Nicole Is Cooking

Jump to Comments

Welcome to not only the first post on “Nicole Is Cooking” but my first slow cooker attempt as well! Hopefully you can be patient while I learn my way around Word Press and learn a few things about food photography.

I have never owned a slow cooker before but recently obtained one via Freecycle. My Mom has always had one, but I have only ever seen her use it to make huge batches of tomato sauce. This seems like a good time for a confession… I have never owned a slow cooker because I have a prejudice against them. I put them in the same category as “casseroles” (blech!!). Maybe it is because I learned to cook from my Dad and they are just not in the repertoire (neither are casseroles except for “cassoulet” which is French for “very fancy casserole”). I also am vegetarian and am picky about how my vegetables are cooked… could a slow cooker really produce something I would want to eat or would I be left with a soggy mash of inedible vegetables? It was certainly not a kitchen appliance I was going to spend money on. But for free, well, I will consider it a challenge.

I figured I would use it only during the colder months and if I ever had the urge for chili. Most soups I make don’t require the amount of cooking time to justify a slow cooker. But then I saw some summer recipes and as I currently have a fair bit of vegetables around that would lend themselves to a summer stew, I decided to give it a whirl. Of course, another habit I picked up from Dad- recipes are guidelines. And none of the recipes I saw were quite what I wanted. So now, I am making my first slow cooker meal and making a new recipe at the same time.

So, what exactly did I have to work with? Quite a bit actually….

I have so much stuff hanging around my kitchen because I am a CSA member. Everything in that picture came from the CSA except the parsley, thyme, and onion. I also used some basil (not pictured) that I have growing on my balcony that I got as wee little plants early in the season from the CSA.

Obviously, I had the makings of a ratatouille but I wanted something a little lighter. I just didn’t know if I would succeed. I chopped up three cups each of the eggplants and squash. From a few different sources I found that the eggplants that aren’t dark purple are supposed to be less acidic so I didn’t salt them down at all. As shown above, I had white eggplant and the light purple striped ones which are a variety called calliope.

I chopped up a cup of a variety of peppers, both sweet and hot.

I also used two cups of chopped various tomatoes. I don’t remember all the types I had, but the yellow ones are called “peach tomatoes” and are one of my favorites.

I chopped up one cup of onion of onion and five cloves of garlic. I pulled out one cup of canned diced tomatoes with the juice (to give it some more liquid), half a cup of dry white wine, and a variety of fresh herbs- parsley, thyme, basil and rosemary. Fresh herbs always smell fabulous and they just look better in pictures too.

Listing out those ingredients brings up some tips and tricks that I have picked up cooking that I would like to share. First, I love garlic and like to use it a lot. Fortunately, it does not cause problems for me but I understand that it can for some people. One thing to look at when using fresh garlic is the stem that runs down the middle of the clove (I really have no idea if this is what is actually called). I have been told that this is the part of the garlic that causes problems because it is indigestible. It is very easy to remove this before you chop up the clove for cooking. If it has started to turn green, you definitely should consider discarding it. The rest of the clove is still good though!

Cooking with wine is probably one of the earliest cooking lessons I received in life. Like my Dad always says- if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it! And the man has a point… what if you get thirsty when you are cooking? Now, I am not saying you need to cook with expensive, fine wines. But if you consider it swill, why would you put it in your food?

And herbs… fresh herbs are wonderful! I don’t use fresh herbs 100% of the time (as you will see later in this write up) but I am a strong advocate of using them whenever possible. I was even surprised that the slow cooker book recommended using them! (There goes the slow cooker prejudice again….) Just keep in mind they are not as strong as the dried ones are flavor wise so adjust accordingly.

If you ever want to reference these Tips and Tricks, you can do so from the front page of this blog (just look over there to the right) or just go to the Tips and Tricks page.

Now, back to cooking….

I took all of our previously mentioned ingredients, added them to the slow cooker, and gave them a good stir.

My slow cooker seems to think it is a bit fancy and knows that all things cooked on low should be cooked for 8-10 hours (it has pre-programmed times and an automatic shut off). I wasn’t having any of that. I cooked it on low for 4 hours and then shut it off.

Now… what to eat it with? I decided it would be a good time to try out the Chickpea Flat Bread recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks- The Millennium Cookbook - Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine. While I really like this cookbook I don’t use it all that often. First, a lot of recipes rely on a lot of other recipes so it is not for the feint of heart and it can get very complex at times. But everything I have made from it is usually wonderful. (Based on the recipe interdependence I would really like to see them add some kind of chart outlining the connections in the second edition along the lines of “So you just made 3 cups of Romanescu Sauce to use only 2 tablespoons for this recipe… you can also use it in recipes x, y and z.”) Second, and here is the kicker, there seems to be some errors in the book like I will show you now.

The Chickpea Flat Bread recipe encourages you to experiment with the spices so I decided to replicate the ones I used in my stew. This is one of the instances where I prefer my spices dried… they just seem to mix more evenly in the dough. I mixed all the dry ingredients and used the dry pepper flakes they called for as well as some dried basil, thyme, parsley, and oregano.

The recipe also called for rosemary, but I decided I would sprinkle fresh rosemary on top. How can you resist any savory baked product with fresh rosemary on it?? If you can, we probably don’t have much to talk about. I added the directed amount of water. Then my mind began to boggle because I had soup and was directed to add “more as required”. Uh, oh. It was going to be one of those recipes.

I baked as directed for 15 minutes. It wasn’t done. After 50 minutes, it was still very, very wet inside.

Yep, modification time. As well as time to start a new blog section… Cookbook Errata!! I really wanted this bread. And my attempts at modification could not be as bad as following the directions, right? Right? (Say “right”. Thank you.)

The original recipe called for 2 cups of water to 1 cup of flour. I called for 3/4 cup of water to 1 cup of flour. I might try it again some time with a 1 to 1 ratio. This time, my bread cooked in 15 minutes and looked at lot more like what I expected it to.

Now for the best part… dinner time!

But first, the plating. One of the things that can really make your home made food just a little bit nicer are some good quality garnishes. Hmmm… seems like another tip in the making. For this dish, I grated some fresh Parmesan cheese and chopped up some fresh parsley. Ready for the results?

And how about a close up?

Pretty pictures are all well and good… but how did it taste? I thought it was pretty good, if I do say so myself. The veggies weren’t too mushy (like that technical speak?) and the wine was good for keeping the broth light. The bread had a nice bit of zing to it as well. And, the stew was pretty filling… a one cup portion went a long way! I actually made another batch for the freezer (I am about to head out of town and was staring down pretty much the same pile again). It will be a nice little reminder of summer as the weather turns cold or I can thicken it up with some more tomatoes and have it over some brown rice or whole wheat pasta. I gave it to an independent taste tester who also thoroughly enjoyed both aspects of the meal.

The recipe for the stew can be found here or on the recipes page (which is also accessible on the right at the front of the blog). I don’t have permission to reprint the bread recipe, so you will have to find that one on your own.