"Slow-Cooker" Sweet Potato Red Curry

In my past cooking adventures, I have always been afraid to stretch too far out of the status quo when it comes to the famous "slow-cooker" crock-pot. I think I've made just about everything that everyone has had a million and one times at Super Bowl parties or other social gatherings where throwing something in a crock-pot and leaving it alone for six to eight hours is just a convenience. I have made the obligatory BBQ pork butt, chili con queso, traditional chili, beef stew, and frozen meatballs. These were all I really knew how to do with a slow-cooker, chiefly because they were intuitive and relatively error-proof (although I really did mess up a chili once because I forgot to drain the beans). Let's just say it wasn't "work-safe" to take for lunch.

But recently, my sister-in-law and her husband gave us a Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipe book for Christmas and I thought, "What the hay? Why not try one of the recipes?" To the naked eye, many recipes I find are quite complex and call for ingredients that are rare, costly, or just plain ridiculous. If you are like me, you don't just have garam masala and cardamom pods laying around your kitchen. However, several of the recipes in this particular book seemed appealing and were much more accessible to an untrained, accidental cook like me. There was one recipe that appealed to me and seemed simple enough to make while still preserving the intent of the "hassle-free" crock-pot.

It turns out, it was easy and delicious. I hope you can try it and enjoy it as much my wife and I did.

Ingredients
2 pounds small red or yellow potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces.
1 small bunch of green onions diced
1 green bell pepper diced
1 can of coconut milk (found in Asian aisle of grocery store)
5 tablespoons red curry paste
2 tablespoons brown sugar (or more if you want)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 large sweet potato (the orange kind)
1 cup frozen green peas
1 can of sliced water chestnuts
1/2 cup of unsalted cashews
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro for garnish
1 cup of water
Ground cayenne pepper

Steps
1. Wash red or yellow potatoes (peel if you want) and place them, along with onion, in the slow cooker. Do not put in sweet potatoes yet.
2. Mix the coconut milk, red curry paste, water, sugar, and soy sauce together and pour over potatoes.
3. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours or until potatoes are tender enough to poke with a fork.
4. Add the sweet potatoes, bell pepper, peas, and water chestnuts and cook for another 2 to 3 hours on low. Mix in cayenne pepper to your own personal heat preference.
5. To serve, sprinkle the cashews and cilantro on top and serve with white or brown rice.

Bon apetite! This also reheats very well. I would store the rice and curry in separate containers in the fridge.