Quick Questions on ANYTHING part 2. Please read first post for links to other threads

zippychick

Spendaholic_Chick wrote: »

Help! I'm a looooooong way off being OS but I'm trying to incorporate some of your fab ways!

Tonight I made veg curry and veg soup but I had no stock so used chicken stockcubes in the soup. I used onion, potato,carrot, parsnip and turnip along with soup mix and seasoning but it's quite thin and reeeeeally bland - what can I do to make it thicker and tastier?

Also, the veg in the curry is quite hard, depite cooking for over an hour! What did I do wrong, and how can I fix it?

i would add some lentils to thicken it, barley maybe? lentils seem to suit better. let it cook until veg are done. Instant mash will give it a thick creamy texture. Of course theres cornflour paste too. Good luck.,

luce181

Hi,
hope someone can help,

I'm in the middle of doing a New England Beef recipe from the Morphy Richards SC instruction book and I'm a bit confused about the instructions. It says:

Put the beef into a pan and cover with cold water. Add all the remaining ingredients, cover and bring to a simmer. Season well and then transfer all the ingredients to the ceramic pot.'

Now, it's a joint of beef, and the other ingredients are carrots, shallots swede and herbs.

Do I need to transfer the water from the pan too or just the 'ingredients'??

Its in the pan as I type and I don't know whther to put the water in the SC or not :eek: ,

Please help

zippychick

luce181 wrote: »

Hi,
hope someone can help,

I'm in the middle of doing a New England Beef recipe from the Morphy Richards SC instruction book and I'm a bit confused about the instructions. It says:

Put the beef into a pan and cover with cold water. Add all the remaining ingredients, cover and bring to a simmer. Season well and then transfer all the ingredients to the ceramic pot.'

Now, it's a joint of beef, and the other ingredients are carrots, shallots swede and herbs.

Do I need to transfer the water from the pan too or just the 'ingredients'??

Its in the pan as I type and I don't know whther to put the water in the SC or not :eek: ,

Please help

What consistency will your finished meal have? If it is a stew or something liquid based i would keep the liquid in. It doesnt suggest draining it or anything so I would interpret it as throw the heap in.

Worst comes to worst you can always drain the liquid off at the end, and use it for stock for something else!

LEt us know how you get on.:D

luce181

zippychick wrote: »

What consistency will your finished meal have? If it is a stew or something liquid based i would keep the liquid in. It doesnt suggest draining it or anything so I would interpret it as throw the heap in.

Worst comes to worst you can always drain the liquid off at the end, and use it for stock for something else!

LEt us know how you get on.:D

Wow, Thanks for the super speedy reply, :T

Have thrown it all in and will see what happens! Have just read further down and it actually says to use the cooking liquid to make a gravy so it makes sense to put it all in, should have read through it first

Any idea how I would make the gravy? Only just bought my SC, and never made gravy myself before, always used bisto :rotfl:

zippychick

luce181 wrote: »

Wow, Thanks for the super speedy reply, :T

Have thrown it all in and will see what happens! Have just read further down and it actually says to use the cooking liquid to make a gravy so it makes sense to put it all in, should have read through it first

Any idea how I would make the gravy? Only just bought my SC, and never made gravy myself before, always used bisto :rotfl:

NO problem, nothing worse than sitting with a pot waiting for someone to reply!

Hmm. Im quite new to SC myself - so heres what i would do - bearing in mind there is probably a better way. I would skim the liquid off , put in a pot, and mix with a little cornflour paste - or some people use normal flour. Then again im a cooking novice so thats just how i would do it! This will thicken it. There is a roux method discussed in the thread link following here

Heres a thread about gravy which gives different suggestions

HTH.

zippychick

I want to clean my cooker hood. Its like silvery stuff. Any ideas , ive no clue what to use.

TIA

Savvy_Sue

zippychick wrote: »

I want to clean my cooker hood. Its like silvery stuff. Any ideas , ive no clue what to use.

I would probably sit down with a cup of tea until the moment passed.

To be more helpful, what's made it dirty? Does it have a filter? Have you tried hot water and a cloth?

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Hi luce181, I'm really glad you asked that question as by coincidence I had been reading that recipe earlier and had got confused too! Re the gravey, I've never done it in a sc but someone on these threads mentioned blending all the veg and liquid together at the end?
Hi zippychick, maybe one of those steam cleaners and a microfibre cloth would work?

luce181

Well, the New England Beef was really yummy, thanks Zippy Chick for your help. :T

I used cornflour and a stock cube to make the gravy, tasted good but was a bit lumpy as I think I added the cornflour paste too quickly

I love my slow cooker it's great! :j

Lucy x

Savvy_Sue

luce181 wrote: »

Well, the New England Beef was really yummy, thanks Zippy Chick for your help. :T

I used cornflour and a stock cube to make the gravy, tasted good but was a bit lumpy as I think I added the cornflour paste too quickly

I love my slow cooker it's great! :j

Glad it went well. Did you get an instruction / recipe book with it? If not, you can sometimes download them if you google your make and model.

However, as a basic guide, if you are cooking veg you will definitely need water / stock / moisture in it. Mine says to cover all veg with liquid, so there's always LOTS of juice left over when I do a casserole.