Chinese take-out Beef in Crock-Pot

I’m always looking for new meals to try in my crockpot. I am often way to tired and stressed to cook in the afternoon anymore so just throwing stuff in a pot in the morning ia pretty irresistible. This was a huge success. Both kids and husband loves it. I thought it was a little boring to tell you the truth but I’ll add more spices next time. Maybe some chili flakes. I’ll also cut down the sugar, which is a little much.

I started out with a recipe for “Mongolian beef” whatever that is. However, the end result is very near to what I frequently ate as a kid, Chinese take-out food with beef and mushrooms. (Not that there are any mushrooms  in this dish - but feel free to add them. My kids wouldn’t eat that.)

Serve with whatever vegetables you like. I had some green beans slowly dying of freezer burn that I rescued along with some broccoli, the kids had baby corn. 

Chinese take-out Beef in Crock-Pot

Serves 6 

600 g flank steak, cut across the grain into thin strips 

Corn starch

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large carrots, julienned (or just grated)

1 red onion, thinly sliced 

3 garlic cloves, minced

100 g brown sugar 

100 ml soy sauce 

300 ml water (plus more) 

Vegeta or other all-purpose spice mix, stock powder would work too

Put some corn starch in a plastic bag. I didn’t measure, but about a good handful. The goal is to cover the meat so add your strips of beef and make sure that they are well coated.

My crockpot has a sauté setting so I began by frying the carrots, onions and garlic in the oil. Skip this if your pot can’t do it. Just add the ingredients instead. 

Add sugar, aoy and water and stir. Add the beef, but shake off any excess corn starch as you go. Stir to cover with the sauce. Add Vegeta or other spices. 

Cook on low for 6 hours or so. My meat was super tender by then and it might have been fine a lot earlier but longer wouldn’t hurt either. 

Check for texture. I added quite a bit of water, at several times. The corn starch really does make the sauce thick. 

Serve with rice and vegetables. 

Chicken tortilla soup in crockpot

So, yet another recipe for chicken soup in crockpot. Nothing new, but this is mine. I prepared everything in the morning and then just let it cook all day. So comfortable. I always think I should use my crockpot more but I rarely get around to it. Do you have one? What’s your favorite meal to cook in it?

Chicken tortilla soup 

 1 yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, grated
1 can of salsa (about 350 g)
2 jars of crushed tomatoes (each 400 g)
500 g boneless and skinless chicken thighs
cumin
chili powder
vegeta (or some other multi purpose spice)
One whole dried ancho chili

Toss everything in the crockpot. I happen to have a model that can fry, so I did pre-brown the onion a little bit, but no worries if you have a traditional crockpot. It doesn’t matter much. 

Add water - it should more or less cover the other ingredients. It’s soup, not stew. 

Cook for at least 6 hours on low. Before serving, fish out the ancho chili and discard. Also remove the chicken, shred using two forks, then add back to the pot. 

Serve with whatever toppings you want! Avocado, cheese, tortilla chips, some fresh tomatoes, sour cream, would all be very good. 

Thai-style pork in crock-pot and sriracha cole slaw

Seriously so easy and tasty. I got the idea from my new lovely book - I didn't know my slowcooked could do that - and decided to make it the other day. I had coriander roots in the fridge so I added a few and they really seemed to add to the wonderful flavor. Highly recommended. The whole dish was a little too salty though, so you might want to cut down on the soy. In my case, I believe it was the pork that was the culprit. I used "fläskytterfile" rather than pork tenderloin. 

Thai-style pork 

800 g pork tenderloin (or fläskytterfilé, but look for one that's not so salty)

60 ml fresh lime juice (about four limes)

60 ml japanese soy sauce (light) 

2 tbsp honey

4 garlic cloves, minced

thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced

3 coriander roots. 

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce. Place the pork in your crockpot and pour the sauce on top. Place the coriander roots on top.  Cook on low for 4-5 hours or until tender. Remove the pork and shred it using two forks. Add some of the sauce back to moisten, and season to taste. 

Serve in flour tortillas with pickled red onion, crumbled feta cheese, extra coriander if you have it, and a lovely sriracha slaw made from white cabbage, carrots, lots of coriander and mayo with sriracha and garlic and a splash of vinegar. Easy and super tasty. 

Saffron chicken in crock-pot

I bought myself a cookbook (or five) for christmas. This one is called "I didn't know my slow-cooker could do that" and it's full of weird recipes that you might not normally make in a crock-pot. And a few really useful ones, as it turns out. I was immediately drawn to one that was called "Moroccan Tagine-Style Chicken Thighs" and though this isn't that, it's heavily inspired by it.

Saffron chicken in crock-pot

Serves 4

1 kg boneless chicken thighs, skinned

Marinade: 

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp water

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cardamom

 good pinch of chili flakes

Next: 

about 15 dried apricots, quartered

400 ml water or chicken stock

1/2 g saffron

salt and pepper to taste

To serve: 

cooked cous cous

fresh cilantro

Creme fraiche or sour cream

toasted almonds

raw red onions thinly sliced

Cooked sliced carrots (my favorite way is to thinly slice, then cook in a tight-lidded container in the microwave until soft, then add a little butter and salt) 

Start by mixing the marinade. Add this and the chicken thighs to a plastic bag, massage well to distribute the marinade and then place in the fridge over night. 

In the morning, tip the entire bag into your crockpot. Add water or chicken stock, the apricots and the saffron. A little salt and pepper if you'd like, but you can always add that at the end. Give it a good stir, and then put your crock-pot on low for about eight hours. (I usually do half an hour on high just to give things a start, but that's not strictly necessary.) 

When you're ready for dinner, prepare all the sides and then taste the stew for seasoning. And that's all, folks! 

Slow-cooked pork in crock-pot

I sometimes wonder how I managed to blog so much in the past. Or even how I managed to cook. I feel like many of my skills are completely gone, and I feel, at times, insecure and a little lost in my own kitchen. I look at some of my old recipes and marvel at the energy and skill that went into that. (Honestly, how was I ever able to do this?)  Goes to show that cooking, like most other skills, is something you need to active work on at all times. Oh well. I guess I just have to come to terms with the fact that at this time in my life, cooking and blogging are no longer top priorities. I feel a little sad at acknowledging that, but that's just how it is. I miss the old days sometimes, and I miss the close-knit feel of the blogging community. But it's ok to be sentimental.

However, I'll get a post up every now and then. And I'm pretty active over at Instagram, so feel free to hang out with me there!

And today, I'm all about dinner that pretty much cook themselves. A crock-pot comes in handy, and I'm always on the look out for more recipes - if you have a favorite, please share in the comments!

Here's something I tried recently - basically you need a cut of pork, a few veggies, and something sweet-ish to cook it in. I used cherry cordial, but black currant would be good too, or apple juice. After cooking, you strain the liquids to make a great gravy!

Slow-cooked pork in crock-pot

1 pork tenderloin, butt or similar cut. (In Sweden, I use fläskytterfilé)
butter for browning
2-3 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and thickly sliced
100 ml cherry cordial
1-200 ml water
salt, pepper

for the sauce:
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp concentrated stock
300 ml cream

Start by browning your pork in a little butter. I do this directly in my crock-pot since mine has a sauté function, but if yours doesn't, just brown it in a frying pan instead.

Next, place it in the crock-pot (if it's not browned in there already), add the veggies, the cherry cordial, salt and pepper and water. Cook at low heat for 6-7 hours, or until the pork is nicely cooked. (This is not meant to be pulled apart, but sliced, so you don't have to cook it for as long as you do with pulled pork.)

When it's done, carefully transfer the meat to a cutting board. Strain the liquids, pushing the veggies through a sieve as you do so, into a small saucepan. To this, add soy sauce, concentrated stock if you want to, and cream. Bring to a boil and cook for just a few minutes on low heat, and season to taste.

Slice the meat. Serve with boiled potatoes, and any nice pickles that you might like.

Slowcooked Chicken Parmesan Soup

I recently got a new crock-pot! It was sent by the Swedish crock-pot agent for me to evaluate, and since I love my old one as well, I was really eager to try it. The new one is much more advanced than my old and has sauté settings as well as settings for baking, roasting and cooking rice so I have quite a bit of experimenting to do.

However, for my first time cooking with the new pot, I wanted a simple recipe. I'd be out for most of the day and needed a quick dinner when I got home, so decided to do a chicken parmesan soup. It was really tasty - a hit for at least one of the kids and we adults enjoyed it a lot. I specify my cooking times below but it's adaptable, you could easily do shorter or longer. And I cooked the pasta separately because once we were home, we were in a hurry. If I'd had more time, I'd have added it to the pot maybe half an hour or so before eating. 

Slowcooked Chicken Parmesan Soup

2 chicken breasts

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

400 g crushed tomatoes

800 ml water

2 chicken stock cubes 

4 stalks fresh oregano

1 tsp chili pepper flakes

2 large handfuls grated parmesan cheese

and to finish: 

1 handful grated parmesan cheese

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil

200 g cooked pasta, small shapes

100 ml crème fraiche

Place chicken, garlic, onion, pepper, tomatoes, water, stock cubes, oregano, chili and cheese in the slowcooker. Cook for about 4 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low. We did an additional hour on low or so, but that was just for our convenience, it was done before that. 

Just before serving, shred the chicken, stir in the additional cheese, fresh basil, cooked pasta and completely optional, creme fraiche. Serve and enjoy!

Crockpot Chili with Pineapple

I thought this would be a nice weekday dinner that the kids might approve of since the pineapple lends a lot of sweetness - alas, they weren't interested but I sure liked it.

Crockpot Chili with Pineapple
1500 g beef, suitable for stewing - I use högrev
neutral oil
1 onion, chopped
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 red chili pepper, minced(or more)
6-8 garlic cloves, minced
1 dried ancho chili
400 g crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt
black pepper
ancho chili
cumin
coriander
1/2 pineapple, finely diced

Cut the meat into large dice and brown well on all sides in some neutral oil. Add to the crockpot. Add all the ingredients except for pineapple - I haven't given you any measurements for the spices since I have no idea how spicy you like your food. You probably do know :-)

Let this cook all day, eight hours or so on low. One or two hours before eating, add the pineapple.

Serve with tortillas or tortilla chips, sour cream, avocado, tomatoes and maybe some grated cheese. And cilantro, of course. Always cilantro!

Tacos de Tinga in Crock-Pot

Carnitas and pulled pork are staples here, as well as minced beef with taco seasoning, but I wanted to try something new. I've seen several great taco/tex mex cookbooks coming out in Sweden lately, and I pulled out "Taco Mexican Style" to cook a few dishes for a get together with my friends. We were too eager to wait until Cinco de Mayo, so we decided we'd just go for Cinco de Aprilo.

Tacos de Tinga is a spicy and rich stew, but not very hot. Add more spice if you want that, but we served several hot condiments instead. If you don't have a  crock-pot, just use a regular pot and cook it on the stove for about 2-3 hours, or until your meat falls apart easily. (You might need a little more water) The crock-pot is super convenient though, especially as I prepared several dishes.

Tacos de Tinga in Crock-Pot

1 kg pork butt (benfri fläskkarré is what I used), cut into medium dice

1 whole chipotle chilipepper

1 white onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

400 g crushed tomatoes

100 ml water

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

3 bay leaves

1/2 tsp all spice, ground

1/2 tsp nutmeg, ground

1-2 tsp salt

honey, to taste

Remove the stem of the chili pepper. Add every ingredient, except for the honey, to the crock-pot. Cook on low for about 7-8 hours. (I usually start out at high for an hour or so, to get things going.) When the meat is tender and falls apart easily, stir with a large fork to make it shredded. Season with a little honey, and more salt. 

Serve with tortillas, taco shells and whatever salsas and sauces you'd like. 

Curry stew with cashews (in crock-pot)

Curry - as in the yellow powder, not as in the Indian dishes - is one of the comforting spices of my childhood. Always mild, always combined with cream for the very best chicken dish... I love it. Nowadays, I don't use it a whole lot, but as I came across a recipe for a hot stew from Kenya in Sara Begnér's latest cookbook Glöd (means "glow") that has recipes from various places across the world, the curry powder intrigued me.

I decided to play down the heat completely, as spicy food isn't very popular in my family, and cook it all day in the crock-pot, to make dinner-time more effortless. It turned out really nice - flavorful and spiced, without being spicy. We ate it with bulgur, and plenty of toppings.

Curry stew with cashews (in crock-pot)
serves 4-6

1 kg stewing beef (I use "högrev" which I believe is chuck steak)
2 tbsp butter
salt, pepper
1-2 tbsp curry powder
2 beef stock cubes
700 ml water
2 yellow onions, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp smoked paprika (I used the sweet kind, without heat)
1/2 tbsp brown sugar

Toppings:
fresh coriander
dried apricots, chopped
toasted cashews
greek yogurt

Cut the meat into large dice. Heat half the butter on high heat, and brown the meat, a little at a time, on all sides. Transfer to crock-pot and toss with salt and pepper. Add the rest of the butter, the curry powder, the beef stock cubes and fry for a few seconds. Add a little of the water to deglaze the pan and pour all of the pan contents into the crock pot. Add the rest of the water, onions, garlic, and smoked paprika. Cook on low until the meat is tender - I had almost ten hours, but I'm sure a few hours less would have worked well too. Season with brown sugar, and taste to see that it's the way you want it. Serve with rice or bulgur, and toppings as you wish.

Crock-Pot Tomato Soup

It's great to let your crock-pot do all the work! I put mine on just before picking up Titus from pre-school, and then, with minimal effort, dinner is ready when we're all home again.This is a super tasty and simple soup. and most of the ingredients are easy to have in your basic cupboard at all times.

Crock-Pot Tomato Soup
1 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 grilled red peppers (from a jar is fine)
400 g crushed tomatoes
400 ml water (just use the empty tomato tin)

Later:
200 ml cream
salt, pepper
cooked pasta
large bunch fresh basil

Start by mincing the onion and garlic. Place in the crock-pot with the olive oil and tomato paste. Finely chop the red peppers and add those, too. Cook on high for half an hour.

Add the tomatoes and water. Cook on high for two hours.

Add the cream, and let the soup get warm again. Just before serving, add cooked pasta, basil and season with salt and pepper. A little grated parmesan doesn't hurt, either.

Crock-pot tomato sauce

Ok, this is perhaps not something you make in the midst of winter... but summer will be here before we know it! Right? (right? Please? It's SO COLD here.)  Anyway. I made this in August, or perhaps early September, and I'm glad I did because I still have some in the freezer. Perfect to re-heat for a quick pasta sauce, or to use as a base for a more complex sauce.

Crock-pot tomato sauce
3 kilos fresh tomatoes
3-4 garlic cloves
4 sprigs of fresh basil
Sprig of fresh rosemary
4 sprigs of fresh oregano
2 tbsp Demerara sugar
3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

Peel and coarsely chop the tomatoes, leaving out any major seed pockets. Don't be super diligent, but too many seeds will make the sauce more watery. Dice the garlic. Mix everything in a crock-pot and cook on low for eight hours, or so. Season a little, or leave it fairly neutral, and then freeze in portions.

Slow-cooked Pork Shoulder with Tomato Marmalade

This dish comes from Top Chef season 2, and I found it in one of the Top Chef cookbooks - books I like to read, but rarely cook from. However, this was an excellent dish, and I'm glad I tried it. I pretty much followed the recipe but decided to use my crock-pot to make things even easier. It was one of the dishes I served as part of our 13-course menu, so having it all cooked in advance sure helped. I used less liquid than the original recipe, since very little evaporates from the crock pot.

We just served small servings of this, both pork and tomato marmalade, on toast. I have a lot of leftovers in the freezer, and I'm thinking we'll probably serve those with nacho chips and lots of toppings. (Lots of meat, that is - we ate every last bit of the tomato marmalade.)

The tomato marmalade is very zingy and I used a bit more capers than the original recipe called for. It really cuts through the richness of the meat.

Slow-cooked Pork Shoulder
1,5 kilos (or so) pork shoulder (I use fläskkarré)
salt, and pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 carrot, finely diced
2 celery sticks, finely sliced
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder
125 ml freshly-squeezed orange juice
250 ml red wine vinegar
125 ml beef stock

Heat the oil in a heavy pot. Season the pork with salt and pepper, and brown it well on all sides.

Lift out the pork and move it to the crock-pot. In the other pot, add the vegetables and the five-spice. Cook on low-medium heat for about 5-10 minutes. The vegetables should have softened. Put the veggies in the crock-pot.

Stir together vinegar, orange juice and beef stock and pour on top of the meat. Cook on low until the meat is really tender - I let mine go for about 8 hours.

Lift out the meat and shred it, using two forks. Place in a heavy pot. Sieve the remains in the crock-pot and discard the solids. Add the juices to the meat. Before serving, re-heat on the stove, and season with salt and pepper.

Tomato Marmalade
300 g cherry tomatoes
125 ml sugar
125 ml sherry vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 scallion, thinly sliced (this is salladslök in Swedish, feel free to use leeks instead)
1 tbsp capers, drained
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Cook the sugar and tomatoes on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved - this needs to be watched and stirred. Add everything else, and cook on fairly high heat for about 20 minutes. The marmalade should be syrupy and thick, but it will thicken even more if you let it sit before serving, so try to remember that.  Season with salt and pepper if you wish, and serve it with the meat.

Crock-Pot Minestrone Soup

It's cold outside. No wonder, perhaps, as I live in Sweden, but we've actually had a very mild winter this year. This week however, we're going through some sort of cold snap, and it's very chilly. Perfect soup weather, though. And always, perfect crock-pot weather. I really do like this "gadget", allowin me to cook while being at work. It's very handy. And the results are very tasty.

Crock-Pot Minestrone Soup

450 g minced beef
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 carrots, diced
400 g tinned cherry tomatoes
1-2 tsp dried oregano
1 litre beef stock
200 g dried pasta (I use elbow macaroni)
salt, pepper

Brown the meat, onion and garlic, before adding to your crock-pot. Drain any extra fat.

Add carrots, tomatoes, oregano and beef stock, put your crock-pot on "low" and let it cook for 8 hours or so.

About half an hour before serving, add the macaroni. Put the crock-pot on "high" for the remaining half hour, or until the pasta is cooked through.

Season with salt and pepper, and serve with grated parmesan.

Recipe in Swedish:
Minestrone i crock-pot

Crock-Pot Beef Stew

So how about something other than holiday food? I know I'm pretty much done with christmas food by now, and I definitely don't want to see more candy.. for a while. (I still have a recipe or two to post, though.)

I look through my new cookbooks that Santa brought, trying to come up with a menu for New Year's Eve as well as something for our annual 13-course dinner... nothing set yet, so I'll have to keep looking! Meanwhile, I let the crock-pot do some work.

Crock-Pot Beef Stew
750 g stewing beef, in large dice
140 g bacon, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
150 g mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 leek, thinly sliced
10 shallots, peeled
4 carrots, sliced into coins
1 beef stock cube
150 ml porter beer (or another dark, flavorful beer)
350 ml red wine
butter or oil for frying
rice and smetana or crème fraîche for serving

Start by browning the meat, bacon, garlic and mushrooms, and add to your crock-pot. Add leeks, shallots, carrots, the stock cube, porter and red wine. Let the pot cook for 8 hours on low.

Serve with rice and a dollop of smetana or crème fraîche.

Recipe in Swedish:
Köttgryta i Crock-Pot

Crock-Pot Apple Butter

Apple butter is like a very reduced apple sauce and brown and thick. It's nice on oatmeal, but also with ice cream, pancakes or as a filling for various baked goods. I made mine in the crock-pot which was very convenient! You can do it on the stove, but you'll have to watch it to make sure it doesn't burn.

I know it's a huge portion in the photo, but I was scraping out the remains after filling a few jars, and it's so delicious I couldn't stand to throw any of it away.

Start this in the afternoon, and then you can add the sugar and spices overnight.

Crock-Pot Apple Butter

1500 g peeled and cored apples, cut into smaller pieces

Put the apples in your crock-pot. Cover with a lid and place on low heat for four hours. Stir, and mash up the apples.

Then add:
200 ml white sugar
200 ml brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1-2 vanilla beans (mine were dry so I added two - if they'd been softer, I'd have scraped one out and stirred in the seeds.)

Cover with the lid, and cook on low heat for eight hours.

And that's it! Pour into jars and keep cool - or freeze, which is what I do.

Recipe in Swedish:
Långkokat äppelmos i Crock-Pot

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I've made pulled pork before, and I've even made it in the crock-pot, but oh, I had never made this before...

It was so simple. I took some large pieces of pork shoulder, tossed them in the crock-pot and poured on some Coca-Cola. I switched the crock-pot on low, and let it cook for about eight hours. I shredded the meat, and seasoned it with a lot of barbecue sauce.

I buttered and fried some hamburger buns.

I made this Cilantro Jalapeño Coleslaw.

And assembled. It was truly heaven.

Ratatouille Chicken in Crock-Pot

Still really loving the slowcooker! I need to try much more with it, but I haven't had that much time to plan or cook lately. I hope to get a lot done this summer though - it'll be nice to have some time off.

This was the first, but certainly not last, time cooking chicken. I decided I want something simple to go along with it, and settled on a kind-of-ratatouille. It turned out a little watery for my taste, but still very good. The chicken was awesome - very moist and flavorful.

Ratatouille Chicken in Crock-Pot
serves 4

1 1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 zucchini, diced
100 ml (a little less than 1/2 cup) fennel, finely sliced
1 red bellpepper, diced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 can (400 g) tomato "fillets", or regular crushed (or even whole) tomatoes
2 tbsp chunky salsa sauce
1 whole, fresh chicken
salt, lemon pepper

Prepare all the veggies, and mix with the salsa, the tinned tomatoes, and some salt and cumin in the crock-pot.

To prepare the chicken, remove as much skin as possible. (It won't be great slow-cooked.) Season with salt and lemon pepper. Place the chicken, breast down, on top of the veggies. Cover with the lid, and cook on high for four hours.

Serve with some sort of grain - we had bulgur wheat, which was great.

Recipe in Swedish:
Ratatouillekyckling i crock-pot

Crock-Pot Carnitas

I finally tried the crock-pot for the first time today! And what better to try than... carnitas! Or at least, slow-cooked pork. I call it carnitas because that's how we ate it - we fried it in a skillet after the liquid was absorbed, and ate it with tortillas, red onions, and cilantro. (And I admit, a dollop of créme fraîche on mine.) I didn't season the pork a whole lot in the pot, thinking I'd season it more at the final stage instead, and that's what I ended up doing. I have most of it stashed in the freezer, and will definitely use up some for tacos, and some for pulled pork sandwiches with lots of barbecue sauce.

Because, let me tell you, this was so good. So, so good. Amazing really. My regular carnitas are good, too, but this was so much more tender. It truly fell apart at the touch of a spoon. I could hardly believe it. In fact, for the first hour or so, I was really sceptical. Nothing at all happened, so I put my slow cooker on high for half an hour or so, until I could at least feel it getting a little warm, and then back to low for about eight hours.


Titus adored this, too.

So, a recipe? Hardly need it. Here's what I did. I took a big piece of pork - about two kilos of shoulder - and seasoned it with salt, cumin and ancho chili. Placed it in the slowcooked, and added the juice of one lime and one orange. I also added about 100 ml of water, which in retrospect probably wasn't necessary at all.

And that was that. I can't believe it's this easy to cook this good. It took five minutes of prepping time, and then five more minutes before serving. Anyone, anyone can do this.