So, in case anyone reading this doesn't know me personally, I have a good reason for taking the extended food blogging break that I just took- I had a baby. He's really cute. Therefore, for the last month or so of my pregnancy, and the almost 3 months since the birth, I haven't been doing much in the way of cooking. Happily, others cooked for me, so I didn't starve.
However! Once more unto the breech my friends! The baby is beginning to nap like a normal baby and not one of these "I don't like to sleep unless I'm on top of you and anyways 20 minutes two times a day is enough of a nap! Let's party and by party I mean cry!".... babies. Um. OK, so the point being I have started to cook again.
I had this grand plan to try more vegan cooking after the baby. Cause, you know, I would have so much time to search out and experiment with new ingredients and new methods and new recipes. Ha.
Instead, I have started to embrace the idea of slow cookers. For the uninitiated, slow cookers are these lovely devices where you put a bunch of stuff in, turn it on for 6-8-10 hours, and then you come home to lovely smells and delicious dinner. Sounds great, right? I don't own one. But I do own a rice cooker that has a slow cooker function.
OK, so I've made two meals that were delicious: Indian Spiced Lentils and Chicken Korma. But you didn't come to this post to read about food I can actually make? No. You came for the disaster. So here it is:
Slow Cooker Disaster: Mulligatawny.
Mulligatawny is apparently a soup that is supposed to be delicious and sweet/savory. It was featured in the "Soup Nazi" Seinfeld episode? I think?
This is what it is supposed to look like:
The recipe I have serves 6 and is written for a 6-quart slow cooker. I have a 4-quart rice cooker. So I figured I would halve the recipe. Simple enough, right? WRONG!
I halved the recipe, but not the cook time. I ended up with burnt brown mash of food. I added more stock and let it cook for a little more. I ended up with burnt brown mash of food.
It was this color:
Not appetizing.
But here's the weirdest part. No one online can tell me what to do with cooking times when I halve recipes. In fact, google seems to not have any results from anyone who has ever halved a slow cooker recipe before. Several results say "check your manual."
I would love to do that, but I got this thing as a gift 5 years and 4 moves ago. I don't have the manual. I'm surprised I still have the rice cooker.
If anyone has any tips, I would appreciate it. In the meantime, I will update this post if I ever figure out a way to recover from this disaster....
Mulligatawny.
The Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup peeled and chopped apple
1 cup chopped carrots
1 (15-oz) can of fire-roasted tomatoes
1 tablespoon dried minced onion flakes
1/4 cup raisins
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup long-grain white rice (add later)
The Directions:
Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Put thighs in bottom of cooker. Add everything else on top. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Uncover and stir in the uncooked rice. Flip to high for 30 minutes, or until rice is tender. Shred chicken thighs with forks, ladle into soup bowls, enjoy.
Enjoy.
Unless, of course, after 8 hours you open up your rice/slow cooker to discover a brown mash of burnt food. Sigh.
