Shadow Footprints

Experiments in the kitchen

I stumbled across a crockpot recipe that doesn't use much liquid.

Easy Lemon Pepper Chicken

• 4 large Chicken breasts, skinned and boneless
• Juice of ¹/₂ lemon
• 1 tsp Black Pepper, freshly ground

Place chicken in the slow cooker. Squeeze lemon juice over the chicken. Sprinkle with pepper. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Add more lemon juice if needed.

I haven't given it a try yet, and looking at it again I can't see any advantage in using the slow cooker when you can just use the oven. The recipe got me thinking as to whether a crockpot was safe to use dry. I haven't been able to find any other recipe with so little liquid but I did find the following recipe which I made last night.

Crockpot Chocolate Fudge Pudding Cake

• 1 cup flour
• ³/₄ cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. cocoa
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ¹/₈ tsp. salt
• ¹/₂ cup milk
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• ¹/₂ tsp. vanilla
• ³/₄ cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. cocoa
• 1³/₄ cups hot water

Lightly grease crockpot. In large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients and stir to combine. Add milk, and vanilla. Stir well. Pour into prepared crockpot. In another bowl, stir second amount of brown sugar and second amount of cocoa together. Add hot water and mix well until blended. Pour over batter in crockpot; do not stir! Cover crockpot and cook on high about 2 hours or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Makes 8-10 servings.

This recipe is rich, and it does pass the cold-the-next-day test. It's very like a recipe of my mother's, and one I've seen many variants since. The above version has a softer, moister crust.

Quick Chocolate Pudding
Mix this pudding in the dish you cook in.

• 1 cup Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tab Cocoa
• ¹/₂ cup Sugar
• 2 oz Butter, melted
• ¹/₂ cup Milk
• Vanilla to taste
• 2 tsp Cocoa
• ¹/₂ cup Brown sugar
• 2 cups Boiling Water

Mix Flour, Baking Powder, first measure of Cocoa, and first measure of Sugar together. Add Butter, Milk, and Vanilla to dry ingredients and mix well. Combine second measure of Cocoa with Brown Sugar and sprinkle on top. Carefully pour Boiling Water over. Bake in a moderate oven for 35 minutes.

As kids this was a favourite for my brothers and me. Seldom was there any left for the next day. According to her recipe book she got it from someone named Clarice, and while I think I should know the name it is way in the past. I think many of the early recipe's were written into this book around 1970, and Clarice would have been from before 1966.

I imagine the recipe I use for Rice Pudding in the microwave could be made in the crockpot, taking longer but with less intervention. It was good for the mulled wine at my party, I just put in all the ingredients a few hours prior to the arrival of guests and switched it on. It took care of the rest.

Crockpot Mulled Wine

• 3 litres Red Wine
• 1 Nutmeg, crushed with hammer
• 10 Cloves, whole (You do not want to crush these, and a trial run told us.)
• 2 tsp Allspice, whole
• 2 Cinnamon sticks, broken up a bit
• 1 cup Brown Sugar (I used Muscavado.)
• Zest of 1 Lemon

Combine spices and tie up in a muslin bundle (like a Bouquet Garni). Put everything into the crockpot and turn on three hours before serving.

Next thing to try in it is bread. The only thing I question with the recipes I've seen is the lack of the step of knocking the dough back, so I expect these recipes to make holey bread.

For the record, yes, I have cooked fish in the dishwasher. The only problem was I used Terekihi which was slightly overcooked. This recipe looks good. Google is my friend. The Surreal Gourmet looks great. Who needs a propane torch from the hardware shop for the kitchen? (This is something Alton Brown recommends in his book, instead of a fussy butane one.) I used to have a copy of Manifold Destiny : The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine! but never got around to doing any of the suggestions in there.

- shadowfoot,