Finally, after a lot of trial and error, I think I’ve got it. Plain rice, flavored rice, you name it. Basmati, Jasmine, long grain, short grain, brown, wild, or a scoop of everything in the pantry. I can throw the rice de jour in a crock and have it ready for dinner, whether I come home 5 hours after it’s “done” or 20.
And, it cooks in the same pot as the rest of dinner. Stew, chili, our crowd’s red beans and rice recipe (my own variation) … one pot, no waiting. Set it up in the morning, and have it ready to dish and serve when someone gets home. I’ll be making it Friday for the kids and the baby sitter, if you want to tag back and follow the recipe in pictures when we’re done. I’ll set it up in the morning, and it will hang out all day, cooking and waiting for the kids and the baby sitter (date night! whoohooo!) to be ready for dinner.
The secret? Silicone feet. I have a set of silly feet silicone cupcake holders I got at one of Target’s many after-holiday-mark-down-a-thons.
- First, pop the feet in a crock (I use four).
- Atop the feet, steadily balance one oven-safe bowl containing one part rice and one part water.
- Pour the rest of dinner around the “feet” of the rice bowl, creating liquid bath. Don’t pour in too much food: leave at least an inch (if not more) from the top of the food to the top of the rice bowl to accommodate food bubbling away from the rice.
- Cook on high or low for the amount of time desired to complete the main dish – at least three hours on high or four to five on low.
If your crock isn’t tall enough to do this and close properly, consider making small aluminum foil balls to lift your rice bowl instead. And only if you don’t mind tinfoil taste. I’ve got the feeling that a cooking trivet (cast iron, made for putting in the bottom of your cast iron dutch oven to grill meat) might work as well, but I don’t own one, so that’s still theoretical. While bowl-on-crock might be safe, it’s likely to scorch even if nothing cracks or breaks.
Original Source: http://blawgh.sublurbia.org/2008/12/getting-my-crock-on/
