Slow Cookers

[BM]

These are great for making stews and soups etc. The good thing is you can set it cooking in the morning so when you get home from work you have a nice meal ready and waiting.

My fav is a beef stew/soup.

I start by half filling the slow cooker with chicken stock. Then add a splash of soy sauce and a splash of tobasco sauce. Add 2 ground garlic cloves and mixed herbs.

Then add vegetables:

3 chopped carrots
1 large onion
1 chopped potato
sweet corn
chopped runner beans.
Any other veg you fancy.


Now you need meat. The best to use is braised beef. This is pretty lean and is usually cheaper than other cuts.

Season the beef with salt and pepper. Make sure you rub the seasoning into the meat. Heat a frying pan with a little olive oil. Wait till the pan is very hot but dont burn the oil, then drop the beef in. Pour some red wine in the pan. You only need to sear the meat so only cook it for a min if that.

Pour the contents of the frying pan into the slow cooker.

Cook for at least 6-7hrs. Serve with rice or pasta.

[TheFincher]

Now you need meat.

Youve been telling me that for years

I really want a slow cooker but arent they hard to clean?

[BM]

Not really, all the ingrediants go in a removeable china bowl. So you just need to wash this bowl. It is fairly large so you might not fit it in the dishwasher.

[Geekygirl]

I've been thinking about buying a slow cooker but wouldn't know what to do with it.
Do you have any more recipes for one?

I looked at them but got confused over what the best make would be and what size to get.

Any advice would be appreciated......

[crack_it]

they are ok i rec aslong as you use real butcher meat in them supermarket meat tends to fall in to bits

[BM]

The advantage of a slow cooker is that you can leave it all day. So basically stick all your ingredients in and set it going.

Cant really advise of what one to get cos we have had ours for years.

[beansontoast]

They come up cheap at aldi/lidl every now & then. I've been tempted but don't know if I would use it after the initial "enthusiastic" period (bread maker getting dusty on the kitchen counter).

Are they any good for curries & other hot dishes?

[coin-op]

Are they any good for curries & other hot dishes?

I used to make chilli in mine all the time.

I suppose curry depends on how you make it. I use the curry secret book and it doesn't really lend itself to slow cooking - too labour intensive, but if you use pastes or even jar sauces it won't be a problem.

Chicken thighs and drumsticks are great if you make a casserole - the meat just falls off.

The "bowl" on mine is more like a saucepan so you can brown the meat in that and then transfer it to the slow cooker (tend not to bother with mince dishes).

[crack_it]

we had out old one for 6 years and it got used all the time and just got this one a month ago Cordon Bleu from argos were £24 quid n works a treat

cant realy go wrong with one use it twice a week make a chili with it chuck a leg of lamb in it or braising stake

[lin]

Slow cookers lend themselves to really cheap cuts of meat. the fat in the meat is quite important for the cooking process.

If you are using meat it is always as well to seal it beforehand, it keeps the juices in the meat.

Cut your meat into bite-sized chunks and put into a food bag with some flour and seasoning (I quite often use the Schwartz packet mixes instead of the flour- mediterranean vegetables mix or winter vegetables mix, or salt, pepper and a few mixed herbs will do)

Give it a good shake to coat the meat thoroughly.

Put a little olive oil in your pan and get the heat quite high. When the pan is really hot cook a handful of the meat at a time, don't put to much in or the pan will cool down too much and liquid in the meat might cause it to stew. That is not what we are after at this stage.
Remove the browned meat from the pan and do the next batch and so on.

If you are using alcohol now would be a good time, after you have removed your meat from the pan use your liquid to deglaze the pan (clean the pan) and add this hot liquid to the slow cooker.

Try to keep your pieces of veg similar sizes to allow even cooking.

Stir occasionally but don't keep taking the lid off as you lose heat very quickly.

If the casserole is too thin mix some flour with some butter to make a paste and stir this in, giving it at least 10 minutes to cook the flour through. If you have any of the coating mix left then even better, mix that with the butter and use that.

[beansontoast]

Decided to reserve one at argos this morning, it has a 3.5 litre capacity & only costs £9 so not much of a waste if I lose the enthusiasm.

Click the piccie to go to the slow cooker at argos:

[beansontoast]

Lots of recipes on this page: http://southernfood.about.com/library/crock/blcpidx.htm

Going shopping tomorrow

[Simate]

Whole chicken is gorgeous done in a slow cooker, brown it first in a frying pan, bung it in the slow cooker, put in about 2-3 inches of COLD water and cook on slow for about 6-8 hours, the meat is so juicy it's unreal, stuff a lemon or whatever in the cavity for additional flavouring.

It does fall apart so lift it out with care, once you've used up what you want chuck in the leftovers and make some soup with it

[Mule]

Are these any good for non meat dishes?

[iBozz]

Yes they are - anything that you'd normally casserole or stew will be fine.

However, if using potatoes make sure that they are submerged in the liquid when cooking as if they are in the air they will go black.

I had a work colleague in Blackburn once who, a conformed bachelor, went tothe market every saturday eveing ad bought whatever was left - meat, vegetables, fish or whatever. he too it all home and through it in his cooker which he then turned on.

It ran all week, never being turned off, and as quantities reduced he just chucked in anything else cheap he could find. There was no recipe and not a snowballs's of ever reproducing a real gourmet mixture if he stumbled on one becuase he could never remember what went in and when.

I ate there a fair bit and the week by week quality stretched from utterly sublime, through good, to reasonable, to acceptable, to "in small doses" and thence right down to "Let's get a curry from The This 'n' That" - and very very rarely to "I want to die, please put me out of my abject misery".