Ricardo Larrivée - Ricardo Slow Cooker Favourites

RICARDO

Slow Cooker Favourites

FROM LASAGNA TO CRME BRLE

Ricardo Larrive

Translated by Claudia M. Theriault

+++ I steered clear of the slow cooker for years. It was of no interest to me. I found the very idea of using a slow cooker about as exciting as boiling water. Slow cooking reminded me of my dear old aunts dinner offerings in the 1970s: brown, tasteless, and just plain boring. So why am I publishing my very own slow cooker recipe book? What has happened? Is this what it has come to? And what next? My best toaster recipes, perhaps? More than six million slow cookers are sold every year in North America.

I constantly receive requests for slow cooker recipes. So I decided to be a little more open-minded, take a closer look, and do some investigating. We put four slow cookers to use in my test kitchen, and for an entire year my team and I studied the possibilities from every conceivable angle. The advantages of using a slow cooker quickly became clear, and I discovered plenty of useful tricks. The slow cooker reminds me somewhat of the microwave oven. We were all crazy about it when it first appeared on the market; it was going to revolutionize the way we cooked.

There would be no need for conventional ovens anymore because everything could be cooked in the microwave. Well, with time and trials, we realized that such was not the case, especially when it came to dealing with the Christmas turkey. Still, we did not get rid of our microwaves, did we. They are very useful time savers. The same applies to slow cookers. It is important to me that anything cooked in a slow cooker be as flavourful and appealing as if it had been cooked in a conventional oven.

Thats why every recipe in this book is guaranteed to come out just right. They have been tested numerous times and have proved to me that the slow cooker is an ideal cooking tool. +++ RICARDO

Certain dishes simply do not turn out right when theyre slow cooked. As I was writing this book, I kept asking myself the same questions: Why would I make this in a slow cooker? Whats the advantage? Several recipes did not turn out well, such as bread, cakes, risotto, and moussaka (too many steps, no browning, too moist, unappetizing). I realized that the slow cooker is great for simmered dishes, for cooking with a sauce, for tenderizing tougher cuts of meat, and, surprisingly enough, for a number of desserts that are conventionally cooked in a double boiler or in an even moist heat, such as crme caramel and pudding cakes. THE NIGHT SHIFT When we were testing, we sometimes turned the slow cooker on just before going to bed. Baked beans or ham seemed like a good idea. Night cooking, however, is not for the faint of heart.

Waking to the smell of cooked onions is not my idea of a good start to the day. I much prefer the enticing aroma of coffee. There were various mishaps as well during our testing period, such as power outages and my teenager unplugging the slow cooker to plug in an iPod! Should there be a power outage or an accidental unplugging of your appliance, its usually best to throw out the contents of the slow cooker and start again from scratch. If you suspect that the slow cooker has not been off too long, use a thermometer to check the temperature of the contents. If its over 60C (140F), transfer the contents to an ovenproof skillet and continue cooking in a conventional oven. Avoid turning the slow cooker back on once it has shut off.

It could take forever for your dish to get back to the desired temperature, so you could risk food contamination. PRACTICAL ITS PERFECT FOR BUSY PEOPLE. WHETHER YOU ARE STUCK IN A TRAFFIC JAM, ON THE SLOPES, OR AT YOUR YOUNGEST ONES HOCKEY GAME, THE SLOW COOKER IS TAKING CARE OF DINNER. YOU COME HOME TO THE AROMA OF A NICE HOT MEAL. DINNER IS READY WHEN YOU ARE READY. ECONOMICAL ITS WONDERFUL FOR TENDERIZING CHEAPER AND TOUGHER CUTS OF MEAT. ECONOMICAL ITS WONDERFUL FOR TENDERIZING CHEAPER AND TOUGHER CUTS OF MEAT.

AFTER SLOW COOKING, MEAT LITERALLY MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH. INEXPENSIVE LEGUMES AND ROOT VEGETABLES COOK PERFECTLY IN A SLOW COOKER. HEALTHY SLOW COOKING IS GENERALLY VERY HEALTHY BECAUSE IT IS RECOMMENDED TO USE LESS FATTY CUTS OF MEAT AND SKINLESS POULTRY. ITS AN EASY COOKING METHOD FOR LEGUMES. AND BECAUSE IT IS OFTEN SUGGESTED THAT YOU ADD VEGETABLES TO THE DISH, IT IS A ONE-POT MEAL.

Between the two is the slow cooker. It wont do all the work for you, but it will do most of it, as long as you start the cooking process properly The secret to flavourful dishes: take the time to brown the meat and the vegetables before placing them in the slow cooker. Colouring the ingredients in this way involves what is called the Maillard reaction, which enhances all the flavours. As meat cannot brown in a slow cooker, this step is essential to almost every recipe if you want to obtain a wonderfully delicious dish that is never boring.