Ever since I got my beloved slow cooker a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been trying to find as many recipes as possible to use to get the biggest bang for my buck on my purchase. I hesitated about buying it for the longest time because of our extremely limited space in our Manhattan kitchen, but I finally caved in (this slow cooker takes up about half our entire counter space!). Last week, I made the easiest chicken wing stock that cooked overnight and was ready in the morning. This week, I tried to use the slow cooker overnight for jook… and failed.

After some careful inspection on the recipe I found, it said that despite it being cooked in a slow cooker on “program” mode, I’m actually still supposed to open it occasionally to stir it, otherwise the rice will sink to the bottom, and thus it won’t break down gracefully the way congee rice is supposed to. I was so irritated that morning. The whole point of a slow cooker is to be able to program it, set it and forget it!

This week’s job is to slow cook a turkey breast and drum sticks, so I’m still on a quest to make as much use out of this machine as possible.