Crockpot Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes

As you can tell from my blog, I love to use the crock pot. I registered for this mini crock pot after visiting my friends and they had one for hot dips. But after we did our first party with a hot dip, I started to wonder what I else I could use this crock pot for. Enter mashed potatoes!

From pinterest, I noticed some recipes of crock pot mashed potatoes. I figured it would work in the mini crock as well to make a smaller portion for just me and my husband.

Cut up two medium potatoes and put it in the crock. Add about a quarter cup of chicken stock and couple of pats of butter and a clove of garlic per potato.

  In this pic you can see how tiny my crock pot is.

I was very worried about how little liquid was in the crock but it worked!

After two hours on low, just mash up the potatoes and garlic (or you can remove the garlic if you like). 

I added a small dab of cream cheese and a dollop of light sour cream to the mashed potatoes.

I like my potatoes chunky, so this was perfect for me! If you want a smoother potato, add another half an hour of time. 

Recipe from Budget Savvy Diva (I adapted this to one pound of potatoes): 

• 5 Pounds of Russet Potatoes
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into small cubes chunks
• 1 1/4 cup light  sour cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup milk, warmed
• 2 ounces of light cream cheese ( really makes a difference)

Slow Cooker Asian Style Beef Ribs

We had people over to watch some college football and I decided to attempt Crock Pot ribs. I saw this recipe on Pinterest and after making such a great pot roast, I figured this method should work really well for fall off the bone ribs as well. 

Well, it worked but it was very salty. 

Here's my story....

The post that started this experiment: city girl chicago's crock pot ribs. Look at her pic of delicious, fall off the bone ribs with a good crust: 

Goal ribs from Citygirlchicago.com

But her recipe: 

4 lbs ribs (I used beef flank ribs, but short ribs work too)

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup gluten-free soy sauce
1/2 cup water
5 whole jalapeno peppers

Sounded very much like Asian marinade that I make all the time. So, using her version as a base, I added to it green onions, ginger, mirin, oyster sauce and red pepper flakes. I marinaded the meat over night in this mixture and then grilled them quickly for five minutes on each side. Put it on top of onions (similar to the pot roast method) and then cooked them on low for 6 hours. The meat was juicy and fell off the bone but the asian marinade was just too saltly. I had probalby two cups of soy sauce but I also added a lot of water. I believe to make this recipe work, I should have kept the liquids to the total amount of CityGirlChicago's portions. :( That way it mainly steams in the marinade and does not sit in it. Lesson learned. 

My Ribs

They were on sale! 

In marinade over night

After grilling for five minutes on each side, I put the ribs in the crock pot on a bed of onions and poured the marinade over the meat

Right out of the Crock Pot

So good even salty! The meat was tender and delicious and fell off the bone. Yum! 

I will definitely try this again and update this post if I have success. At $7 worth of meat, I think I can afford a second try and my friends still enjoyed the meal! 

Recipe: 

2-3 lbs ribs (I used beef flank ribs)

2 cup gluten-free soy sauce
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon of chili flakes

1/2 cup mirin

1/4 cup of oyster sauce (to sub for the sugar)

3-4 green onions, chopped

1 onion for the base of the crock pot

Add all the ingredients besides the onion together and marinade over night. The next day, grill meat on both sides for about five minutes a side. Cut onion into 1/2-1" slices and place on the bottom of crock pot. Place grilled ribs on top of onions and pour marinade over the meat. Cook on low for at least six hours. 

I also, broiled the meat for about five minutes to create a crispy crust. 

Crockpot Pot Roast with Mushrooms, Onions and Potatoes

So I have been obsessing over all the pot roast in a crock pot meals that I had seen on pinterest. The main reason I don't cook lamb or veal is not ethical reason but risk reasons. If I mess up that expensive piece of meat, I'll be so sad. The same is for a large piece of chuck roast. Well, at least I thought so. I went to my local whole foods and it was quite expensive to get a good peice of meat. Same with Costco. Then I realized I was looking at rib eye roasts. At Kroger there was a sale on normal chuck roast. I got my four pound piece of meat for only seven dollars! That was a risk I could take. 

I forgot to take pics before hand of the browning of the meat. But I browned the meat quickly over med heat and oil. About four to five minutes per side or, as I was taught, until it no longer sticks to the pan. 

I then deglazed the pan with a cup of red wine and a cup of chicken stock and few cloves of garlic. I also cut up thick slices of onion for the base and also washed some potatoes and wrapped them in foil. 

I put it all in the fridge since I was making this for the next night's dinner. The next morning I assembled my crockpot glory. 

Striaght out of the fridge

Onions first. I cut them thick per Kalyn's suggestion. They serve the purpose of holding up part of the roast from the juices. 

Then the browned meat. 

Poured all the juices over the meat and veggies. 

Stuck my precious potatoes on top to keep them out of the juices and have them "steam" vs boil. I set my crock to 8.5 hours on low. I put it in around 7AM and opened it up at around 5:30. So it had about two hours on "warm" before I opened it up. 

Pre-cooked assembly

I forgot to take a picture of the meat after I opened it up. I had to try a piece! But I turned the meat since the top part was a bit dry and added mushrooms, rosemary and thyme to the crock. Closed it up and put it on low for an hour and a half more. Hmmmm. I tasted it when I first opened the crockpot and it was so declious. I didn't want the mushrooms in there for eight hours, so I intentionally wanted to give the roast an hour more. 

I took the potatoes out though. They were done. 

They also had a red color to it. I guess steaming from a wine broth discolored them.

Here's the goodness after the extra hour and a half. I removed and discarded the herbs and then put the meat on a dish and broiled it for about five minutes to create a crust on top. I then cut up the meat into quarter to half inch slices. Then I removed all the veggies and put the liquid in a pot, brought it up to a boil and let it reduce into a sauce. So good. 

Though we had onions, potatoes and mushrooms, I didn't think we had a good green veggie. So I cooked up some asparagus as well. I just saute them in oil and garlic and then add about half a cup of chicken stock to the pan and cover it. This essentially steams the asparagus. Yum! Add some hot pepper flakes to make it even better! 

My plate of goodness. It was a delicious and easy meal! We only ate one slice of meat each. We had a TON of leftovers. I feel like this made a good eight servings of both meat and veggies. I didn't care much for the boiled onions but my husband loved them. *shrug* to each their own I guess. 

Recipe (adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen): 

Makes about 8 servings. 

Ingredients:

3-4 pound boneless chuck roast
1-2 T steak rub McCormik's 
black pepper to taste
1-2 T olive oil (depends on your pan)
1/4 cup Red Wine to deglaze pan
2-3 large onions, peeled and thickly sliced
1 cup Chicken or beef stock, reduced to 1/2 cup (can use a can of beef broth, but be sure to reduce it)


Instructions:

Trim as much fat as you can from roast, and cut if necessary to fit into Crockpot. Rub meat well with steak seasoning and black pepper. Heat heavy pan with small amount of olive oil and brown roast well on both sides. This will take a few minutes; don't rush the browning step.

After rosting the meat, place meat in a container.  Put 1 cup of red wine into the pan and deglaze the pan (this will be a bit of steam coming off the pan, please use your vent). Then add 1 cup chicken or beef stock in saucepan, bring to a boil and cook until reduced to 1/2 cup. Peel onions and cut into thick slices.

(You can stop at this point and refrigerate browned roast, cut onions and mixed sauce ingredients and then put them in the Crockpot when you go to work in the morning. Don't refrigerate them in the crockery liner. Having the meat start out cold will add several hours to the cooking time, which will be good if you're cooking it all day while you're away.)

Place onions in bottom of Crockpot. Put meat on top of onions and pour beef/chicken stock and wine mixture over. Set Crockpot to low and cook 6-8 hours, until beef is tender. The meat might be partly submerged in liquid after this much time. (If I am home, I might turn the meat once or twice).

Remove meat from crockpot and cover with foil to keep warm. Drain liquid from Crockpot and remove as much of the fat as you can with fat separator or skimmer. Cook down liquid by about 1/3, and serve sauce with meat and onions. 

Optional: if you have a fattier peice of meat, you can broil it for a few minutes to get it a bit firmer.