The Slow Cook Book

The Slow Cook Book – Recipes for both slow cookers and traditional ovens
By Heather Whinney
Published at DK Canada

About the book

Whether you use an electric slow cooker or a more traditional oven or stovetop, slow cooking is a wonderful way to prepare wholesome, home-cooked food with the greatest of ease.

Celebrating slow cooking in all its forms, The Slow Cook Book includes 200 recipes ranging from typical slow-cook dishes-hearty, warming stews and pot roasts-to more surprising fare such as cakes.

Showing two methods of slow cooking for each recipe—one using an electric crock pot and the other using a combination of traditional pots, pans, stovetop, and oven—The Slow Cook Book demonstrates step-by-step techniques and provides everything you need to become a slow-cook expert.

My Thoughts

I’m always open to review a new cookbook.   My family is always willing to try out new recipes.   So it’s a perfect combination when I see a new cookbook that looks particularly interesting at DK Canada.  And with my husband working at a contract on the Gatineau side, I know that his driving will be longer.   Seeing that we are homeschooling and sometimes we can get "late” on preparing supper, I thought that it would be nice to explore new recipes for the crockpot!   And this title was perfect for our new adventures in preparing meal in advanced.   I am not a stranger to the slow cooker but I will admit that we usually do the same recipes all the time.  To spice up our repertoire that is nothing better than a new recipe book.

The table of contents presents the various sections included in this book:

• Techniques
• Recipe choosers
• Soups and broths
• Stews
• Casseroles, cassoulets, and meatballs
• Tagines
• Curries
• Chilis and gumbos
• Pot roasts and ribs
• Risottos, pilafs, and paellas
• Desserts

In all, you can find various recipes that include pork, chicken, turkey, or beef.   You will also find interesting vegetables recipes as well as amazing desserts in the book.   I personally think that it’s best to have two slow cookers in your house – especially if you have numerous people around the table – but this book offers a new twist to slow cooking – each recipes are presented for both the slow cooker or the traditional oven.   I think it is a fabulous idea of doing so because you don’t have to adapt the recipe for traditional cooking on your own.  Besides, it doesn’t take that much space to present both ways…

As per my tradition when I review a cookbook, I decided to do a recipe and share it with my readers.  There was many recipes that were mouth-watering in this book and I had trouble picking one.   But since we had pork ribs in the freezer, I decided to use them in a new recipe.  Consequently, I chose to make Asian pork ribs which is found on page 294 of the book.

Asian Pork Ribs

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 rack of pork ribs, about 12 ribs (about 1 lb. 9oz)
salt
2 tsp. black peppercorns
1-2 scallions, green parts – finely sliced, to serve

For the marinade

2 tbsp. sesame oil
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
6 tbsp. teriyaki sauce
1 tsp. five-spice powder
juice of 2 limes
pinch of dried chili flakes

Slow Cooker    prep 5 minutes   cook auto/low 8 hrs.

1. Preheat the slow cooker, if required.   Chop the rack into ribs and put them in the slow cooker.  Season with salt and add the peppercorns.  In a bowl, mix together all the marinade ingredients, add to the slow cooker and turns the ribs to coat.
2. Cover the slow cooker with the lid and cook on auto/low for 8 hours.   Remove the ribs from the slow cooker and serve with rice or on their own while piping hot.    Garnish with the scallions.

Traditional Method   prep 5 minutes    cook 2-2 1/2 hrs.

1. Put the rack of ribs in a large heave-based pan and cover with water.  Season with salt and add the peppercorns.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, partially cover with the lid, and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the meat starts to come away from the bone.  Remove the ribs from the pan with tongs and set aside in a baking pan until they are cool enough to handle.
2. Preheat the oven to 325.  IN a bowl, mix together all the marinade ingredients.  Chop the rack into ribs and put them in a large Dutch oven.  Pour the marinade over the ribs, turning them to coat.   Cover with the lid and put in the oven for about 1 hour, keeping an eye on them to check they don’t dry out completely – they may need turning in the marinade.  Remove and serve with rice or on their own while piping hot.  Garnish with the scallions.

We had two racks of ribs in the freezer that we got at an amazing price thanks to the quick eye of my mother-in-law.   At first I was thinking to do one rack in the slow cooker and one in the traditional oven in order to compare both ways.  But I will admit that after reading the part of boiling for one hour to one hour and a half in the traditional method, I quickly discarded this option because I just simply didn’t have the time to deal with this part of the cooking.  So since we have two slow cookers (it’s perfect when you bring one at the RV), we used both of them to cook the two racks.   My second son helped me to prepare the marinade and we didn’t have to worry about anything during the cooking time. 

Our supper was delicious.  We serve our ribs with mashed potatoes and tomatoes.   Almost everyone loved the new recipe.  I say almost because our sweet daughter is not too fond of ribs so it wasn’t a huge hit for her…   I am not too fond of them either but I must admit that this new recipe had potential.   The boys in the family really devoured theirs ribs in no time and quickly asked for seconds.   All the ribs were gone after the meal was over.

My only disappointment is that not all recipes is accompanied by a photograph of the meal prepared.  I personally like to see what I will get.   What can I say, I am a visual person and love to visualize the end product of a recipe.    Though I already spotted another recipe that I would like to try which doesn’t have a photograph – Mexican meatballs.   Just the title itself is stirring my interest and the fact that you can freeze the meal is great too!

For a limited time, DK Canada is offering a special prices on a variety of books related to cooking and drinking.  If you don’t like slow cooking, you might want to swing by their Food and Drink Boutique to see if there would be anything you would like to discover.   There is something for everyone in the family whether it is to brew your own beer, discover wines or cheese, expanding your baking skills, learning to preserve food or simply discover gluten-free recipes.   Whatever your reasons to expand your tasting buds, there is a book for you at DK Canada.  Bon Appétit!

The Slow Cook Book is available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending me the above mentioned title for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.