important, then, to get rid of the moisture by cooking the mushrooms a bit. Don’t crowd the skillet; rather, use one large enough so that the released liquid can boil away quickly and efficiently.

1
Whisk the corn, evaporated milk, cream, flour, sugar, salt, and pepper in the slow cooker until the flour dissolves.

2
Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Stir well, mashing some of the kernels against the sides of the cooker before stirring them back into the mix. Cover and cook on high for 1 more hour, or until somewhat thickened.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
Once you make creamed corn at home, you’ll never go back to the can. You can use regular or low-fat evaporated milk, and light cream or half-and-half instead of the heavy cream.

•
Use either frozen corn kernels, thawed, or fresh kernels cut off the ears. An ear of corn should yield about ½ cup of kernels.

INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED
In the United States, there are marked differences among types of cream. heavy cream, also called whipping cream, has a butterfat content of between 36 and 40 percent. Light cream is no diet product, but at about 20 percent butterfat it is indeed “lighter” than heavy cream. Half-and-half, despite its name, is a combination of cream and whole milk that leans toward the milk part of that equation, with about 12 percent butterfat.

1
Generously butter the inside of the slow cooker canister.

2
Whisk the cornmeal, flour, and baking soda in a bowl until combined.

3
Whisk the eggs in a second bowl until creamy, then whisk in the buttermilk, beans, cheese, chiles, and butter. Stir the cornmeal mixture into the buttermilk mixture for a smooth but fairly thick batter. Pour the batter into the slow cooker. Lay overlapping paper towels over the top of the cooker.

4
Cover and cook on high for 1 hour 5 minutes in a small slow cooker, 1 hour 10 minutes in a medium cooker, or 1 hour 15 minutes in a large model, or until the top of the cornbread is set when touched. Uncover and cool in the cooker for at least 1 hour—or remove the insert from the cooker and set it, uncovered, on a wire rack to cool for at least 30 minutes. Use a nonstick-safe spatula or knife to cut squares of the cornbread right out of the canister.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
You could make a meal of this well-stocked side dish with a bowl of tomato soup on the side.

•
Because of the cheese in the batter, the cornbread has a tendency to stick in the cooker, no matter how much you buttered it. Run a nonstick-safe spatula around the edge of the cornbread before you cut it.