slow cooker quick questions thread

alfieroux

Ooh - I'm going to try the one above .

Try throwing in:

a packet of sausages (no browning)
a tin of tomatoes
a tin of beans - baked, chilli, mixed salad type, any!
and some chilli (flakes, lazy, fresh or pureed)
If you're going mad - put in onion:rotfl:

Leave and eat with mash when you get home that night.

heart_free

I dont bother pre-cooking anything. Throw it all in, switch on when I go to work, eat when I get home. Lovely jubbley.

raphanius

i dont brown all meat but i do brown sausages to crisp the skin and brisket to seal the meat for pulled beef (which is easy to do in the slow cooker. i adapted this recipe slow cooking a brisket overnight for ten hours on low) when i first got my slow it took a while to get the flavours right. everything was 'stew flavour' for a while. now i chuck in bay leaves and thyme with beef and paprika with pork for example to make my meals taste distinct from each other.

suki_na_tomodachi

Hi, i was given a pack of frozen diced beef steak from a friend as she wasn't using it, and was wondering if it would be possible to make a kind of stewed steak (like the tinned versions) from it? I'd like to use my slow cooker if possible, (money saved on gas then). If i'm cooking the beef in the slow cooker, do i add any water to it or just put the defrosted beef chunks in? And how do i get the gravy? I'm guessing i'll need to add some cornflower somewhere? Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but i'm trying hard lately to save money especially with food and meals etc, and this will be perfect if i can freeze it and reheat in micro in work

joedenise

You'll get a better flavour if you defrost your meat and seal it in a pan before putting it into the SC. Most OSers would be adding lots of vegetables, possibly tinned beans/chickpeas (or previously soaked dried ones), lentils to bulk it out. Along with a gravy made from a stock cube or HM stock if you have it.

However, if you just want stewed steak then you can just cook it with some onions and gravy.

To thicken the gravy you can take out some of the liquid at the end and boil furiously to reduce and then stir back in or you can use it to thicken using cornflour and then stir back in.

HTH.

Denise

suki_na_tomodachi

Thanks Denise, two silly questions though, what do you mean by sealing it in a pan? and If i made gravy from an oxo cube with flour as i usually do (no HM stock), would that freeze and then reheat ok or would it go lumpy or seperate?

jackieblack

You shouldn't re-freeze meat after it has been defrosted/cooked

suki_na_tomodachi

You can defrost then cook and then refreeze meat, i do it all the time with chicken curry, chicken lasagne and spag bol and i'm still alive

Lucy_Lastic

To seal the meat yo uneed to use some oil in a pan, just a spoonful or two, heat it then add your defrosted meat and stir it around until the meat is browned slightly. Then you can pop it in your slow cooker (leave the oil behind) with some stock and whatever else you want to put it and cook away!

Once cooked and cooled you can then freeze it.

Lucy_Lastic

PS. Gravy freezes and defrosts fine however you make it.