The Great American Slow Cooker Book (92 page)

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Truly a clam casserole, this dish would be welcome on the coffee table come game day.

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Although canned clams are probably the easiest way to get chopped clams, a better choice is to buy freshly shucked clams, available at the fish counter.

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If you don’t have enough clam juice to moisten the casserole, use low-sodium vegetable broth.

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Mix the wine, broth, onion, fennel, orange zest, garlic, fennel seeds, and thyme in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, or until the vegetables have begun to get tender.

2
Stir in the mussels. Cover and continue cooking on high for 40 minutes, or until the mussels have opened.

TESTERS’ NOTES

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A pot of mussels makes about the best dinner we can imagine. If the insert will come out of your slow cooker, simply lift it up and bring it to the table to set on a trivet.

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Mussels can fill up a slow cooker in no time. The number of servings are thus a tad small—from 1 to 4 people. One pound of mussels, which makes one serving, fills a small slow cooker. However, we gauged these numbers as main-course fare. If you’re serving mussels as a first course, the same amounts will yield double the number of servings.

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For the best consistency, chop the onion and fennel into similar size pieces, about ½ inch each, so you can get them together on spoonfuls of the sauce.

INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED
Like clams, mussels are a live-food product: they should be cooked the day you buy them. Don’t cook any that won’t close when tapped and do store them in a clean bowl in the fridge until you’re ready to drop them into the cooker.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
Mussels need to be scrubbed to get rid of any sandy grit adhering to their shells. Use a potato brush or a clean toothbrush and work under running, cold water. They may also need to be debearded—that is, the hairy filaments that stick out of the shell should be removed. To do so, grasp these filaments and zip them along the shell’s seam, pulling them free at the end. Many mussels today are farm-raised so they don’t need to be debearded; however, all mussels should be cooked as soon as they are debearded.

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Stir the wine, butter bits, shallot, garlic, and bay leaf into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, or until bubbling and hot.

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Stir in the mussels and dill. Cover and continue cooking for 40 minutes, or until the mussels have opened. Discard the bay leaf before serving.

TESTERS’ NOTES

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Because mussels release so much briny liquid into the stew, a slightly sweeter white wine works better than dry vermouth—a less confusing set of flavors to set off the bivalve’s natural sweetness.

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Truly mince the shallot, the better to melt into the sauce.

INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED
Never eat mussels that don’t open. While culinary types debate whether they’re safe even if they don’t open, they’re often full of slimy gunk which is better off in the trash can.

Serve It Up!
Although a pot of mussels doesn’t need much else to make it dinner, a crunchy
Spinach Salad
on the side is often welcome: Toss baby spinach leaves with thinly sliced strawberries, very thinly sliced red onion, and toasted sliced almonds in a large bowl. Whisk one part red wine vinegar and four parts olive oil in a separate small bowl, season with salt and pepper, and dress the salad, tossing gently.

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Stir the beer, broth, chorizo, onion, chipotles, garlic, and cumin in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 2½ hours, or until the sauce is bubbling and aromatic.

2
Stir in the mussels. Cover and continue cooking on high for 40 minutes, or until the mussels have opened.

TESTERS’ NOTES

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Dark beer has the right heft and sweetness to stand up to the very deep-tasting ingredients in this simple stew. To keep it from foaming too much, pour the beer slowly down the inside wall of the slow cooker.

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For a fresher, less complex taste, use fresh Mexican chorizo, cut into 1-inch sections. Brown it first in a skillet with a little vegetable oil set over medium heat.

1
Stir the broth, sake, pickled ginger, scallions, soy sauce, and wasabi paste in the slow cooker until the wasabi paste dissolves. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, until delectably fragrant.

2
Stir in the mussels. Cover and continue cooking on high for 40 minutes, or until the mussels have opened.

TESTERS’ NOTES

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This Japanese-inspired concoction is a fresh, summery way to prepare mussels.

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If you can only find wasabi powder in the Asian aisle at your supermarket, make an equivalent amount of paste with water, using the directions on the package.

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Look for pickled ginger in the Asian aisle. Buy it in glass jars so you can tell if it’s fresh—no evidence of browning anywhere, no matter if you’ve got the pink or white type in hand. Don’t substitute jarred minced ginger.

INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED
Sake is Japanese rice wine. In Japanese,
sake
actually refers to any alcoholic beverage, not just the wine we so identify in English. For cooking, choose a somewhat sweet, fairly straightforward sake, not an aged or overly dry sake.

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Stir the tomatoes, broth, celery, onion, chili powder, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, honey, mustard, and liquid smoke in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, or until the sauce is hot and bubbling.

2
Stir in the mussels. Cover and continue cooking on high for 40 minutes, or until the mussels have opened.

TESTERS’ NOTES

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Mince the veggies so they make a sauce, not a stew.

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This one’s best if you’ve cleaned the mussel shells enough that you can slurp the sauce right off them.

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Standard chili powder isn’t really that hot. If you want a spicier dish, use a combination of chipotle chile powder and standard chili powder.

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This barbecue sauce is very savory, even a little sour. If you like barbecue sauce that’s sweeter, add more honey in step one: 1 tablespoon in a small batch, 2 tablespoons in a medium one, or ¼ cup in a large batch.