UPDATE ON MY CUISINART SLOW COOKER

I have had my new Cuisinart four quart, three-in-one slow cooker for about a month.   It is expensive when compared to the slow cookers available at Walmart, costing around a hundred dollars; but I expect to have it for many years – as least as many as I have left.

Yesterday I made beef stew.    I started with what Justin Wilson, the old Cajun cook, would call the Trinity: one onion chopped, and equal volume of celery chopped and four garlic cloves chopped.   The Trinity goes directly in the slow cooker set on saute.  

After about three minutes, when the trinity was cooked through, I added two pounds of steak cubed (any kind of steak -I like chuck) liberally sprinkled with Paul Prudhomme’s Meat Magic and a little salt and pepper.   

 Leaving the cooker on saute it took about five minutes to brown the steak; then I add a cup of beef stock and switch the cooking mode to slow cook – on high. 

 After six hours, I switch the cooking mode back to saute, bringing the stew to a good boil (about one minute) and add a mixture of two tablespoons of corn starch dissolved in a quarter-cup of cold water, to the pot as a thickener.  

After a few minutes, when the stew was thick to my liking, I cut the slow cooker off and added my precooked cubed potatoes and carrots: I don’t like vegetables cooked in the stew because I feel they lose their individual flavor and become mushy.

Think of the pots I saved by being able to cook everything in the slow cooker. 

I do most of the cooking at our house and for some reason my wife doesn’t complain.

the Ol’Buzzard