The Engineer should be here at some point today to fix our oven. (Fingers crossed!) I am really missing it, although without it working, I have been challenged to use some other methods of cooking.
I don't think I have used my slow cooker/crock pot this much in a long time! Its come in really handy!
Today I did Mac & Cheese in it. I adapted the recipe from one I found on The Country Cook.
Her recipe makes 10 servings, so if you are wanting to feed a large bunch by all means check it out. I have downsized it quite a bit to serve only 3 people.
There are only two of us and one of us doesn't like pasta all that much! So my version makes three servings only.
I can tell you that the end result was very creamy and very rich!
I also created a crispy bread crumb topping. I like a crispy topping on
mac and cheese, I don't know about you. Its optional, but its very
simple and very very good.
I used two kinds of cheese, a strong cheddar cheese, which I grated, and a Jack cheese which I cut into cubes.
She used cheddar and American cheese. We don't get American cheese over here and I am not really sure what it tastes like, but I thought Jack would work well, and it did. I think Gruyere would also.
If I make it again, and I probably will, I will add some mustard to the mix. I think mustard works well in mac and cheese, as does hot pepper sauce.
You do need to cook the macaroni first. Just cook it to al dente and then drain. That can be cooking while you prepare and measure out all the remaining ingredients.
Once the macaroni it cooked, simply drain and add to the bowl of the slow cooker (first spray it with some non stick low fat cooking spray) along with a TBS of butter, stirring to coat the macaroni with the butter, which should melt from the heat of the macaroni.
After that you just stir in everything else, pop on the lid and then let the crock pot do the work. You do need to give it a stir once or twice, just to make sure everything is mixing together.
The milk and cream meld together with the cheese to make a rich and creamy cheese sauce. Oh so luxurious! If you like mac and cheese, you are going to love LOVE this!
Crock Pot Mac & Cheese
Yield: 3
Creamy, cheesy and easy. Sized for the smaller family, but easily doubled.
ingredients:
- 115g dry elbow macaroni (scant cup)
- 1 TBS butter4
- 80ml evaporated milk (1/3 cup)
- 80ml single cream (1/3 cup, half and half)
- 90g strong cheddar cheese, grated, divided (3/4 cup)
- 115g jack cheese, cut into cubes (scant cup)
- salt and pepper to taste
Crumb Topping:
- 1 slice of bread made into crumbs
- 1 TBS butter, melted
- pinch of parsley flakes
instructions:
How to cook Crock Pot Mac & Cheese
- Cook the pasta according to the package directions, until just al dente. Drain well.
- Spray a small slow cooker/crock pot with some non stick low fat cooking spray. Add the hot macaroni and the butter. Stir to melt the butter and coat the macaroni. Pour in the evaporated milk, the cream, 60g (1/2 cup) of the strong cheddar, the cubed Jack cheese and salt and pepper to taste, remembering that cheese can be salty. Stir to blend.
- Cover and cook on low for an hour to an hour and a half, stirring occasionally. During the last 15 minutes of cooking, sprinkle with the remaining 30g (1/4 cup) of cheddar cheese. Cover and allow the cheese to melt.
- Once done, turn the crock pot to the warm setting until ready to serve.
- To make the crispy bread crumb topping, melt the butter in a small skillet. When it begins to foam, add the bread crumbs, Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until they crisp up and turn golden brown. Stir in the parsley flakes. Sprinkle this over the mac and cheese if desired.
- Any leftovers can be stored, covered in the refrigerator. (As if!)
I think if you wanted to you could stir in bits of cooked ham or sliced hotdogs, even cooked vegetables. Broccoli would be especially nice!
We have just enjoyed a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend, with beautiful sunny and warm weather! Its been really gorgeous! That makes a change, as the norm is rainy, cold and wet on a bank holiday!
I have never known a bank holiday here in the UK that wasn't accompanied by copious amounts of rain!
I wanted to make a side dish the other night using potatoes, but of course I couldn't do anything that was baked, and we didn't feel like mashed or boiled.
I went through my cookbooks, and decided to pick one from one of my Company's Coming library. I've been collecting them for years.
I got my first Company's Coming cookbook back in the 1980's as a gift from my friend Mabel. It was the Cookies and Squares one. I about wore it out. I fell right in love with it.
They are like community cookbooks, but the recipes work. They are pretty much a Canadian Institution. This recipe today was adapted from their Potato Cookbook.
This is Potatoes O'Brien. Its not a British dish I am afraid. Its very North American. I researched the history of it and came up with this.
"The dish has been claimed to originate in the early
1900s from a Boston restaurant known as Jerome's and from a Manhattan
restaurant known as Jack's during the same time period."
This is a pretty basic version, using only salt and pepper as seasoning. You could also add garlic powder and or paprika.
I added some paprika. I like the colour it adds to potatoes when you are frying them.
Basically it is like a potato hash, except it doesn't use already cooked potatoes.
You peel and dice raw potatoes and add them to some hot fat, along with chopped onion and the seasoning.
The recipe also called for chopped pimento, or jarred roasted peppers. I didn't have any of those.
You can also use chopped red, and/or green peppers in their place, which is what I did.
Just make sure your fat is nice and hot and you use a non-stick pan. That's what works best when you are pan-frying potatoes.
If the oil isn't hot enough, they will absorb the oil, and if you use a regular pan, the natural sugars in the potatoes cause them to stick. Non-stick is the way to go.
You can get them as brown as you like.
I actually browned these for a bit longer than I am showing you, but I was losing the light, and wanted to take some photos, so am showing them to you a bit lighter than what they ended up.
Its all personal preference really. Some people like them darker, and some lighter.
These reminded me very much of my first MIL's fried potatoes, except she used to fry hers in salt pork fat. Oh boy but they were some good.
I learnt a lot about cooking from her. She lived to be 100! She was a farm wife and probably one of the best cooks I ever had the pleasure to know and learn from.
Potatoes O'Brien
Yield: 4
Such a simple and homey dish. Goes with anything. Quick easy and delicious!
ingredients:
- 450g peeled, diced potatoes (2 cups)
- 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 TBS cooking oil
- 57ml jar of chopped roasted peppers (2 ounces) (alternately you can use 75g diced red or green pepper (1/3 cup))
instructions:
How to cook Potatoes O'Brien
- Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet. Add the diced potatoes, onions and seasoning. (I like to add a sprinkle of paprika as well.) Cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently, for about 15 minutes, or until the potato is tender and browned. Add the chopped roasted peppers and heat through. If you are using fresh peppers, you can add them at the same time as you add everything else. Such an easy and forgiving dish!
There are only two of us and so we had leftovers. I divided them into foil packs yesterday, sprinkled them with cheese and then reheated them on our outdoor grill. Even better. We had them with BBQ'd Pork Chops and grilled Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheese. So Yummy!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
Thank you for visiting! Do come again!
I had been going to make us a coconut cream pie for dessert this Easter along with a Robin's Egg Blue iced cake roll (filled with lemon curd).
I bought the food colouring and everything, but alas . . . without a reliable oven, this idea was a total bust!! What to do instead???
I had spied a recipe for a Creamy Rice Pudding with Cinnamon Sugar in that same cookery book I got the chocolate pudding recipe from the other day.
I then decided that since Rice Pudding is Todd's favourite thing on earth, I would make it for him.
How hard could it be? Not hard at all, that's the answer!
Everything simply gets mixed together in a slow cooker and the slow cooker(crockpot) does all the work. You do have to stir it several times during the cooking process . . . but that's not much of a hardship really . . .
It leaves you hands and stove-free to prepare the rest of your meal with perfect ease! No fuss no muss!
On a side note, have you ever considered serving your desserts in a pretty tea cup? They really make for a beautiful presentation!
Included with the pudding is a recipe for an optional raspberry sauce to spoon over top. Num num!
I hadn't actually planned it this way, but I ended up with a red, white and blue dessert! How very patriotic of me!
The rice pudding itself is flavoured with a strip of orange peel/zest. Just carve it off of a well-washed orange with a vegetable peeler. Easy peasy.
You will also need a whole vanilla pod. (you could use vanilla paste as well I think) Don't think of it as a waste of a vanilla pod, just slit it in half before you stick it in the pudding and when done, rinse it off, dry and then stick it into your sugar canister for some lovely vanilla sugar!
The top of the finished pudding is gilded with a bit of cinnamon sugar . . . not enough to take over the pudding, but just enough to give you a light hint of the flavour.
Once again, I cut the recipe in half and cooked it in my small oval shaped slow cooker. It looks like this.
It is a 1 1/2 litre cooker (1 1/2 qt.) Works a charm for all of this small family's slow cooking needs. I got mine from Amazon a few years ago.
Today I made the optional raspberry sauce to serve with it. I think a fruit sauce goes very well with rice pudding.
Raspberry is very nice, as is cherry. (My favourite is cherry sauce.)
Creamy Rice Pudding with Cinnamon Sugar
Yield: 6
This version of rice pudding is not only delicious but very simple. Just pop everything into the slow cooker and let it do all the donkey-work! Serve with an optional Raspberry Sauce for a real taste treat!
ingredients:
For the pudding:
- 200g uncooked short grain white rice (1 cup) (I use arborio risotto rice)
- 1 1/4 litres of whole milk (5 cups)
- 95g caster sugar (1/2 cup, super fine granulated sugar)
- 2-inch piece of fresh orange rind/zest in one piece
- 1 vanilla bean
For the Cinnamon Sugar:
- 2 TBS caster sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
For the raspberry sauce:
- 150g frozen raspberries (5 1/2 ounces)
- 45g sugar (1/4 cup)
- 1 TBS water
instructions:
- To make the rice pudding, measure everything for the pudding into the bowl of a 4 1/2 litre (18 cup) slow cooker/crock pot. (I like to split the vanilla pod in two first.) Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, stirring several times. Remove and discard the orange zest and the vanilla pod. (I like to rinse the pod off, dry and then stick it into my sugar bowl.)
- Mix together the sugar and cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar topping and sprinkle over top.
- To make the raspberry sauce, stew the raspberries together with the water and sugar in a saucepan until softened.
- Serve the pudding warm, with the cinnamon sugar on top and with the raspberry sauce (if using) drizzled over each serving. A drizzle of cream is also nice.
This really went down a real treat. My husband was in pudding heaven! I had a tiny taste (I am trying to stay away from sugar) and I have to say it is really delicious. Not over the top sweet. Just right! Happy Easter!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
If you are a long time reader of my foodblog you will know that at present I don't have a working oven.
Well . . . I can do a few things in it, but not anything precise such as baking cakes, cookies or roasts. Not quite what I was hoping for a holiday weekend!
I did want to cook us a bit of a special meal, including a dessert. I have a cookbook by the Australian Women's Weekly, entitled "Slow Cooking."
It is a fabulous compendium of recipes to cook long and slow, in the slow cooker (crock pot), stove top or in the oven.
I had flagged this Chocolate Fudge Pudding a long time ago, and I thought to myself, there is no time like the present!
I have made Chocolate Fudge Pudding in the oven many times, and its a real favourite, but I had never considered doing it in the slow cooker.
There is also a rice pudding recipe in there I would like to try as well as a bread pudding. Watch this space.
I didn't want to drag out my large slow cooker however, nor did I want to have to deal with oodles of leftovers, so I threw caution to the wind and halved the recipe.
With great success I might add! It worked out beautifully, and was done in roughly 3/4 of the time.
I would start checking it halfway through the recommended cook time just to be sure.
Chocolate Fudge Pudding has always been a real family favourite of ours.
Its the kind of pudding that goes together simply and then bakes itself pretty much, with the end result being a delicious fudgy cake type of pudding (much like a steamed pudding)
Along with a rich chocolate sauce that bakes like magic at the bottom of the pudding.
I have never met anyone who doesn't like it, including my husband who says he hates chocolate desserts, but managed to put away two helpings!
It is best served warm . . .
When my children were growing up they liked it with cold Vanilla Ice Cream. My husband, he likes his with cream. Its delicious either way!
Chocolate Fudge Pudding
Yield: 6
A delicious gooey chocolate sponge pudding that makes its own sauce. This cooks in the slow cooker. You can very successfully cut this in half for the smaller family or smaller appetites.
ingredients:
- 90g butter (3 ounces) (6 TBS)
- 180ml milk (3/4 cup)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 190g caster sugar (1 cup)
- 225g self raising flour (1 1/2 cups + 2 TBS)
- 2 TBS good quality cocoa powder
- 1 large free range egg, beaten lightly
- 200g soft light brown sugar (1 cup, packed)
- 2 additional TBS of cocoa powder
- 625ml boiling water (2 1/2 cups)
To serve (optional):
- pouring cream
- vanilla ice cream
instructions:
- Butter a 4 1/2 litre (18 cup) slow cooker bowl. Melt the butter in the milk over low heat. Let cool for several minutes and then stir in the sugar and vanilla. Sift together the flour and first amount of cocoa powder. Stir this into the milk /butter mixture along with the egg, mixing all together well. Pour into the buttered slow cooker bowl.
- Sift together the brown sugar and remaining cocoa powder. Sprinkle evenly over top of the batter in the slow cooker. Pour the boiling water evenly over all.
- Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 hours or until firm. Remove the bowl from the slow cooker. Let stand five minutes and then spoon out into bowls to serve. Pass the cream or ice cream!
Store any leftovers in the refrigerator and then reheat gently in the microwave when you go to serve it. This always goes down a real treat and its nice to know that you can cook it in the slow cooker without heating up the kitchen. Its also nice to know that you can cut the recipe in half and it will still turn out delicious!
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