Hungarian Goulash and Why Crockpot Cooking During the Summer is a Good Idea

It's the dog days of summer and the temperature is rising. Around these parts that 90 degree heat comes with a good dose of humidity which makes cooking or spending time in a hot kitchen unbearable. While we could make salads and no-cook recipes all summer, why should we deprive ourselves of a decent hot meal when it's hot outside? And why should we stay out of the kitchen when it doesn't even need to be that hot in there in the first place?

Crockpot cooking on a hot summer day is a god-send. You prepare some already cold ingredients, add it to a cold Crockpot and let it cook while you enjoy a dip in a pool, window shopping in an air-conditioned mall or reading a book outside in the shade. The Crockpot is self-contained and doesn't emit any heat into the surrounding area. So unlike an oven or a stovetop, the Crockpot won't heat up your kitchen!

Last Sunday, while I was making Strawberry-Banana Pancakes, I made a Crockpot full of Hungarian Goulash. It cooked all day while Carlos and I were away having Engagement Photos taken and while we were visiting some potential wedding venues. Sunday was super hot (mid-90s, full sun, plenty of humidity) and when we came back home we we were suffering from heat exhaustion. While all this was happening the Goulash was cooking in the Crockpot and the kitchen was still cool. We went off for a swim in the local pool and the Crockpot kept the food warm even after the cooking time was up. When we came back, I cooked up a pot of egg noodles in no time and voila! dinner is served. And I barely had to break a sweat.

The recipe I made was a variation of the one from All Recipes.. Their version called for the thickening of the sauce with flour. I just didn't feel like it so I skipped it.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of ketchup
3-4 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp of brown sugar
2 tsps paprika (use Hungarian if you have it)
2 tsps of dry mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of water
2 packages of Stew Beef (not too lean - about 2 pounds)
1 chopped onion
chopped parsley

egg noodles

In your Crockpot, add the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, spices and water and stir. Add the chopped onions and Stew Beef (or Beef Chuck Roast cubed). Stir to coat the Beef in the onions and the liquid. Set Crockpot to cook for 8 hours.

Once the meal is ready, cook the egg noodles to package directions. Drain the noodles and add them to a serving platter. Top with the beef and onion and some of the juices. Top with chopped parsley. This is good with a small side of fresh salad. Enjoy!

If you want to thicken the sauce, add a tablespoon of flour or cornstarch to 1/4 cup of water. Stir until well mixed then add the mixture to the goulash. Cook on high in the Crockpot for 10-15 minutes.

St. Patrick's Day ~ Irish Lamb Stew

Lamb and I are not friends. The first time I ever attempted to cook a leg of lamb, I overcooked it, it shrunk considerably, was barely edible and my home reeked of lamb for a good straight week. I have attempted grilled and broiled lamb chops but to no avail. I just can't seem to get it right.

Lucky for me, this Irish Lamb Stew recipe from Healthy Eats is so simple that I couldn't possibly mess it up. In fact, I simplified it even more by using pre-cut Lamb stew chunks insteading of processing a big piece of lamb myself. In the early morning, I processed all the vegetables and threw everything in a crockpot and later that evening I had delicious Irish Lamb Stew. Can't get easier than that.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of lamb chunks for stew

5 yukon gold potatoes peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

3 celery stalks and celery leaves sliced

3 carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

2 leeks sliced

2 cups of chicken broth

thyme leaves

salt and pepper to taste

parsley or chives to garnish

You'll need a crockpot/slow cooker for this recipe. Set it at 8 hours or at the lowest heat setting.

Process your leeks by removing the other piece, rinsing the stalks, slicing them down the middle then slicing them across until you get half-moon slices. Add the slices to a bowl of cold water and swish them around with your hands, separating the slices with your fingers. This will help get the grit out.

Peel and chop your potatoes and carrots into one inch chunks. Slice your celery. Season your lamb chunks with salt and pepper. Add to your crockpot.

Add your 2 cups of chicken broth and your thyme leaves. Stir.

Cook for 8 hours in your crockpot. If you have time to stir, do so every couple of hours. It's not absolutely necessary though but it does help distribute the heat.

Garnish with chives and enjoy with a nice slice of Irish Soda Bread.

 

Next up: Irish Soda Bread (after the Sunday Roundup)

I Haz Crockpot ~ Ridiculously Easy Mexican Chicken and Beans

The other day I found myself face-to-face with several dilemmas. 1) I had way too many frozen chicken breasts in my freezer. 2) I really wanted to do something other than chicken piccata or grilled chicken. 3) I needed another excuse to use my Crockpot. 4) I've been ill for the past week or so and it was really necessary for me to make something that took little effort. Lo and behold, Ridiculously Easy Mexican Chicken and Beans. This was adapted from the Betty Crocker Slow Cooker Mexican Pork recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes*
(chicken cuts easily when still somewhat frozen)

1 15.5 oz can of white navy beans
1 15.5 ozcan of black beans
1 4 oz can of diced green chiles
1 16 oz jar of chunky salsa*
(mild, medium or hot based on taste. I used medium)

chili powder, salt and pepper to taste

cooked rice and cilantro for garnish


Makes 4 servings
--------


Set your Crockpot to 6 hours or the medium setting.

Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes and season with salt, pepper and chili powder to taste. Put into Crockpot.

Open both cans of beans, rinse and add beans to Crockpot. Add salsa and green chiles to Crockpot. Stir and cook for 6 hours.

Serve over rice and top with lots of fresh cilantro. Next time, I would add some lime juice and lime zest and a bit of chipotle en adobo.

I Haz Crockpot ~ Turkey and Wild Rice Casserole

You may be surprised to find out that I'm a picky eater, especially with the variety of recipes I have posted here. I'm not your traditional picky eater. You know the type. That person won't touch anything green, won't eat a piece of meat that looks like it's part of the original animals, gags at the sight of mushrooms, and who's favorite meal is something super bland like white meat chicken and pasta. I have my foods that I avoid. For example, I don't like cooked red onions and I am vehemently opposed to eating salmon and veal. But otherwise I'm very adventurous. I've tried everything from octopus to goat. My pickiness stems from my tastebuds being super persnickety about whatever touches my palate at any given time. I get bored very quickly and I have to keep my palate and my appetite entertained. So variety for me is key.

I wanted to try something I hadn't made before and something I could make in my crockpot. Lo and beold: Turkey and Wild Rice Casserole.

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon cut into big pieces
2 pounds of Turkey Tenderloins cut into chunks
3 carrots chopped
1 onion chopped
4 stalks from the heart of the celery chopped
1 6oz package of Near Est Long Grain & Wild Rice Original
(do NOT use flavor packet)
1 10.75 oz can of condensed cream of chicken soup
2-1/2 cups of water
salt and pepper to taste

You'll need a Crockpot and a large skillet for this recipe. It makes 6 servings.

In a large skillet, cook bacon until somewhat crisp.

Cut your turkey tenderloins into chunks. You can do smaller chunks than what is shown above. Season with salt.

Chop your celery hearts, carrots and onions. Set aside.

Once bacon is cooked, add turkey tenderloins and vegetables. Sautee at high heat until the turkey starts to brown.

Add the mixture to your Crockpot. Season with salt and pepper.

Add your can of cream of chicken soup and 2-1/2 cups of water to the crockpot.

Stir in long grain and wild rice (do NOT use the flavor packet) and set Crockpot to 4 hours (or High). 3-1/2 hours in, shred the turkey with two forks then let cook for the last 1/2 hour.

Serve hot or at room temperature. Enjoy!

I Haz Crockpot ~ Pot Roast

I have mixed feelings about my recent attempt at Pot Roast. Although Carlos ate it with much gusto, I thought it was a vertiable Pot Roast FAIL. My biggest problem with Crockpot cooking is timing. I don't like the thought of leaving the Crockpot on while I'm at work (what if my apartment goes up in flames?) and I don't quite have the time on Sunday afternoons to devote 8-10 hours to leaving the Crockpot on and cooking. Especially when I don't get home with fresh produce and my other groceries until noontime on Sundays. So when this recipe called for 10 hours and I only could give it 5, it was destined to fail.

Here is the recipe as it should be done.

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs of bottom round roast
(seasoned with paprika, salt, pepper and onion powder)

1 large onion chopped
2 shallots peeled and halved
3-4 garlic cloves smashed
3-4 carrots peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
a small bag of red-skinned potatoes
5-6 celery stalks from the heart with the leaves, chopped
mushrooms halved
dried thyme and oregano

1 5.5 oz can of V8 juice
1 10 oz. can of beef broth
a few splashes of white wine (optional)
1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes (with juice)

1/4 cup of flour


Sear the roast by cooking it 2-3 minutes on each side in a hot skillet with olive oil. This picture is quite commical. See how my little skillet is trying sear this gigantic piece of meat? It did the job!

Add all the vegetables to the bottom of your Crockpot.

Don't forget your mushrooms!

Add the tomatoes, V8 juice, white wine and beef stock to the mixture. Season with thyme and oregano.

Nestle the behemoth piece of meat into the vegetables. I added the mushrooms on top because they couldn't quite fit into my 6-quart crockpot.

Cook for 8 hours. Then take out the meat and slice with a serrated knife if you have one. Set slices aside. Add the 1/4 cup of flour to a small bowl. Take 1 cup of the broth from the Crockpot and slowly incorporate into the flour. Whisk so you don't get any lumps. Pour the flour mixture into the Crockpot and stir. Add back the slices of meat and cook for another 30 minutes.


Serve hot! This picture would have been nicer with some fresh parsley sprinkled on top. Oh well!

I Haz Crockpot ~ Chipotle, Black Bean & Chicken Soup

I only just discovered Cookin' Canuck last night but already it's one of my favorite blogs. In fact, 4 recipes from the site are already on my list to make this week. Yesterday I made Chipotle, Black Bean & Chicken Soup from that blog but I made some alterations. Please take a look at the original recipe before making mine in case you like any of the steps I skipped or changed.


Ingredients:

1 small onion chopped
3 carrots peeled and sliced
1 large can of black beans rinsed
1 teaspoon of lime zest
3-4 garlic cloves smashed
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1/2 can of chiptole in adobo
(with seeds and membranes removed, finely chopped and use all the sauce)
4 skinless chicken thighs (bone-in)
2 14.oz cans of whole tomatoes (or 1 28 oz. can)
2 packets of Goya Chicken Bouillion
5-1/2 cups of water
juice from half a lime
salt & pepper to taste

1/2 cup of rice
cilantro & fresh-squeezed lime juice for garnish

*You'll need a 6 quart Crockpot or Slow Cooker with the hour settings to make this.

Add chopped onion, sliced carrots, smashed garlic, rinsed black beans, grated lime zest, chipotle in adobo and dried oregano to the bottom of your Crockpot. The original recipe calls for a whole can of chipotle en adobo with all the peppers cleaned of their membranes and seeds. While this would take a considerable amount of the heat away I was still nervous that a whole can of the peppers would make my soup too spicy to eat. So I opted to use all the adobo (that's that thick smoky delicious sauce) and only half of the chipotle peppers, prepared to her instructions.

The original recipe does not call for lime juice or lime zest but I added it to bring a fresh flavor to the soup.

The original recipe called for bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs that are pan seared before added to the pot. I'm making this recipe to use up some of my frozen skinless, chicken thighs so I opted to add the frozen pieces in without thawing or searing. I just didn't have time to defrost! Oops.

I added the thighs, whole tomatoes (with juice), lime juice, salt and pepper.

Instead of using 4 cups of chicken broth and 1 1/2 cups of water, I opted for 5-1/2 cups of water and two Goya packets of Chicken Bouillion. Since I'm on a tight budget and chicken broth can get expensive, I've been using Goya Bouillion instead. It's wonderful and I don't really miss the broth (the expense, the room it takes up, dealing with the cans/boxes, etc.). 2 packets makes up to 4 cups of broth.

I drown the whole thing with the water and the bouillion and I set the crockpot for 6 hours. At 5-1/2 hours I took out the chicken thights and removed the bones and cartilage. Then I shredded the chicken and put it back into the crockpot. I also added a half cup of rice to the soup, stirred and let that cook for the last half hour.

Serve yourself up a hot bowl of soup, spritz some lime juice over the top and add some fresh cilantro and dive in! This is one spicy soup and I'm glad I cut back on the chipotle in adobo. My beau Carlos and I ate it together and we were burning up. He says it's the second best thing I've ever made for him (after Pastel de Choclo). So this soup was definitely a success. Thank you Cookin' Canuck!

I Haz Crockpot ~ Pumpkin-Apple Dessert

I saw this recipe on the Betty Crocker website for Slow Cooker Pumpkin-Apple Dessert and I knew I just had to make it! I rarely buy ice cream, but did so for this recipe. It's a great way to learn how to use my Crockpot for desserts and to make something very suitable for the season.

---------

Ingredients:

1 21 oz. can Apple pie filling

Dry Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Wet Ingredients
1 cup packed brown sugar*
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup liquid egg product
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Good quality vanilla ice cream

-----------

* I reduced the amount of brown sugar from the original recipe by 1/4 cup.

To make this you have to have a Crockpot or Slow Cooker that heats on the bottom AND on the sides. That's super important!

Spray the inside of your Crockpot with Pam cooking spray. Add the apple-pie filling to the bottom and spread evenly.

Mix dry ingredients.
Then incorporate the wet ingredients. Pour batter into the crockpot and cook for 2 hours. If you don't have the 2 hour setting, cook on the 4 hour setting for about 2-1/2 hours. This worked for me.

Scoop out some dessert while it's hot, making sure you get some of the apple on the bottom. Serve with ice cream.

I used Breyer's Lactose Free Vanilla Ice Cream.

------

Next time I would add 2 cans of apple pie filling because I don't think there was enough apple for the dessert. Or maybe I would make my own apple mixture. I would also make half the amount of batter because this turned out to be an enormous dessert!

I Haz Crockpot ~ Beef Stew

To break in my brand new crockpot, I made a humongous batch of hearty beef stew. I based my recipe off of Emeril Lagasse's and made some changes and additions. Mostly I added a whole bunch more vegetables. I had fully intended to add frozen peas and pearl onions at the end but the pot was overflowing with stew and there wasn't enough room. Maybe next time.

Beef Stew

2-3 pounds of Chuck Beef for Stew
Seasoning for Beef (to taste):
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Dried Thyme
Dried Oregano

Whole Small Red Potatoes
2 large carrots peeled and cut into chunks
4 celeries, roughly chopped (use the hearts and the leaves please!)
Handful of green beans with ends cut off
Handful of wax beans with ends cut off
2 cups of mushrooms halved
4-5 garlic cloves smashed
4 springs of Thyme

2 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
1 small can of tomato sauce
3 cups of beef stock
1 cup of Pinot Grigio or another white wine
1 cup of water

For the first time ever in my life, I bought a "Family Pak" of beef. Holy moly! Look at this monstrosity. It makes enough beef stew for 5-7 servings.

Season the beef and set aside. You can also get Emeril Lagasse's Essence seasoning blend. I have all of the seasonings on hand so I just use them individually instead.

Rinse your potatoes!



And your green and wax beans! Sorry. These are just some beauty shots I wanted to take. I love taking pictures of produce.

Here's another sexy shot. These are all the vegetables I'm cramming into this beef stew.

And here are the mushrooms. Mmmm...

Heat a skillet with some olive oil. Sear the meat in batches, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Set aside the meat and cover it with foil while you are cooking the different batches.

Add Beef, stock, pinot grigio, water mushrooms, flour, butter, tomato sauce and thyme sprigs to crockpot. Set to 8 hour setting.

After an hour of cooking, add all the vegetables for the last 7 hours. You can speed this up by doing the 6 hour setting and adding the vegetables after 45 minutes instead.

Add some salt and pepper to the stew before serving. Voila! A bowl of piping hot beef stew is perfect for a snow day. Even if it is October!

I Haz Crockpot!

I've been thinking about getting one and when I saw a nice version on sale at Target for $29.99 I snapped one up and took it home with me (I paid for it of course!). There was a Hamilton Beach version at Target for the same price but it didn't have the 5 heat settings that this one has. You can set it at 4 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours and 10 hours. Once it's done it's cycle it goes into Warm mode. You can also just turn it on to warm mode too. The Hamilton Beach version had only low, medium and high settings. No hours and no warm mode! Not good.

I think a crockpot is a good investment for the Fall and Winter. I'll be making lots of soups and stews and casseroles. I also very much like the idea of throwing some ingredients into the crockpot in the morning, going to work and coming home to a hot meal, ready-to-eat.

I just made my first beef stew in the crockpot and that recipe is coming up next. Stay tuned.