Return of the Crock

This slow cooker seemed like a good idea when I got it, but I've never used it. What is the best meal to make in there? Platelicker

Good question & good timing, Platelicker - Saucykitchens™ has to return the crock pot that was on loan to answer a question about rice a few weeks ago. Besides the rice, we made red beans (for the rice), pinto beans, chicken stock, proofed pizza dough, cooked Tom Kha and closed out the testing with Osso Buco.

The stock was rich and flavorful, no complaints. The pizza dough rose evenly in a temperature controlled environment but I wouldn't have bothered if the crock wasn't already on the counter. The Osso Buco responded nicely to the crock's sure and steady heat but the shanks had to be seared on the stovetop first, adding an extra pan to the dishpit. The great thing about Tom Kha it’s a tasty 15 minute meal and I am not talking about the quarter hour it takes to call in an order and pick it up. In a crock pot, the Thai soup ended up taking 3 hours to prepare and the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf flavors were subdued when prepared at a lower temperature.

The beans worked out the best. The thing about canned beans, the beans always taste like they are from a can – the texture is never right: smushy-gummy-invertebrate (true, they are beans). Taste suffers in the canning process too; salty with a slight metallic tang even after rinsing. Dried pinto beans thrown in the crock one morning with dried chilies, cumin, coriander and water easily produced some seriously delicious burrito-ready food by the time I returned home, possibly easier than opening a can.

The Red Beans required more attention, but they turned out real, real well. No small statement for what could easily be my all time favorite meal*. For those of you not from New Orleans/Southern Louisiana and are unfamiliar with Red Beans and Rice it is an amalgam of cooking styles - seemingly based on feijoada, cassoulet and chili, it is a common meal that comforts, nourishes and equalizes.

Red Beans has an odd leveling power: cooked both at home and in restaurants. In New Orleans, a city with some pretty big divides; the dish is a unifier. Consumed both by Uptown Brahmins and those living in the shadow of the levees. Loved equally across racial lines - Legend has it Louis Armstrong signed his letters “Red Beans and Ricely yours,” - a sign-off suggesting peace and love while hinting at the promise of the brotherhood of man.

Unfortunately, Ignatius J. Reilly and his tricky pyloric valve have little to say about such a gassy food but the dish is repeatedly captured in lyric: Sir Mix A Lot contends that baby’s back wouldn’t go unnoticed by Red Beans and Rice and you know, even though Baby Got Back, it is good to know the Red Beans are paying attention. Tom Waits invokes Red Beans to establish his bona fides in his overly earnest I Wish I Was in New Orleans. Best though is the way the meal is lovingly reminisced in the Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter standard Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans.

Traditionally made on Monday with the Ham bone from Sunday Dinner, the beans absorb the smoky/fatty, garlicky, spiced flavors of the pot, producing a wonderful gravy for the beans to swim in. While Red Beans might be a cultural touchstone, any dish prepared in so many different kitchens by so many diverse cooks will not be adapted from universally accepted recipe. I am looking at 7 similar but different recipes from 5 separate books. Personally, I like ham hock, garlic, smoked sausage, red pepper, onion, celery, parsley and a little tomato, stock, some spices and Crystal Hot Sauce but what do I know? I am a Midwestern living in the urban West – A culinary interloper and Red Bean Carpetbagger.

You should throw a few of your favorite things in your crock pot, wait 4 hours, add your vegetables and wait another couple of hours and see what you can spoon over rice.

*Like books and movies, I get to claim more than one favorite.