In my slow cooker today.... part 2

cleggie

Sorry to barge in, but i am sure i have seen an A-Z thread for slow cooking on these boards somewhere, but cant find it! Could someone please link me?

Sunnyday

cleggie wrote: »

Sorry to barge in, but i am sure i have seen an A-Z thread for slow cooking on these boards somewhere, but cant find it! Could someone please link me?

There is a link to the recipe index in the box near the top of the page here, there are also many threads with links further down the page.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1332010#post1332010

Make a big cup of tea before reading lol, you may be some time

HTH

SD

cleggie

Thanks Sunnyday,
cuppa and chocolate at the ready!

joedenise

Have got a lamb casserole in the SC at the moment, beginning to smell really lovely!

Denise

Ruby_Scarlett

Chicken breasts, carrots, potatoes, celery and garlic. This is my first time using the slow cooker ever, it's nerve-wracking. I keep checking if the meat is indeed getting cooked (I don't lift the lid, I just peer through) as it seems like such a magical appliance to me at the moment, I'm bracing myself for disaster. I think I filled it up too much but I didn't have much of a choice as my lone shelf in the fridge and my freezer compartment were begging for mercy, I had to use a full pack of breasts (4 breasts).

I'll let you know if it's any good.

What do people do with the liquid afterwards? It doesn't seem to evaporate. I don't mean to be stingy as it didn't cost much but do you reuse it like oil or something?

Edit: 7 and a half hours later, I can honestly say I'm sorry I had my doubts. It's divine. I can't believe I just made that. This is the first proper non-student food I've had in months and there's something so satisfying about having a pot full of tasty, filling food. Called mum to tell her (she never used a slow cooker herself and we neither of us consider ourselves accomplished cooks, far from it) and we both cried over the phone, silly women that we are. It's all thanks to this forum, I never would have made such a thing myself! Thank you all so much, I know it sounds silly but I'm genuinely grateful for this

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Ingredients
500g Minced Beef (Waitrose Essentials) part of a massive re-stock after I had to throw out £300+ worth of food away. Part of my freezer basics.
Onions (organic Riverford whose Fruit and Veg are excellent after years of Mr T Fruit and Veg practically disintegrating before my very eyes on return home)
Half a packet of streaky bacon which will definitely contribute on giving masses of flavour and enough fat essential for tasty cooking.

Carrots (ibid) with earth on for best flavour!!:money::beer:
Celery (hearts Tesco top up for that flavour a mirepoix of celery onion and carrot can only give)
Heston Waitrose Beef stock ( Waitrose killer items the fresh stocks are to die for and worth every penny, properly cooked, flavoured with Heston twist)
bay leaves (from Garden I own a bay tree that has hundreds if not thousands of leaves)
passata
garlic puree, (although it has been said that fresh is best, I use both)
thyme rosemary (Tesco fresh now frozen I prefer fresh herbs to dried)
tomato puree a splodge or better a biere mannie butter flour mix to give a bit of sauce.
If tomatoes not enough then a can of Tesco or Waitrose essentials chopped tomatoes (why buy em whole when I can have them ready chopped? and evenly as well?
Just this minute dumped all this lot in the new Slow Cooker a Crockpot one reduced from £34 to £20 which has more settings High Low Warm. Currently on High to fry the above before adding Beef stock, passata perhaps chopped tomatoes, bay leaves for giving it a good while giving it a few hours to get too a nice consistency.
Once it is done, freeze portions and use in Chilli con carne, Quesadillas,
Shepherds Pie and a million and one uses of that holy ingredient Mince.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

louisaL wrote: »

Rice Pudding - BUT it hasnt come out right It's too sloppy and yellow in colour?? I use recommended 2pints of milk, 2 oz's of rice pudding, 1oz of sugar and buttered the inside of the crock.

Probably less milk might help next time but as for the yellow colour???

I would watch it for a start, Have some idea of timing ie 3 hours, know your Slow cooker how it behaves. (enough settings to control cooking process?), good recipes that are reliable from reliable chefs!!
( I use Good Food Magazine, Chow, Epicurious, Foodie Blogs and Foodie Cookbooks which are chock full of Peasant recipes:eek::eek::eek::D:D).
There are loads of good recipes online. I would use sites above.
Rice pud recipes range from plain vanilla to boozy concoction such as felicity cloaks on The Gaurdian (yummy).
Rice needs a lot of cooking so I would cook it and take note of how long it takes to become a more solidfied tasty congealed mass and top up with milk even butter as neccessary). Just perseveare and let mother nature do her job and you will end up with rice pudding.:cool:

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

@rubyscarlett Practice makes perfect and they are quite friendly devices provided you know how the intereaction of your favourite recipes and slow cooker of choice. Cooking with slow cooker is an art just as it is through more conventional means even microwave!!!!!!!!!!

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Liberty9515 wrote: »

In my slow cooker overnight:

fancied doing a rice pud, but no pudding rice, so have improvised with some arborio rice and pearl barley!

Should be interesting tomorrow!

I reason if i use risotto rice than pudding rice then I have one product two uses!! :money::money::beer::D

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

thunderchild wrote: »

Got a question?????

I am going to do a ham hock (because I'm cheap!) in coke over the weekend. I dont want all the fat in the coke sauce. I was thinking of soaking the hock over night to reduce the salt and then skinning it before popping it in the slow cooker, what do you reckon?

I am using a recipe from my Hamlyn 200 slow cooker recipes that I downloaded to my kindle app, fantastic book! The only change is they suggest tinned kidney beans which we dont like so I am going to use butter beans......yum! going to serve with baked potatoes and veg.

Plonk it in as is, skim resulting stock afterwards. More flavour and you can always reject the fat.
*Lean meat is a mistake as you need a certain amount of marbling to make meat tender, fat can be put to other uses and or thrown out and anyways it is good for you in moderation*