Slow Cooker Watermelon Rind Relish (Puli Pachadi)

Watermelon rinds being watery and edible and mild, it is used in quite a few Indian dishes. With its texture and taste bland enough like Ash gourd or Opo Squash or Chayote squash, it lends itself well to spicy dishes.

Puli Pachadi is a thick south Indian concoction made with tamarind, jaggery, ginger, and chilies; with or without the addition of grated coconut. One such concoction is Puli Inji (Tamarind Ginger) which is one of my favorites, the way my mom makes it.

Borrowing the idea of Puli Inji, I added watermelon rinds - just the white portions that kids discard usually. Most of the work is done by the slow cooker. The labor-intensive part is to salvage the rinds and cut even chunks out of them for this recipe.

Add the water melon rinds to the slow cooker along with enough of tamarind paste, grape molasses, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, Thai red chilies, whole black pepper, and salt to taste. Slow cook on low for about 5 hours till the liquids congeal and thicken to ooze concentrated flavor.

Slow-Cooker Chipotle Chicken

Nothing fancy or elaborate, just canned Chipotle in adobo sauce brings the flavor and slow cooker does the rest.

Add the onions, peppers, garlic, and chicken into the slow cooker, season with a dash of salt and brown sugar.

Blend the can of chipotle in adobo sauce and keep it handy. When chicken is part-way cooked, say after an hour or so in the slow cooker, add enough the chipotle sauce (to taste) and slow cook for another hour or till chicken is cooked through and the flavors meld.

Serve with fresh home-made corn tortillas or naan or home-made flour-tortillas or even brown basmati rice.

Slow Cooker Chicken with Vegetable Mash

Nothing extraordinary about this recipe, but I still wanted to share it here because it's one of my favorite ways to use up bits and pieces of veggies that are left over at the end of the week.

Half a zucchini, a small wedge of red cabbage, half a red onion, a bunch of celery bottoms, and half a bell pepper were waiting to be used. Simply chop them up, grind them into thick paste-like consistency, sauté to use as a starter for the curry.

Add this veggie-medley starter, some stock, cut chicken breasts, potatoes and carrots to the slow cooker and allow to simmer gently for 6 to 8 hours. Usually, I start this curry the previous night and serve it for dinner the following night.

Rub the chicken pieces with garam masala or curry powder before tossing into the slow cooker for an Indian style curry. Or rub it with achiote and adobo sauce with some cumin and oregano for a Mexican style dish. Adjust spices, herbs, seasoning to taste.

Sage & Thyme Garlic Lemon Chicken with Carrots and Potatoes

With the tight workday schedule, slow cooker is such a boon for me to get warm and flavorful meal ready on weeknights with minimal effort and a bit of planning-ahead.

Boneless, skinless chicken breast was marinated for about 2 hours one evening after I came back from work. Marinade: some white vinegar and Bragg liquid aminos. After finishing the evening's meal and clearing away the dishes, reading to the kids and tucking them in bed, I get to start on the next day's dinner.

Ingredients
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 tsp sage
1 tsp thyme
½ cup mirepoix chopped
half a lemon, cut into wedges
1 Tbsp oil
Potatoes & Carrots OR Butternut Squash & Taro Root, chunky-cut
salt to taste
2 to 3 cups chicken stock/broth as needed

1. Heat a cast-iron skillet, add some oil and allow it to heat up as well; toss in some sage, thyme, a dash of salt, and mirepoix  (chopped celery, onions, carrots, garlic); sauté
2. Add the marinated chicken breast, allow to brown on one side, flip and turn off heat and allow the chicken to sit in the hot cast iron skillet till the veggies and the slow cooker are prepped.
3. Add enough stock to the slow cooker that will immerse the chicken completely and turn it on
4. Chop carrots and potatoes into chunks; or, for an amazing combination of flavors, chop butternut squash and taro root instead
5. Place the chicken in the slow cooker, add the chopped veggies, lemon wedges, make sure there is enough stock to immerse the chicken, and leave the slow cooker on at low heat setting overnight
6. Check for doneness next morning - if the chicken is cooked, can turn off heat and let it sit till dinner time; toss in some frozen peas if preferred
7. Warm and serve with brown basmati rice or freekeh pilaf.

Smoky Rich Mustard-y Slow-cooked Beans

Every once in a while, I enjoy the pungency of mustard oil in everyday dishes. Sometimes it brings out layers of flavors I didn't know possible. This beans is just a happy accident.

Ingredients
2 cups dry beans, soaked overnight, drained, ready to cook
2 Tbsp mustard oil
1 Tbsp stone ground mustard
½ cup molasses
½ tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 medium onion diced
1/8th tsp ground cloves

Combine all the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook for 8 hours or so till beans are cooked.

Crock-pot Green and Red Cabbage Rolls in Sauce

Cabbage rolls are quick and easy to make in a steamer or pan. But sometimes, just the sheer joy of starting it early and having it ready hours later makes me turn to the electrical crock pot for this.

Red cabbage leaves are notoriously crispy and not pliable to facilitate easy rolling. Use slightly old red cabbage that feels wilted a bit, yet good for consumption. Outer leaves with thick ridges don't work as well, of course. Also, I prefer to par cook it in the microwave with some water to make it softer and easier to roll up.

For a quick filling, ready-made frozen veggie patties are perfect. Either TJ's Pizza Veggie Burger patties or Black Bean Chipotle patties are the current favorites at home. Simply cook the patties, crumble them to make the filling.

Start some tomato sauce with corn and onion cooking in a crock pot. Assemble the cabbage rolls: simply fill a layer of cabbage large enough to make a roll, roll like a burrito wrap or dolma, place gently in the crock pot with the sauce. Cover and cook for  5 to 6 hours till desired doneness. I start this in the morning before going to work, and it is ready for dinner that evening.

Crock-pot Chicken Stew

I am a big fan of Electrical Slow Cooker and Crock Pots. It makes winter night meals a breeze if planned ahead and started early. Warm, hearty stews and soups, vegetables, casseroles, and even fall-apart chicken breasts come out just fine, given a little time, requiring minimal effort.

Marinated chicken breasts were started on the crock pot one Friday night, and allowed to slow cook for about 12 hours; then, in the morning, when the chicken breasts were fully cooked, I added some chopped onions, bell peppers, kale, carrots, tomato sauce, spices/seasoning and continued to cook through the day Saturday, possibly another 4 or 5 hours.

By dinner time Saturday night, aromatic chicken and vegetable stew with flaky, juicy, fall-apart chicken was ready. Served with some home-made biscuits, it was a wholesome winter night meal.

Of course, I don't care much for chicken, so this batch was consumed by the rest of the family. For myself, I like to omit the chicken and double the vegetables, adding cauliflower, chick peas, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, winter squash, edamame and marinated tofu to make a There-Can't-Be-Too-Many-Veggies stew.

Slow-cooked Chicken with Turnips

Slow cookers are handy for winter time. It is nice to start a pot of hearty soup or stew, leave it on for as long as the recipe calls for and allow it to fill the house with the aroma. Anything from a pot of chili to one-pot rice dishes to chicken breasts with vegetables come about in slow cooker around this time of the year.

In one slow cooker I dropped in some chicken breasts marinated overnight in a generic rub of spices and herbs. In another, I added a couple of whole turnips (peeled), a whole yellow onion (peeled), a whole potato (peeled), a couple of whole carrots (peeled), a cup of stock, a cup of canned diced tomato, some flavoring spices and herbs.

I started this on a Friday night, and by Saturday night dinner time, the chicken breasts were cooked till tender and falling apart, the veggies were cooked through and flavorful but not mushy.

Scoop up a little of the veggies and chicken and enjoy as-is. Or, serve it with quinoa or brown rice. 

wild rice stew

Until about a decade ago, I was blissfuly unaware of Wild Rice. I was introduced to it when I lived in Eugene, OR: I found it at The Kiva store which was one of my favorite haunts :)

Wild rice is expensive as it is not abundant and not easy to harvest. I like the chewy texture, color and size of the grains. It works great for making stuffing, usually.

One of my garage sale finds is a 5-qt crock pot we bought for $5! I love to use it as best as I can...

This wild rice stew is a hearty and comforting meal - just a bowl of it fills me up. I like to throw the ingredients in a slow cooker or crock pot late tonight, leave it on low to be ready for dinner tomorrow night.

But, this recipe can be made faster if some preparation can be done ahead of time. Wild rice takes longer to cook: i like to soak wild rice for about an hour or longer before cooking it just like any other long grain rice on stove top, and use about 2 to 3 measures of water per measure of dry rice to get a smooth soft texture. (Sometimes, if i remember, i try to soak the wild rice in the morning, on my way out to work, and then come home in the evening and cook the rice.)

A good wild rice stew takes a bit of time though, that's why i like the slow cooker method when possible:)

Ingredients
1 cup wild rice, soaked for an hour or longer
1 medium potato sliced or diced
6-8 baby carrots chopped (or regular carrots
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp grated ginger
2-3 thai chilies or jalapenos, diced
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans or chickpeas, rinsed, drained
1 Tbsp canola oil

spice mix:
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp coriander powder
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper powder
1 tsp all-spice powder
1 tsp oregano powder

water as needed
salt to taste

garnish:
chopped spring onions, chives, cilantro

Preparation

heat oil in a pan, add the onions, garlic, ginger and a pinch of salt, sauté till onions turn a little brown

add the spice mix, sauté till the spices bloom

add the wild rice, with 3 to 4 cups of water, add the vegetables and beans, cover and cook till rice is done

simmer the stew till desired thickness, adjust spices to taste, garnish with chopped spring onions and herbs, serve warm,