Slow Cooker

pollyanna24

I know there are loads of threads on slow cooking, but just a quickie before I rush out and borrow me mums.

Some of the recipes (admittedly haven't got very far yet), say to cook in a saucepan on the hob before sticking in the slow cooker. All well and good, I know how to do that, but I get up really early and really can't face doing this in the morning, so can I start the cooking the night before and bung half cooked cold food into the slow cooker?

MimiF

Hi Pollyanna,

I am exactly the same, have far too much to do in the mornings let alone start frying off meat etc!!

I usually prepare the entire dish the night before i.e. if it's a casserole, fry off meat, pop in veggies and any liquids, seasonings etc and then pop it into the fridge in the crock pot (is yours removable?) once it has cooled. Just bear in mind that cooking time will need to be increased by an hour or so as the dish and it's contents will be cold the following day when you pop it on.

Hope that makes sense.

MimiF

MATH

Don't bother is the short answer!

You can brown meat and chicken off in a skillet before adding to the SC if you want colour and also to draw out some of the fat but even this isn't neccessary.

The one thing you must do is always brown off mince to release the fat and the quickest way to do this is in the micro. About 8-10 mins for 1lb of mince breaking up with a fork as it browns and then drain off the fat.

Here are a few other 'quick' tips

Root vegetable take the longest of all to cook so if your carrots/potatoes/parsnips etc are soft then eveything else is done.

Add 20 mins to the cooking time for everytime you lift the lid.

Reduce the amount of fluid if using a regular recipe.

Add peas for the last couple of hours only else they go brownish.

Finally, I often brown and compile the dish the night before and chill and then slam in the SC in the morning adding a couple of hours to the cooking time to bring up to room temp and then cook.

HTH

pollyanna24

Thanks for all the replies. Gona go get my mum's slow cooker at the weekend cos she says she doesn't use it now me and my bf moved out!!

How long do things generally take to cook? We leave the house at 6.30pm and get home around 5.30pm. I'm guessing this may be a tad too long to leave things cooking?