First Time with my Slow Cooker

leeegglestone

I got a slow cooker for my birthday, 3.3litre one. I was reading all the Recipes the otherday and I simply couldnt decide what do try for my First attempt.

Anyway, what I wanna do is Cook some Mince while I am at work tomorrow. I have a 500g pack. Not sure what I will do with it, probably make Lasagne.

Ive taken it out the Freezer to defrost overnight.

In the morning about 7am before work,what should I do.

Should I put two tins of chopped Tomatoes, some Frozen Mushrooms & my mince into the cooker and place on High - which says cooks for 7-8hours. Is this too long? for me getting home around 5?
Will I need to break up the Mince or while its cooking will it do it itself to a degree, a quick stir when I get home and it should be broken down?

I may put some Sweetcorn or Lentils in with it too.

I was going to put some Chicken in & some Chicken Tonight Sauce but thought Id save the Chicken to may curry in it oneday. : - )


Lee

TNG

leeegglestone wrote:

Should I put two tins of chopped Tomatoes, some Frozen Mushrooms & my mince into the cooker and place on High - which says cooks for 7-8hours. Is this too long? for me getting home around 5?
Will I need to break up the Mince or while its cooking will it do it itself to a degree, a quick stir when I get home and it should be broken down?

Bumping so that hopefully someone will answer before lunch. I'm off to Robert Dyas and if there's one on 'special', I may be temted.

An answer here could just swing it.......

squeaky

I'd be inclined to cook on low for a whole day away at work plus travel time.

Defrosting and breaking up the mince would be a good idea - it will cook in a single block otherwise and may not be evenly cooked in the centre. A quick stir is always good ;-) but remember that every time you take the lid off you add about twenty minutes to the cooking time as the slow cooker has to recover the lost heat.

Answers to many similar questions can be found here:-

The Complete Slow Cooker Collection

leeegglestone

I put it on High this morning, I hope its ok as it would have been on for about 10hours by the time I get home

The Manual didnt mention any Timings for the Low Setting.

beachbeth

This is a recipe that came with my slo cooker:

Bolognese Sauce:

1 tbsp cooking oil
2 onions finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
700g minced beef
large can tomatoes
5oz (140g) can tomato puree
1/2 pt (300ml)beef stock
4oz (100g) mushrooms, sliced
2 tsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
1 bouquet garni

Heat oil in pan and fry the onion and garlic. Add the beef and fry until it has lost its pinkness. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil.Put in the slo cooker and leave for around 6 hours. Remove the bay leaf and bouquet garni and serve.

leeegglestone

Well i got home and part of it had burned onto the bottom of the Dish. I guess i had left it too long and it had dried out.

Think I will try again tomorrow. something with Chicken. probably Curry : -),need2check some recipes

make_life_easier

Well at least it didn't put you off :A - I would probably not tried another recipe after that. Well at least you know where you went wrong and can correct that now.

Keep it on the low setting!!!

make_life_easier

:rotfl: woops it looks like I'm telling you off - I'm not really. I was just experimenting with the fonts as I tend to send boring messages with nothing on - I can only do smileys:rotfl:

leeegglestone

This is what my instructions say

Off - obvious
Low - Can be used for heating up cooked food
High - normal slow cooker setting - cooking time around 7-8hours
Warm - keeps recent food warm.

So if i used to low setting, how long do you think food would take to cook, is this the setting I should always use when I am out ? and use High for when I am in ?altho if i am in i woudlnt wanna set something to cook thats gonna take 7hrs id be starving.

Im not givin up as this is gonna mean Tea is very when I get home, such an incentive for a hungry lad

leeegglestone

Looking at this Post

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1351607#post1351607


I dont have any dried Chillis. can I add some turmeric, cumin & pakrikka instead, which would be best & how much?
I have a pack of 330g skinless diced chicken breast, but also have some Chicken Breast I can chop up if you think I should use more,
My SlowCooker is 3.3 L

How long on Low setting do you leave this on?

Would it be ok for me to put it on overnight.turn off when I get up and then heat it up for Tea or would I be best to just set it off on a Low Setting before I leave for work, then it has 10hrs before I get home?

V.Lucky

I must admit I never use high. I use either low or auto (which cooks for so long on high then turns itself to low) and don't have problems with stuff burning or drying out.