Meals that take all day to cook, but only minutes to prepare!

All of the dinners I will be posting recipes for can be prepared in minutes, the catch is, they need to cook all day. Although you could speed up these dishes by cooking at a hotter temperature, letting them cook for hours will bring out the full range of flavors.

Tips for speeding up cooking:
Follow this order when you are prepping your food

Start with the meat!

• Start heating up your pan/pot and oil right away.
• Prep your meat (wash, dry, chop, whatever)
• Season meat
• Start cooking meat in a slightly smoking pot (to sear)

Veggies!

• Wash everything
• Peel everything that needs to be peeled
• Chop onions and garlic, most of the time these go in the pan/pot first
• Chop hard veggies (carrots, potatoes, celery), keep everything separate
• Chop soft veggies (tomatoes squash), keep everything separate
• Wash and chop all herbs right before putting them in the pot.

More tips for speeding up prep time!

• Carrots do not have to be peeled. If you let unpeeled carrots cook all day the skin becomes just as soft as the rest of the carrot and lends some texture to the dish.
• Only thick skinned (usually brown) potatoes need to be peeled. Even these can be left unpeeled if they are scrubbed very well and if they cook long enough.
• Get a sideways vegetable peeler. If you have one you know that these speed up peeling time.
• Get a GOOD knife and keep it sharp. We only own one good knife. It cost us around $50 at Bed Bath and Beyond. It does need to be sharpened every few times that we use it and it can not be put through the dishwasher or even left on the rack to dry.
• Use the right knife for the right job. Use a larger knife for chopping hard vegetables and meats. Use a smaller knife for trimming small amounts of fat or soft veggies. Chop your tomatoes with a tomato knife, or a steak knife. It cuts right through the skin and does not smoosh your food!

A few more tips!

• Fresh herbs are great if you grow them, but cost a lot in the store to buy. If you do end up buying them (or at the end of your growing season) wash them well, de-stem, and dry them, then freeze herbs in freezer bags in individual portions. This brings a fresh taste to your soups and stews.
• Have 2 cutting boards. One for meat, one for veggies.
• Have a bowl for scraps. An empty produce bag also works well.

Feeding babies and toddlers from a slow cooker

• Cool down all food
• cut into bite sized pieces, or puree for the little ones
• skip the broth!
• Don't over salt food when it is in the slow cooker. Instead flavor once it is on your plate
  

Stove vs. slow cooking

• If I am going to be in the house ALL day I use the stove. It is easy to regulate the temperature and easy to cook it faster or slower. But it is not safe to leave the stove on unattended.
• For slow cooking reduce the amount of liquid you use (check your owners manual) and make sure you bring it up to temp (especially if you prepare the night before and put it in the slow cooker in the morning) on high and then turn down to a lower setting.
• Every slow cooker is different. For the first use, at least, be around the house to see how high it cooks on each setting and how well the lid seals and keeps in liquid.
• If using a slow cooker you don’t have to brown the meat before cooking it, but the color and texture of the meat will be better if you do.

Check back frequently this week for delicious recipes!


Product of the day!
Sideways vegetable peeler!



Pic from: http://www.alwaysbrilliant.com/aa/aspx-products/1-7110/2-57490/SC-Froogle/kw-103281/bb/Ceramic-Potato-Peelers.htm