If you’re just dumping a bunch of stuff into your slow cooker, you’re doing it wrong
If you’re just dumping a bunch of stuff into your slow cooker, you’re doing it wrong
Let’s face it: Slow cookers are popular, but dull. Mute. Kinda sleepy. Even on its highest setting (of three total), my sixquart All-Clad slow cooker doesn’t simmer stock or sizzle diced shallots. Sometimes I’ll reset it in the middle of cooking, just to hear that indifferent chirp. “She’s not dead yet,” I say to myself, relieved.
Hugh Acheson, the sharp, often pithy James Beard award-winning chef/restaurateur, “Top Chef ” judge, author and self-proclaimed “pot stirrer” on Twitter, is not dull. And this, I imagine, is why his publisher asked him to write a book about slow cookers.
It’s hard to imagine Acheson, with his tightly cropped haircut and his jeans turned up at the cuffs, moving his tattooed arm toward one of these electric countertop mini-ovens and hitting “DOWN” or “UP” to set the time, then walking off to take out the dog or whatever. And that’s the selling point: People will be curious to see what this pairing looks like.
Since I’ve now seen him cook with one, I’ll tell you what Acheson looks like with a slow cooker: comfortable. I don’t know what I expected — an awkwardness with the keypad, revealing that this was all a gimmick? — but when I enter his spacious studio apartment on a recent weekend, he is watching football and gearing up to braise some chicken
now that the stock is ready and the onions are chopped.
He browns the chicken’s skin in a skillet, followed by the onions, to soften them. He transfers both to the slow cooker and adds homemade chicken broth, soy sauce and kimchee.
The recipes in the book range from Japanese dashi stock to Mexican sipping chocolate and tortilla soup. When asked about everyone’s favourite hot-button issue, cultural appropriation, Acheson will say that globalism has reshaped that argument: Although his grandfather was born in Ontario and is of Scottish descent, “my dad was born in Cuba but wasn’t Cuban ... I feel much more comfortable making kimchee, which I can eat at various Korean barbecue joints in a strip mall ... than making haggis.”
Once the chicken is close to done, the chef makes a kind of risotto with middlins, or broken pieces of rice. The rice grits go on the bottom of the plate, then the chicken and its juices, and then crunchy sliced radishes and cucumbers. It’s far from the dreary pot roast that the snobbier set might (unfairly?) associate with slow cooking, although the book does contain a recipe for pot roast, which Acheson brightens with a fresh chickpea salad.
Acheson is finalizing a divorce from his wife of over 20 years, and once we finish our interview and he has arranged the clean dishes on a rack to dry, he’ll go down the street — “I built the most beautiful house ever” — and spend time with his two teenage daughters.
Acheson and his three older sisters were raised by a single father, an economics professor, in Canada. “He was an awesome dad, but he worked really hard, so we grew up on burnt rice and canned yellow lunch meat,” says Acheson. (His late mother “was not really there.”) Acheson worked in kitchens from a young age, and by the time he enrolled at Concordia University in Montreal he was a pretty good cook. Two years later, he dropped out to pursue his culinary career full-time, working at fine-dining restaurants in Montreal, Alberta, Ottawa and San Francisco, marrying along the way, and ultimately settling in Athens, where his wife was born.
“I may not be extraordinarily academically learned, but I knew that if I moved to a small Southern town and did white-tablecloth cuisine, I was going to be dead in the water,” he says of his decision to open Five & Ten as a neighbourhood restaurant with a daily blackboard menu. The James Beard Foundation and Food & Wine magazine awarded him accolades. Acheson had two children, wrote two books, helped revive Southern cooking, and became a celebrity partly known for what a parody Twitter account calls his “Hughnibrow.” Now, he’s “jazzed” about slow cookers.
“You know, everything in the book really worked well,” he says, referring to the range of recipes the slow cooker made successfully. There’s oatmeal, gumbo, boiled peanuts, tomato confit, lobster tacos, poached eggs, cactus salad, fig jam and braised beef tongue. “This rudimentary piece of equipment has got a dynamic spectrum of possibility.”
Frankly, Acheson also wants this book to make money. “The economic reality is that restaurants don’t make much money,” he says, adding that one of his daughters wants to go to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
“The Chef and the Slow Cooker” will probably sell like crazy because of the popular topic and the acclaim of its author — a few days before it debuted, according to Acheson, it was one of the Top 5 books on Amazon — but will people cook from it? I found myself flipping through many of the recipes thinking, “Why wouldn’t I just do that in a pan?” Granted, I’m not his target audience; I bought my first slow cooker just weeks ago to research for this article.
For the hordes who swear by their slow cookers, though, the appeal is “set it and forget it.” And about half the recipes in “The Chef and the Slow Cooker” require extra doings: blackening an onion in a skillet here, frying your own potato chips in canola oil there. Those recipes are more like “do some stuff, set it, forget it for a bit, check in again, do some other stuff on the stovetop, and then serve it all.” Acheson thinks we should wrap our heads around that being part of what good home cooking is.
“If you’re going to just dump a bunch of s--- in a pot and walk away, you might as well buy Lean Cuisine,” he says. This book is about maximizing a tool you probably already have, he adds, by learning to use it in inventive ways that produce more vibrant food. “It’s a gateway drug to getting people interested in cooking from scratch again, actually cutting things on your own again.”
Kimchee-Braised Chicken
4 servings The fiery heat and complexity of cabbage kimchee mellows into a lovely sauce for the bird here. You’ll need a 6- to 8-quart slow cooker. Light soy sauce is thinner and saltier than regular soy sauce, but you can use regular soy sauce here. Serve with pickled vegetables, such as carrots, okra and daikon. MAKE AHEAD: This chicken tastes even better after a day’s refrigeration.
Ingredients
One 3- to 3 ½-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces (giblets and wing tips removed) Kosher salt 1 tablespoon canola oil 2 shallots, minced One 4-inch knob fresh ginger root, peeled and minced (3 tablespoons) 1 cup sake (may substitute Chinese rice wine or dry sherry) 1 ½ cups no-salt-added chicken broth 2 ½ cups chopped cabbage kimchee, with juices 2 tablespoons light soy sauce (see headnote) Pinch crushed red pepper flakes 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice Cooked rice with cilantro and mint, for serving
Steps
Pat the chicken pieces dry, then season liberally with salt all over. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the oil shimmers, work in batches to brown the chicken pieces on both sides, transferring them to a plate as you go. (This should take about 10 minutes on the skin side and three minutes on the second sides.) Once all the chicken’s done, add the shallots and ginger to the skillet and cook for about three minutes, stirring, until softened. Pour in the sake; increase the heat to high and cook for about two minutes, or just long enough for the wine to evaporate. Transfer the shallot mixture to the slow cooker, then add the chicken pieces and broth. Add 1 ½ cups of the kimchee and its juice, plus the soy sauce. Cover and cook on LOW for four hours. Uncover and add the crushed red pepper flakes and the lime juice, stirring gently to incorporate. (The chicken will be falling-apart tender.) Divide the chicken, its kimchee sauce and some rice among individual wide, shallow bowls or plates. Top each portion with some of the remaining cup of kimchee, and place a few pickled vegetables on the side of each one. Serve warm.
Mexican-style Sipping Chocolate
8 to 16 servings (makes 8 cups) Dried chiles bring a slow heat to this party-friendly, slow cooker beverage. If you aren’t a fan of spicy, cut back the chiles by one. You’ll need a slow cooker with a capacity of at least 6 quarts. Serve with biscotti, for dunking. MAKE AHEAD: The chocolate takes three hours to cook, and can be made a day in advance and reheated on LOW or WARM.
Ingredients
8 cups whole milk 3 whole dried guajillo chiles (see headnote) One 3-inch cinnamon stick 2 ½ cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks, preferably Guittard brand ½ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Steps
Combine the milk, guajillo chiles and cinnamon stick in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for two hours. Uncover and whisk in the chocolate and cayenne pepper, until the chocolate has melted. Cover and cook on HIGH for one hour; the sipping chocolate will be quite thick. Discard the cinnamon stick and the chiles, if desired. Whisk well before serving.
Oatmeal With Maple Syrup, Pear and Pecans
4 to 6 servings Creamy and nutty-tasting are welcome traits for this vegan take on a slow cooker staple. You’ll need a slow cooker with a capacity of at least 4 quarts. Serve with pecan milk or another nut milk — or dairy milk if you opt for nonvegan. MAKE AHEAD: The oatmeal cooks for four to eight hours, so an overnight cook works well. It can be made a day or two in advance and reheated on LOW or WARM.
Ingredients
1 cup steel-cut oats (do not use quick-cooking or instant) 2 firm pears, cored and diced ½ cup chopped, toasted pecans (see NOTE) ¼ cup maple syrup 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or more as needed 4 cups cold water 1 cup pecan milk or other nut milk (see headnote)
Steps
Combine the oats, pears, pecans, half the maple syrup and all the salt in the slow cooker. Pour in the water, cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours. Uncover, stir and taste; add more salt, as needed. Divide among individual warm bowls, then use a spoon to make a well at the centre of each portion and add some nut milk. Use the remaining maple syrup to drizzle over each one. Serve right away. NOTE: Toast the pecans in a small, dry skillet over medium heat, stirring, until fragrant, three to five minutes. Cool completely before using. Recipes adapted from “The Chef and the Slow Cooker,” by Hugh Acheson.