Lebanese-Inspired Slow-Cooked Eggplant

This is a really delicious way to cook eggplant: the eggplant ends up with such a luxurious texture, with a wonderful, nutty flavor, and the tomato sauce is delicious enough that I will probably try using three cans of tomatoes, next time, to have more sauce.  A complete meal served with rice and cucumber-yogurt salad.  Bonus is that the slow-cooker doesn't heat up the apartment the way the stove would... 90s and humid here recently.

I added dried chickpeas for bulk, but had never cooked them in the slow cooker before.  Since regular beans take 8 hours, I figured they'd be done -- but they weren't.  So only add them if you have time to cook for more than 8 hours.


Lebanese-Inspired Slow-Cooked Eggplant

1-2 large eggplants (I used one large and two small, narrow eggplants)
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, roughly choppped
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1-3 dried, medium-spicy chiles, such as chiles cascabeles, seeded (or chile flakes, or hot sauce)
1 tsp neutral vegetable oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 rounded tsp powdered allspice
1 rounded tsp cumin
(1 cup dried chickpeas, optional)
(2/3 cup water, if using chickpeas)
5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sugar
Mint or parsley, for garnish

Cook the onion in the vegetable oil over high heat until it begins to color, then over medium or medium-low heat until uniformly light brown.  Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar; cook two or three minutes more, and remove from heat.

Slice the eggplants lengthwise into eighths.  (If using small, narrow eggplants, halve.) If using chickpeas, place them in slowcooker. Place eggplants in slow cooker, over chickpeas if using.  Top with onions, garlic, and diced red peppers.

Using a stick blender or food processor, roughly puree the diced tomatoes with the allspice and cumin.  Add to the slow cooker, taking care to cover the eggplant as well as possible.  Add the water, if using chickpeas. Push the chiles into the liquid. Drizzle the olive oil on top.

Cook on high for two hours, and then on low for six hours.  (I imagine that low for eight hours would probably be fine.)  Serve with rice and cucumber-yogurt salad, garnished with fresh herbs.

Serves 4.

Famous Grouse Chicken

Normally, I would use wine to flavor chicken with onions, but yesterday morning we were out. "I've heard of bourbon chicken," I thought. "Why not with Scotch?" So, into the slowcooker went a shot of Scotch. Result? Delicious!

I cooked this for about 9.5 hours, which is really the most you would want to cook it: the chicken gets browned, but not dried out as it would with longer cooking, and the peppers and onions get browned -- peppers slightly blackened in spots -- but not burned. If you will be at work longer than that and thus need to cook it longer, you could try adding more liquid at the beginning. I might do that next time even for this amount of time.

Famous Grouse Chicken

4 chicken thighs, bone-in. Remove and discard the skin and any visible fat.
1 very large sweet onion, Vidalia or Walla Walla or the like.
2 red, orange, or yellow bell peppers, quartered, or about 10 mini bell peppers, caps removed
1 shot Famous Grouse Scotch
1 tsp coarse Dijon mustard
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
Few drops Sriracha
Black pepper
Paprika
1 cup water

Slice the onion very thinly -- should yield about 3-4 cups. Lay the onion slices over the bottom of the slowcooker. Arrange the peppers evenly over the onions, and lay the chicken over the peppers.

Mix together the Scotch, mustard, vinegar, oil, Sriracha, and water. Pour over contents of slowcooker. Sprinkle the chicken pieces thoroughly with pepper and Paprika. Cook on Low 7 to 9.5 hours.

Serve with rice.

Serves 2-4.

Ben's Slow Cooker Beef Stew

This is the stew to make when it's suddenly a blustery 40 degrees in early October.

Best if made the day before, so you can skim the fat more easily and the flavors can blend, but it works that day too.

Ben's Slow Cooker Beef Stew

3 lb pot roast or other beef that requires long cooking, cubed, trimmed of fat
2 large onions, chopped roughly
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 mini can tomato paste
3-5 small red potatoes, diced (do not peel)
1/2 large bag frozen peas
1 bottle dark beer (in this case, Negra Modelo)
1 1/2 cups water
3 bay leaves
1 large pinch dried tarragon
1 pinch dried thyme
1 tbsp black pepper (no, that's not a typo)
1/2 to 1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic salt
salt to taste
cornstarch as needed

Brown meat over high heat, in batches, using tongs to brown all sides. Sprinkle with black pepper during browning. Deposit meat in slow-cooker.

Saute onions in the same pan for several minutes, until beginning to color; add garlic in last couple minutes. Deposit onions and garlic in slow-cooker.

Add tomatoes, tomato paste, beer, potatoes, and spices to slow-cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours. Add peas; cook, uncovered, another five to ten minutes.

Remove solids. (Remove and discard bay leaves.) Transfer liquids to a large pot on the stove and boil, stirring frequently, about ten minutes, until reduced to desired thickness. Skim whatever fat you can. (If making the day before, refrigerate solids and liquids separately, and skim before recombining.) If necessary, make a slurry with some cold water and cornstarch to thicken sauce further. Recombine sauce, meat, and vegetables. Serve over egg noodles.

Serves 6-8. (Or two people for many, many meals.)

Slow-Cooked Chicken and Goat with Onions

Now, this is not an entry about a cake. It was a good cake, although I have to ask you not to use raspberry buttercream you've had stashed in the freezer as filling (it soaks into the cake in a rather unappetizing way). It also it had excellent fudge frosting.

However.

This is an entry about meat. Specifically, goat and chicken slow-cooked together with plenty of onions... so that the meats flavor each other and the onions turn golden brown and delicoius. Not so much a recipe as a method:

Slow-Cooked Chicken and Goat with Onions


2 goat or lamb shoulder chops. Brown them if you want.
5ish chicken drumsticks. You can brown these if you want too, or skin them. Or not.
1.5 large onions, sliced
1/3 cup olive oil
Balsamic vinegar to taste to make a vinaigrette (I use a lot)
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp honey
zest of one lemon
Sesame seeds for garnish

Cover the bottom of your slow cooker with onions. Lay the shoulder chops on the onions. Add the chicken.

In a small pitcher, mix the remaining ingredients together. Pour over the meat/onions, making sure to coat well.

Cook on high for 4 hours. There will be a lot of liquid. Lift out the meat and onions and serve on a platter, garnished with sesame seeds.

You could, of course, then reduce the liquid into a sauce to serve with the meat.

Serves 4 (3 if you're serving two carnivorous young men)