Friday, April 29, 2011

Back in the Swing

I thought I’d dip back into the slow cooker this week and bring you up to speed on what we’ve eaten the past couple of weeks.

Most recently I made pot roast. My in-laws were visiting last weekend and they love my pot roast. Usually I just do the roast in the crock pot, but since we were going out and leaving the grandparents to feed both themselves and the G-man dinner while we went to see Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart in concert, I thought it would be best to give them the full experience, potatoes, carrots and all.

Next time? I won’t add mushrooms. Let me ‘splain.

No wait. Is too much. Let me sum up.

I’d decided to go to Trader Joe’s and get the veg since they always have lovely pre-sliced and diced packages of veggies. Like the bagged, sliced crimini mushrooms that are so wonderful.

I got little bags of fingerling potatoes, baby carrots and sliced crimini to go in the pot with the roast. Fabulous! I wouldn’t have to do a thing except open bags and pour them into the pot.

Well, I was reminded why I don’t usually add veggies in the crockpot for this particular roast preparation.

I like the resultant gravy from cooking just the roast with the mushroom soup and onion soup mix. But with the veg, especially the mushrooms, there was just too much added water and the gravy was not only way too thin, but it was bland as well.

The in-laws still appreciated it, but I was a little bummed. It just wasn’t the flavorful deliciousness I’m used to.

The week before, Nancy found a great recipe for us to try. It was titled Chicken Provencal.

Comparing it to some more traditional recipes for the classic stew, it came somewhat close. The chicken, tomatoes, garlic, thyme and basil that are the basis of the dish were there.

The crock pot recipe added yellow and red bell peppers and an onion but did not include any white wine or broth, nor did it have olives, which would certainly have deepened and rounded out the flavors.

The most fascinating thing about this crock pot version was the strips of orange peel which cooked until they practically melted. The lovely floral and citrus flavor was so mellow by the time I found a piece, I couldn’t believe what I was tasting. It was a very pleasant surprise! The traditional recipe calls for lemon, which I think would be equally as tasty and would add a tartness that I was really looking for in this dish.

Nancy and I were so happy to be eating so many vegetables. It was chock full of them!

But next time, I’m adding some olives and using lemon instead of orange peel. It will give me an excuse to get some herbes de provence. And a bottle of white wine (like I need an excuse). It needed the additional flavor!

I’m finding that the all-day-long cooking is robbing my dinners of bold flavors (unless condensed soup of some sort is involved in the cooking process). Hopefully my next new cookbook (which I haven’t purchased quite yet) will help with that. America’s Test Kitchen, the people who bring you Cook’s Illustrated Magazine, has put out a slow cooker cookbook. If you think I’m passing that one up, you are crazy.

Meanwhile, we’ll try something new again this week and perhaps be a little more liberal with the salt shaker, the herbs and the citrus. And I’ll hope that the recipes from America’s Test Kitchen are as simple as I want them to be.

1 comment:

Maia Strong said...

I had a similar disappointment with a crock pot take on Beef Burgundy. The flavor was too...narrow. It needed serious kick despite the onion soup mix. A bit of balsamic brightened up the dish in the end, but it just didn't do it for me.

The chicken sounds delicious, though. And I can't wait to hear about your adventures with the new America's Test Kitchen cookbook!