Free The Great American Slow Cooker Book by Bruce Weinstein Page B

cubes
    1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
    3 cups seeded and thinly sliced Cubanelle peppers
    1 cup chopped ripe tomatoes
    ½ cup pitted and sliced black olives
    1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
    1 Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Crumble in the sausage meat and cook, stirring often, until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes.
    2 Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked sausage to the slow cooker, taking some or even all of the fat as well. Stir in the potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and olives. Continue tossing until everything is well mixed. Pour the broth over the top of the ingredients in the slow cooker.
    3 Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, until the potatoes are fork-tender.
    TESTERS’ NOTES
    • This is a main-course hash, stocked with lots of sausage and vegetables. You don’t need much else—except maybe a bottle of hot pepper sauce at the table.
    • There’s no need to seed the tomatoes. The extra juice will just add more moisture to the hash as it cooks.
    INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED s Cubanelle peppers (also called
Italian frying peppers
) are long, thin, sweet peppers reminiscent of bell peppers, but with a thinner skin and a little more brightness in the flavor. When immature, they are green and a tad more sour. They can mature to a deep red with a mellower flavor. We prefer the green ones in slow cooker dishes, although either will do.
    Serve It Up! Of course, you’ll want fried eggs and crunchy, whole-grain toast to round out the plates. Together, they’re a welcome meal even for dinner. Or skip the heartier fare and just offer applesauce on the side. Or even a green salad for a late-summer supper.
bacon and onion hash browns
    EFFORT: A LITTLE • PREP TIME: 20 MINUTES • COOK TIME: 8 HOURS • KEEPS ON WARM: 2 HOURS • SERVES: 4 TO 8
    2- TO 3½-QUART
    3 slices of thick-cut bacon
    ¼ cup roughly chopped yellow onion
    1 pound waxy white potatoes, washed and cut into ½-inch pieces
    2 tblsp thinly sliced scallion
    ¼ tsp caraway seeds
    ¼ tsp celery seeds
    4- TO 5½-QUART
    5 slices of thick-cut bacon
    ½ cup roughly chopped yellow onion
    2 pounds waxy white potatoes, washed and cut into ½-inch pieces
    ¼ cup thinly sliced scallion
    ½ tsp caraway seeds
    ½ tsp celery seeds
    6- TO 8-QUART
    8 slices of thick-cut bacon
    ¾ cup roughly chopped yellow onion
    3 pounds waxy white potatoes, washed and cut into ½-inch pieces
    ⅓ cup thinly sliced scallion
    ¾ tsp caraway seeds
    ½ tsp celery seeds
    1 Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until brown and crunchy, turning occasionally, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the slices to a cutting board, but do not drain the skillet.
    2 Add the onion and cook, stirring often, just until barely softened, about 2 minutes. Scrape and pour the bacon fat and onion into the slow cooker; chop the bacon and add it to the cooker.
    3 Stir in the potato cubes, scallion, and caraway and celery seeds. Toss well, ensur-ing all the potatoes are coated in the bacon grease.
    4 Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or until the potatoes are tender.
    TESTERS’ NOTES
    • Hash browns don’t brown in the slow cooker. But they do get incredibly creamy. If you’d like some crusty bits, spoon the hash browns out of the cooker and into a skillet, add a generous pour of olive oil, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for up to 10 minutes.
    • If your supermarket doesn’t offer thick-cut bacon, buy a chunk of slab bacon (or smoked pork belly) and cut it into ½-inch slices. Use 2 ounces for a small slow cooker, 3 ounces for a medium model, or 5 ounces for a large one.
    Serve It Up! Since these hash browns are not a main course, you’ll need some scrambled eggs or smoked salmon, cream cheese, and whole-grain toast to go with them.
    INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED Don’t use Idaho or other baking potatoes for this recipe. Rather, you want small white new potatoes, like Irish creamers or white fingerlings, sliced into ½-inch-thick