Obviously, I'm a little late to the party, both in my complete failure to know this recipe even existed, and also in getting a New Year's Day tradition up for viewing a solid eight days after you needed it.
2017 maybe?
I'm a mess, I know.
See, what happened is --- I really wanted to try to perfect rice cooking in a slow cooker. Mostly, because I have a tendency not so much to burn rice, but more to cook a solid layer of sticky, impenetrable rice into the bottom of my stove pot. And before you start hurling your tips and tricks my way, please know that I've tried everything the internet has offered to me with no luck. I'm simply not good at cooking rice.
For the longest time, I used a microwaveable rice cooker with a 100% success rate. The rice cooker went MIA during the move into my new house a couple years ago, and I decided I didn't need a replacement because I was going to cook it on the stove. Like an adult.
FAIL.
Every time.
Add it to the list of things that seem easy to do that I just can't. Examples --- I lose my phone and/or car keys every single day for at least ten minutes. Just yesterday, I fell on ice walking my dog and left the iPhone that slid out of my pocket out in the cold for a solid 45 minutes. That phone is my lifesaver considering it has six alarms set on it. The first four are purely for getting me out of bed since it turns out, I am highly skilled at the art of the snooze button and I require approximately 24 loud dings in my ear before I'm willing to get out of bed. My short term memory is almost non-existent, so I probably won't do what you asked me to five minutes ago. My world and all my responsibilities stop the minute I think my dog is in ANY form of mild to moderate distress. I can't master the art of the perfect curl, no matter what curling iron I buy. I can't use a traditional vegetable peeler so most of my veggies go in the pot with the skin on. And I still need someone to come light my grill for me because I always burn my knuckles somehow, no matter how focused I am.
There are hundreds of things I have yet to master in this life, obviously. And cooking rice is one of them.
I'm attempting to give myself a small victory here by saying that while stove-top rice is still eluding me, I can serve up a pretty mean dish of slow cooker rice. I made Hoppin' John simply because it turned out I had most of the ingredients for it in my house - minus the black eyed peas that I never keep stocked in my pantry for some reason. Once I had those, I tossed everything into the slow cooker and anxiously awaited for my rice to turn out.
I was pleasantly surprised that it did not stick to the bottom of the slow cooker or burn onto it as I expected. I read a lot of material on putting down a significant grease factor to the walls and bottom of the dish before adding the rice. I also read that minimal stirring was suggested, so I waited until the very end to mix it all together.
I've never had this dish before, so I didn't know what to expect. It called for onion and pepper so I decided to make mine with the Cajun/Creole trinity of pepper, celery and onion. And, I added a little cayenne for some heat.
It actually came out pretty well. I'm impressed with my first slow cooker rice experience and I'd definitely serve this with a cajun-style main dish, maybe some seafood?
I do love me some good Southern-style catfish!
Slow Cooker Hoppin' John
2 cups cooked rice
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1/2 green bell pepper, finely diced
2 tbsp. minced garlic
2 cups black eyed peas, soaked and drained
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste
Spray the sides and bottom of the slow cooker with a nonstick spray.
Pour rice into bottom of a well-greased slow cooker.
Add all the rest of the ingredients over the rice.
Cook on high for four hours, stirring minimally.
Give everything a complete stir prior to serving.
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