Y’all know I’m no stranger to a slow cooker. In fact, I’ve got a collection of them – six, give or take a few. There’s just something about tossing ingredients into a slow cooker in the morning and coming home to a house filled with the smell of dinner, ready to eat. But not very often does my mind move beyond main course recipes when it comes to the slow cooker. Sure, I love to use it to keep my dipping chocolate warm when I’m making Christmas candies, but that’s about as far as my imagination goes. That is, of course, until I got my hands on Kendra Bailey Morris’s new cookbook, The Southern Slow Cooker.
You can find classic slow cooker staples like soups, stews, and chili, but what really got my attention was the inclusion of not-so-typical slow cooker recipes like Lemon Blueberry Buckle, Gingersnap Peach Upside-down Cake, Buttermilk Chocolate Spice Cake, even Pork Ribs with Raspberry Sorghum BBQ Sauce. Her book makes you realize that your slow cooker can be used for so much more than pot roast.
The recipes are only made even more tempting with the beautiful images from Erin Kunkel. If the recipe doesn’t draw you in, the photography sure will.
My perspective on cookbooks is a little different now with one of my own on the way, so I have a bit more appreciation for the hard work that goes into one. But trust me when I say that this cookbook will be a perfect addition to your collection. If you love the slow cooker as much as I do, you need to check this book out.
When I asked Kendra to recommend a recipe for me to try, she immediately said the Shrimp Creole. I already had my eye on that one based on my love of the dish and the photo that accompanies it in the book. Phenomenal is the perfect way to describe it. I’ll go out on the limb and say that I don’t often find recipes that suit my tastes and impress me over my own, but this one did. I’m almost a little embarrassed to admit that my Shrimp Creole (the one that is in my book) comes in second to this one. (Y’all don’t tell anyone I said that.)
Not only has Kendra and Ten Speed Press been so gracious as to share that Shrimp Creole recipe with y’all, but they are also going to give a copy of the book to one lucky Southern Bite Reader. See the contest box below for more details.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onion
- ½ cup chopped celery
- 4 small cloves garlic, minced
- 1 16-ounce can diced tomatoes with its juice
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper or more to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup diced green bell pepper
- 1 pound medium-size shrimp, peeled and deveined
- Salt and black pepper
- Steamed long-grain rice, for serving
- Minced chives or green onions, for garnish
- Hot sauce, for serving
Instructions
- Spray the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray.
- Heat the butter and olive oil in a cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and celery and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, or until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Transfer the onion, celery, and garlic to the slow cooker and add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, thyme, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, salt, cayenne, and bay leaves. Cover and cook on low for at least 6 hours and up to 8 hours.
- One hour before serving, add the bell pepper and continue to cook on low. Finally, during the last 10 minutes, add the shrimp and cook until they are pink and slightly curled (be careful not to overcook). Season with salt and pepper. Remove the bay leaf and spoon over rice. Garnish with a sprinkling of fresh chives. Serve with hot sauce on the side.
Notes
* If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
You Might Also Like
Love my slow cooker! This book looks amazing.
my husband could eat this 7 nights a week. We love it.
I love to make soups and stews in my slow cooker!
The cover alone makes you want this book! Slow cookers are a stay at home moms best friend. Not only do we like the unassisted assistant :), healthy meals are what we pride ourselves with each night our families sit down to eat!
I NEED a Slow Cooker Cookbook just for southern cooking…this looks awesome!
I love a good slow-cooker recipe!! I’m all about easy cookin’!!!!
And my favorite go-to recipe is Beef Stew.
I would love to win this book! Love slow cooker recipes!
I use my slow cooker all the time ! My favorite foods are soups and stews and they are so easy to put together and have hot and ready in my cooker. Thanks for the opportunity to win this cookbook.
I love my slow cooker! My favorite recipe is chicken tortilla soup!
Love my slow cookers and do need a cookbook so that I can do more with it
I use my slow cooker ALL the time !!! Everything I cook is good but my family loves my beef and gravy the most. YUM YUM 🙂
Pot Roast!
I love any breakfast recipe in my slow cooker since I am not a morning person that must get up at 5:00 AM!! WOW!! That is crazy!
My favorite thing to cook is what i call Mexican Shredded Chicken. its only chicken breasts, salsa, taco seasoning. thats it, shred when done and use for tacos, nachos, burritos, you get then idea! Also freezes well.
I love my slow cooker and can’t wait to try keeping chocolate warm for dipping.
Mine is pulled pork BarBQ. Thanks.
Yum!
Hi everyone,
I’m the author of The Southern Slow Cooker. I love all of your slow cooker recipe ideas! Slow cooking is definitely the way to go. Good luck to the winner, and I’m happy to autograph the book!
Kendra
Oops, forgot to put my favorite dish. My favorite is pork loin with potatoes and carrots with mushroom gravy.
Oh goodness this looks like a wonderful book. Thanks for the opportunity Stacey!.
I make a Oriental BBQ rib tip dish in my crockpot that my family loves. I would love to have this cookbook, and it will be well used and passed on some day with the rest of my cookbook collection.
I love cooking in my slow cooker. One of our favs is an Italian sausage recipe.
My favorite dish to cook in my slow cooker is BBQ pulled pork!
Our favorite slow cooker recipe is BBQ pork tenderloin. I’m excited to learn some new Southern recipes with this cookbook!
So far (I expect that it will change once I get my hands on a copy of this cookbook), my favorite thing to fix in slowcooker is a hoisin pork roast.
Looks like a good one – I can always use an addition to my collection,