slow cooker quick questions thread

Penelope_Penguin

Here you go I'll add this to the SC QQ thread later.

Penny. x

yummyhoney

Quote:
Originally Posted by rwsteele
THAT DOES IT Grrrr!

To start with - yes please tiff.


As Tiff appears to have gone offline at the moment I'll post the recipe for you

Caribbean Chicken

3 tbsp veg oil
2 large onions, chopped
4 sticks celery, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
500g mushrooms, sliced
2 red peppers, sliced
8 chicken joints, skinned
400g can sliced peaches
400g can pineapple chunks
10 tbsp cornflour
3 tsp paprika
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp worcestershire sauce
8 tbsp malt/wine vinegar
1 litre boiling water
salt & pepper

Fry onions, celery, carrot, mushroom and pepper in a pan.

Add chicken joints and fry until browned all over.

Drain peaches and pineapple, reserving juice, and add to pan.

To make sauce blend cornflour and paprika with soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, vinegar and reserved juice, add seasoning, boiling water and pour into pan.

Bring sauce to boil, stirring continuously.

Transfer all ingredients to slow-cooker, cover and cook 5-7 hours.

yummyhoney

soz,,penolope got there before me,,:)

julietiff

Thankyou both of you, :j

Fozz

Just wondered if it is OK to cook dried beans in a slow cooker. Would fast boil them first if needed ie kidney beans. I've tried them in the pressure cooker but found that they went a little mushy so wanted to try the slow cooker perhaps!

Pink.

Hi Fozz,

Dried beans work well in the slow cooker as long as they have been soaked overnight and then rinsed well before cooking. Kidney beans will need to be soaked, rinsed and then given a fast boil for ten minutes before adding to the slow cooker to remove any toxins.

Pink

Fozz

Thanks, will put dried beans on my shopping list!

SukieSoo

I've finally been brave enough to come out of lurkdom!

Thanks to MSE I've discovered the marvels of slow cookers. I tend to use it at weekends, but not much during the week. I'm definitely not a morning person so am sometimes not together enough to put it on before I go to work. If I'm using a recipe where the preparation can be done the night before, so it's just a matter of chucking it all in the SC in the morning that's OK. But that's not the case for all recipes.

Is it safe for me to (e.g.) put the SC on overnight, switch it off in the morning and put the stuff in a bowl covered with clingfilm on the worktop? It'd be too hot to put in the fridge, but will it be safe sitting on the worktop all day?

My other option would be to put it on high when I get home from work & hope it's cooked by the time I go to bed, then leave it in a covered bowl to cool on the worktop all night. But again, it would be sitting on the side, not in the fridge, for hours.

Am I going to kill us with food poisoning if I do this?? Does anyone else use their SC like this and is still alive to tell the tale?

valk_scot

I don't leave stuff to cool in the ceramic liner. It holds the heat too well and only cools down really slowly. If I want to cool the contents down quickly then I tip them into a couple of large shallow Tupperware containers and leave them sitting on top of a mesh cooling tray, so the air can circulate under and the metal helps conduct the heat away. It's the fastest way I know to cool things down to room temperature, bar pre-chilling the boxes.

As to leaving things out for hours, it depends on the temperature of your kitchen. My kitchen is unheated, thus cold, and it gets even colder at night. So I've never worried about cooling things overnight, especially not in winter! I wouldn't recommend leaving food out all day in high summer though, or if the central heating is on and your kitchen is warm. Try to find a cold spot.

Bronnie

If you cook in the evenings, do you need to do it in the slow cooker? Cooking it 2 to 3 hours in the normal oven, will give you ample cooling time, ready for the fridge.

You can chill down a little more quickly by putting the bowl in a sink of cold water.

If it's very cold outside and safe to do so, put it outside securely covered for a while. My mum always used to set jellies like this in a bowl with a plate on top in the corner of the yard,when i was a kid (pre-fridge!!)

I agree with val re leaving stuff out!