A Couple of Christmas Cooking Questions?
Hi – thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide, and Happy Holidays!
I have two questions. I am making Christmas dinner here at my house, and I was wondering:
(1) I am going to make Lobster Bisque in a Crock Pot. Would it be okay if I made it the night before in the pot, let it sit in the fridge overnight, and then put it back in the Crock Pot when I get home around 2? How long would it take to get hot/ready?
(2) I am going to make a Vegetable Lasagna for a vegetarian, and I also have to use gluten-free noodles because my daughter has Celiac disease. It is my first time ever making a lasagna. I have read some recipes that say to not cook the noodles first, and other say to only cook them til they get a little soft. Anyone ever use gluten-free noodles? Should I pre-cook them, or let it cook in the oven? Note: I will also be making this the night before, so it will be sitting in my fridge for like 16 hours or so.
December 16th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Re: 2 — It will be ok if you do not cook the noodles. Just make sure you use enough sauce to ensure that they will have moisture to soak up while sitting in the fridge. The longer it sits, the better, so make that before your bisque.
Re: 1 — I think it would be fine to make it the night before and pop it in the crock pot the next day, but you are right that it might take a while for it to warm up. If you have the time…….put it all into a big pot and heat it through before the crock pot. It’ll take 15 mins to heat through, then put back in crock pot on low. Annoying, but that will work better and you won’t run risk of burning the edges. I find edges sometimes get burned if I put my cp on high, even with soups.
December 16th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
1 – I would not make this the night before to reheat. I think this product is better when made and served the same day.
2 – I always cook my noodles part way when making lasagna. My preference. Working with gluten free noodles is a bit different, so only cook them part way, assemble and then take out and let rest at room temperature for 45 minutes before cooking the next day.
December 16th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
1. You should be fine. It would only take a few minutes to warm up in a saucepan. How do you heat the crock pot – is it an electric one? You should go by your own experience as to how long it generally takes to warm that quantity of liquid up.
2. Lasagne is very variable, some is marked “pre-cooked” and some isn’t. However, if you’re cooking in advance and just heating it up, either will probably have softened up sufficiently to be edible. It’s not easy to pre-cook yourself, as it gets stuck together, and it’s slimey, and all in all, you want to avoid that if you possibly can. When I made lasagne with some gluten free stuff it was pretty much like cardboard the first day, but after reheating on the second day it was fine.
To be honest, I tend to do Moussaka instead now, which is basically like lasagne, but using vegetables – traditionally eggplants/aubergines, but I use cooked sliced potatoes instead. You line the dish with the potato or whatever, fill it with the beef (or in your case vegetarian) mixture, top with potatoes/whatever, cheese sauce and home-grated cheese*, brown it in the oven and it’s sooo nice.
*I don’t risk ready grated, as I don’t know where the “modified starch” they have started coating it in comes from. I’m guessing wheat, as it’s the cheapest.