EatLocal365 » slow cooker

Unmundane Lentil Soup

Lindsay — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:44:31 +0000

My brother was in a band in high school called The Unmundane. They were pretty good and had a nice little following. I have a couple of their CDs and a t-shirt I wear running. I also have the word “unmundane” in my vocabulary now. It snuck in there at a time in my life when I used either “random” or “sketchy” to describe just about everything.

I probably also used “wicked” a little too much, as in “lentil soup is wicked boring”. Because of that narrow mindset, I almost didn’t make this one from Art of the Slow Cooker, probably because the combination of spices seemed random. But, I was trying to eat less meat and this seemed to fit the bill. I was prepared to choke down a bowl in the name of self-righteous healthiness, but I was surprised on the first bite by its unmundaneness. It wasn’t common, ordinary, banal, OR unimaginative. Instead, it was thick and full of spices and lemon.

Now that we’re definitely entering winter in Boston, it’s time to pull out the slow cooker and some tasty soup recipes. I think the smell of soup cooking all day warms up the house. Can a smell make you feel warmer? Why not? So this afternoon, I’m sitting on the couch covered with a blanket recuperating from a cold and watching The Usual Suspects, smelling the onions browning, because my awesome husband is making dinner for me. I’m counting the hours until I can dig in with a spoon and a big piece of crusty bread. It’s supposed to warm up on Sunday, which is good, because we’ll be out of soup by then.

Unmundane Lentil Soup

Makes 6 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
2 TBsp	Sunflower oil		Stolor Organics
2 large	Onions	Diced as finely as you want.	Red Fire Farm
2 cloves	Garlic		Keith’s Farm
2 tsp	Ground coriander
1 tsp	Ground cumin
1 tsp	Ground turmeric
1/2 tsp	Paprika	Use smoked paprika, if you want to mix things up.
1/4 tsp	Ground cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp	Kosher salt
1/2 tsp	Black pepper	Freshly ground
6-8 cups	Vegetable broth	See below for notes	Homemade, if you have it. We were out, so we used an organic boxed variety.
1 quart	Whole tomatoes with juice		Homemade
2 cups	Lentils	We used a mix of red and French green lentils.	Bulk (red) and Baer’s Best (French green)
1/8 tsp	Red pepper flakes	More if you like it spicy
1/4 cup	Lemon juice	Fresh if you’ve got it
3 TBsp	Parsley	Optional, but great; roughly chopped
1 TBsp	Cilantro	Optional, but great; roughly chopped	Red Fire Farm

Directions

If you want to get fancy, use whole coriander and cumin seeds. Toast them in a hot skillet for a couple of minutes, until slightly browned and fragrant, then grind. I don’t usually get fancy and the soup is still great.

Chop the onions.

Heat the sunflower oil in a large skillet and cook the onions over medium-high heat until starting to brown. This is the foundation for your soup, so take a little time, maybe 5-8 minutes.

In another pot, heat the broth until boiling.

While the onions are browning, measure out and combine all the spices except for the red pepper flakes.
Add the garlic and spices (except for the red pepper flakes) to the onions and cook until you can smell the garlic.

Add the tomatoes and juice to the onion mixture. Break up the tomatoes and cook until the juices boil.
Once the onions and broth are boiling, dump both into the slow cooker. Heating the ingredients to boiling speeds the cooking time and keeps the food away from the Danger Zone, e.g. the temperature range in which nasties thrive. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-10.
When you’re ready to serve the soup, stir in the red pepper flakes, lemon juice, and fresh herbs. Top with a dollop of yogurt, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Regarding the amount of stock: Red lentils disintegrate and really thicken the soup, so if you use a full two cups of red lentils, you’ll want to use 7 or 8 cups of broth. More broth = soupier soup. Less broth = stewier soup. If you use red lentils and another type of lentils, you can use 6-7 cups of broth.

To make this work on a week day, I cook the onions, garlic and spices the night before, letting them cool down before covering and storing them in the refrigerator. In the morning, I add the tomatoes to the onions and bring them and the broth to a boil while I’m eating breakfast and getting ready for work. Pour everything in the slow cooker, plug it in, leave the dishes in the sink, and run out the door.

How to Make Slow Cooker Honey Lentils

Erik — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:31:56 +0000

I made this dinner solo yesterday, and it was the easiest meal I’ve ever made. It took less than 10 minutes to prep. Despite the fact that it looks like brown mush, it was very good. Today for lunch the leftovers reheated well in the microwave.

The one downside is that I had to cook dinner at 8:00am. It’s a slow cooker recipe. It takes some forethought and commitment, but the slow cooker makes cooking so easy.

Slow Cooker Honey Lentils

Ingredients

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
1.5 cups	Lentils (any color)	Rinsed	Whole Foods
1 cup	Dried beans (I used pinto) (or 1 can of canned beans)	Soaked overnight and rinsed	Cayuga Pure Organics *
5 cups	Water
Half of 1	Red onion	Diced	Paffenroth Gardens *
1/2 cup	Shredded carrot	Shredded	Paffenroth Gardens *
1/3 cup	Honey		Twin Spruce Apiaries *
2 TBsp	Soy sauce	I used Tamari
1 tsp	Kosher salt
1 tsp	Dried mustard	A.k.a. mustard powder
1	Dried bay leaf

Directions

The night before put the beans in a bowl and fill it with water. Leave to soak overnight. Be sure to go through the dried beans beforehand to pick out any pebble beans or actual pebbles (see here). If you use canned beans, skip this step and reduce the water to 3 cups.
Using a mesh strainer, drain the beans and rinse them thoroughly. Put them in the slow cooker.
Using a mesh strainer, rinse the lentils. Add them to the slow cooker.
Dice the 1/2 red onion. Add to the slow cooker
Shred the carrot. Add to the slow cooker
Add everything else to the slow cooker, except for the bay leaf. Stir to mix.
Add the bay leaf to the top of the mixture. (Just place it on top.)
Put the cover on the slow cooker and set it for 6-8 hours on low or 3-5 hours on high. When it’s done you can leave it on warm for as long as you need to. I left it on warm for 2 hours before eating dinner.

10 minutes + 8 hours = a great meal!

Dark Days: Attacking Food Storage Clutter

Lindsay — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 01:00:02 +0000

Our food storage situation was getting out of control. Half a duck fell out of the freezer and landed on my shoe-less toes. Random bags of grains leftover from this fall made getting the breakfast granola a daily battle. And somehow we had a whole shopping bag full of mushrooms in the refrigerator. Time to take charge!!

We sautéed two chopped onions (Paffenroth Gardens) with some garlic (Keith’s Farm) in sunflower oil (Stolor Organics). To that, we added a mountain of sliced mushrooms (Bulich Mushroom Farm) and sautéed them until soft with a little salt and pepper and a splash of Riesling (Chateau Renaissance). Then poured everything into the slow cooker.

We trimmed any excess fat and skin off of the duck parts (Hudson Valley Duck Farm) and used the same pan to brown them for a few minutes on each side (just until the duck released easily from the pan). Into the slow cooker it went, topped off by small handfull of farro (Cayuga Pure Organics), a few red sunchokes and a couple of handfulls of little potatoes (Berried Treasures) and covered in water.

We let it cook on high for six hours. We then removed the bones, shredded the meat, and returned it to the slow cooker for another two hours on low.

Served up with some (failed and very flat, but tasty) sourdough bread (flour from Cayuga Pure Organics, yeast from the Manhattan air) it was a very satisfying improvisation.

How to Cook Dried Beans

Lindsay — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:30:34 +0000

Yes, canned beans are handy, but they’re full of sodium. And they’re more expensive than even the fancy ones we get at the farmers’ market. A can of organic black beans is $1.39 at our grocery store. We bought a pound of organic local black beans from Cayuga Pure Organics this weekend for $4. After cooking, we got the equivalent of 4 cans of beans, which is $1 a can. Who says it’s more expensive to buy local?

Here’s my standard slow cooker process, which I have borrowed from Cook for Good. Keep in mind that it takes almost a full day to cook the beans. You won’t be doing much at all during that day, but you do need to think ahead. If you don’t have a slow cooker, cook them on the stove for 2 hours in step 2.

The first thing you should always do with dried beans is to quickly sort through them. Some beans are much smaller and less developed, and these can be like pebbles. You want to get rid of them. There is also the possibility of finding actual rocks in with your beans. These can slip through the various sorting mechanisms at the packaging facility. They tend to be more common with small-batch producers (like ours), but it can happen no matter what the source. Here is a picture of our most recent rejects:
Next, cover 1 pound of beans in water by at least a few inches. Every single time, I think I’ve used enough water, only to peak at them a few hours later to find them dry. Better to use more than you think you’ll need. Let them soak overnight (8-12 hours).
After the soak, drain the beans, rinse them, and dump them in your slow cooker. Add 6 cups of cold water and cook on low for about 7 hours.7 hours works well for us, but the exact time will depend on how fresh the beans are, how long they’ve soaked, and the variety. If they’re a little undercooked, turn the slow cooker up to high and taste every 30 minutes until they’re done. If they’re overcooked, make a dip and write yourself a note to try 6 hours next time. Our slow cooker is programmed for 8 or 10 hours on low, so we use a light timer to make sure the beans don’t get mushy. Once they’re cooked and the heat is turned off, they can sit in the liquid without much damage, so don’t worry if you can’t get home on time or don’t want to wake up at 5 am to drain the beans.
I don’t usually need a whole pound of beans at once, so I separate the leftovers in zip-top bags and freeze them. 1 3/4 cup beans + about 1/2 cup of cooking liquid makes the equivalent of a can. Once they’re cooked and stored in the freezer, it’s hardly more convenient to open a can!

How to Make Cassoulet in a Slow Cooker

Lindsay — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 03:24:02 +0000

Local pinto beans from Cayuga Pure Organics

On Saturday night we threw a party for some friends and needed to find a solid anchor for the menu, something that would stand up to the punch (and help our friends stand up to the punch). With the lousy weather we wanted something warm and inviting that is filling and can be prepared well in advance. Enter cassoulet!

Cassoulet is a slow-cooked meat and bean stew. It’s traditional French peasant food. It was perfect. After about 2 hours of prep (1 hour if you have someone else butcher the duck), we put the slow cooker on “set it and forget it” mode and lifted the lid off when our friends showed up at 6:00. Thanks to the slow cooker, it was still warm (and even tastier) at 11 pm. Another winner from Art of the Slow Cooker.

This post is further proof that “we are not vegetarians“. We have purchased and cooked more meat in the past ten days than in the prior three months, so we’ve probably brought our annual diet closer to omnivorous. Last week’s list included three types of sausage and a duck. A whole duck. But we also bought pinto beans that turned into the most delicious, creamy perfection in this dish, so it’s not all about the meat. Plus, thanks to the extensiveness of the Union Square greenmarket, the entire dish was made with high-quality, local ingredients, so we know the pig, duck, and lamb were treated well and fed appropriately.

Feel free to mess around with the ingredients, keeping the proportions roughly similar.

Slow Cooker Cassoulet
Adapted from Art of the Slow Cooker
Serves 12

Ingredients:

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Square Greenmarket)
1 pound	Pinto beans	Soaked overnight in at least twice as much water	Cayuga Pure Organics *
1 (~ 4 pound)	Duck	Bone-in but butchered into 2 breasts, 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, and 2 wings (We froze the rest of the misc. part b/c we’re going to try to make stock)	Hudson Valley Duck *
1 pound	Boneless lamb leg or shoulder	Cut into 1 inch cubes	Catskill Merino Sheep Farm *
To taste	Salt and pepper
8 ounces	Russian sausage (pork) (or other garlic sausage)	Cut into bite-sized rounds	Flying Pigs Farm *
8 ounces	Smoked pork kielbasa (or other smoked sausage)	Cut into bite-sized rounds	Flying Pigs Farm *
2 small	Yellow or white onions	Chopped	Paffenroth Gardens *
4 cloves	Garlic	Chopped finely	Keith’s Farm *
1/4 tsp	Ground nutmeg
1 tsp	Italian seasoning
3	Whole cloves
1/2 cup	Riesling wine (or other dry white wine)		Château Renaissance *
1 jar (28-32 oz)	Whole tomatoes	Drained, liquid reserved	Cherry Lane (canned in September) *
	Chicken broth	Enough to make 4 cups when added to the reserved tomato liquid	From our freezer (I don’t remember where the ingredients came from.) *

Directions:

Remove all visible fat and skin from the duck using a pair of sharp (and washable) scissors and put into a 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Cook the fat and skin until they are almost crispy and most of the fat has rendered out. Discard any remaining pieces.
While the fat is cooking, season the duck liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.
Put the duck pieces in the hot pan, skin side down, and cook until nicely brown, about 4 minutes. Flip and brown the other side, again for about 4 minutes.
While the duck is browning, cut the lamb into cubes and season all over with salt and pepper.
After the duck has browned, set it aside in a baking pan to catch the drips. Add the lamb to the pan and brown, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes. Remove and add to the baking pan with with duck.
After the lamb has browned, add both types of sausages and brown, stirring occasionally, for about 6 minutes. Remove and add to the baking pan with the duck and lamb.
Use a spoon to remove all but about a tablespoon of the fat in the pan. You can also pour this out into a heat-safe container, but be very careful not to let it drip down the side of the pan, because it could start a fire.
Add the onion to the skillet and sauté until lightly browned, about 4 minutes.
Add the garlic, nutmeg, Italian seasoning, and cloves. Cook for a minute until it starts to smell good.
Add the wine and scrape the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan while it comes to a boil.
Crush the tomatoes with your hands and add them to the pan with the tomato liquid and broth. Bring to a boil.
While the liquid is coming to a boil, layer the meat and beans in your slow cooker. Beans, meat, beans, meat, beans.
Once the liquid has come to a boil, pour it over the beans and meat in the slow cooker, put on the lid, and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

Sorry that there isn’t a picture of the final product. We were so busy with the party (and so excited to eat it) that we forgot to take a photo!

Of all of the pictures that we could find online of other bloggers’ cassoulet, Cathy Shambley’s looks the most like ours did. Our beans were brown instead of the traditional white because we used local Pinto beans, but otherwise they look remarkably similar. (If you Google “cassoulet” and go to “Images”, it is surprising how different the final dish can look.)

Cathy’s recipe is definitely a departure from ours. Hers is more traditional, and she made it using her own duck confit. We did not make a confit. We also swapped out some traditional ingredients with local ingredients, and we made it in a slow cooker. but, whatever path you want to take to get there, definitely make yourself some cassoulet!