Trivets and punnets

For a long while, I have wanted to find a way to cook vegetables in the slow cooker in such a way that the vegetables get cooked but stay separate from everything else. The clearest expression of this wish occurs every Friday night when I cook chicken drumsticks and thighs, along with a melange of courgettes, carrots and onion. Towards the end of the cooking period I remove excess liquid which serves as the liquid for rice. My wife doesn't like rice and would prefer to eat potatoes, but she also doesn't like to eat the vegetable melange. If I could find a way of cooking a potato in the slow cooker without mixing it then she would be very pleased ( for those who don't know, one does not cook a potato whole in the slow cooker but rather chops it up into small cubes).

I have read about a technique with pressure cookers that uses something called trivets to keep certain items separate; when I google trivet, the primary results are frameworks made out of metal on which one places hot dishes - not what I want at all. The example on the left is the sort of thing which I have been finding. I have tried in the real world to find what I have been looking for but being unable to find a suitable word in Hebrew, I have had difficulty in cooking appliance shops ('trivet' translated into Hebrew gives the same word as 'tripod'). Yesterday, I dragged the old chestnut out again but started searching for 'perforated metal cooking', which at least gave me different results.

I realised that a good example of what I need is the kind of container in which people keep cutlery after washing: a tall, circular metal container with holes in. Whilst making a cup of tea, I noticed that we had exactly this kind of container next to the sink! I took all the utensils out of the container and tried it for size inside the slow cooker - although the container was tall, it fit exactly under the slow cooker's lid! So I chopped the potato, put the cubes into the container (after having thoroughly washed the container!) and then put the container into the slow cooker. The other ingredients fitted around the container. There was no doubt in my mind that I was on the right track but this container was far too big - the potato cubes did not even fill half of the container and the rest was empty space.


My wife (of course) expressed doubt about this new culinary technique but was very pleased with the results. I asked her if she remembered where she had bought the container but she didn't recall; she also pointed out that such containers come in only one size which is too big - I was contemplating buying one and cutting it to size.


After dinner comes the ritual of throwing rubbish and taking the dog for a walk whilst getting my daily exercise. Such is the power of serendipity that next to the rubbish bin I found a plastic punnet which was exactly what I was looking for (and it turns out that there were two punnets stacked together)!

We were uncertain as to whether the punnet could resist the mild heat of the slow cooker; rather than wait until I cooked something (and so possibly ruin whatever was cooked), I put the punnets in the slow cooker, added a few cups of boiling water and then turned the cooker on for a few hours. The punnets passed this test without any damage.

Today's menu features salmon cutlets: I placed the salmon pieces on the floor of the slow cooker, poured over them a thin sauce of water, lemon juice, diced onion, butter and dill and then placed on top the salmon the two punnets, one with potato cubes and one with frozen green beans. When it comes time to serve, I will simply decant the contents of each punnet into a separate glass dish.  

Finally I have the solution to cooking with but serving separate.