It's hard to find good home-cooking these days. I suppose a big reason for that are the busy schedules we tend to keep nowadays. If you're not putting in extra time on the job, you're running from soccer practice to violin recitals and everything in between. People used to be around the house, if not in the kitchen, to keep an eye on a slow-simmering pot of soup or crock of baked beans.
While the days of spending hours babysitting a pot of stew or chili are probably in the past, that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy a bowl of these ultimate comfort foods ... and even in the middle of the week! How can that possibly be the case? Why with the help of your trusty slow cooker, of course! (You do own one of these kitchen blessings, don't you?)
The slow cookers of today are wonderful appliances that apply a slow, even heat to a vessel filled with yummy ingredients that become even yummier when simmered for hours. Modern models include everything from timers that will automatically switch the appliance to a KEEP WARM setting to computerized models that will even tell you what to put in them! Of course, the most important features to look for are a stoneware vessel (it holds and distributes heat the best) that's big enough for your family's needs and at least two settings -- LOW and HIGH -- although a KEEP WARM setting can be very helpful if you're one of those people that tends to get stuck at the office.
The basic recipes for slow cooking consist of putting together a bunch of items, covering the pot and ignoring it for hours while it does the cooking for you. Of course, there are some steps that can be taken to make a good recipe great. Because slow cookers use moist heat to do the cooking, meats and other ingredients will not brown in a slow cooker. Therefore, it's often nice to brown meat prior to adding it to the pot. A newer slow cooker model actually allows you to brown your ingredients right in the pot prior to setting it on the warming unit -- thus eliminating one more dirty dish! Also, the order in which you place your ingredients can be important, especially when combining slower cooking ingredients, like potatoes, with quicker cooking ingredients, like onions. The lower in the pot you place an ingredient, the more heat it will absorb ... so put those potatoes in first! Finally, since the pot will be covered for the duration of its cooking time, a relatively small amount of liquid will be necessary to ensure a moist dish. A pot of chili simmering on the stove may need over twice as much liquid as one cooking in a slow cooker!
