In my slow cooker today...

ukmonkey

drinkupretty wrote: »

Just bought my first slow cooker for £10 from Tesco's. Nothing in it today as it is a bit late to start to cook in it today but tomorrow I will attempt to make veggie sausage casserole. In it will be:
some veggie sausages,
mushrooms,
chopped onion,
chopped potatoes,
sliced parsnips,
carrots
tinned tomatoes
veg stock

We will see how it turns out

Be careful with veggie sausage in a slow cooker. They don't need anywhere near as long a cooking time as normal sausages, so may just disintegrate.

I did a sausage casserole once using proper sausages and they almost disintegrated, so i think the trick is to quickly brown them off in a frying/griddle pan first.

hellokitty08

Ohh! people! Was begining to think everyone was slacking due to half term! I cooked a vegi sausage casserole with no probs, but pre-fried the sausages, with advice from here.

richj

Beef casserole - stewing steak, leeks, carrots, lentils, tomato puree, stock cubes, sweet potatoes,garlic.. smells good.
Also just picked up a 6.5l SC from aldi for £20.

bargainbird

joesaunt wrote: »

I got the mix for a lasagne in mine, mince, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, herbs and tomato puree. Yummy

do you pre-cook any of it or just bung it all in raw

Zootoxin

Hello slow cooker chefs,

I was hoping someone could give me some advice

Every slow cooker recipe I have tried has ended up horribly bland and taste less.

I have the Morphy Richards 48715 4.5L

Yesterday I tried this recipe - Beef and Beer Casserole with Caraway Seed Dumplings from the simplybeefandlamb (co)(uk) website




I substituted turnips for parsnips and added potatoes I used Hobgoblin Ale instead of stout.

I switched the slow cooker on to start warming.
I chopped and placed the parsnips, carrots and potato in the bottom, the layered the shallots on top.
I browned the meat in a frying pan then added to the slow cooker.
I add 1/3 bottle of beer to frying pan to pick up the juices from the pan I then added to the slow cooker with the remaining beer.

I threw in fresh tyme a garlic clove(with skin on) Salt and pepper.
+ 2 bay leaves.

I cooked on high for 1 hour then on Low for 4 hours.

The liquid didnt cover the whole of the ingredients, the meat and some of the shallots were above the liguid layer. (i think this could be the reason maybe?)

Result : Bland Bland Bland....

Please could someone tell me where I am going wrong.

Thanks

fedupandskint

I've been brave and I am trying the whole chicken today in the SC

Put it in on HIGH for an hour and have now reduced the power to LOW

Following advice on here it's in on it's own - finger's crossed!

I'll let you know how it turns out....

Sui_Generis

@zootoxin

Can't comment on that recipe but a couple of things I'd suggest - slow cooking doesn't circulate things like herbs etc as conventional cooking at higher temps, so I tend to use a little more and stir it once or twice during cooking.

As far as garlic goes I know its a pain but unless you chop it up then that's not going to infuse into the food. You could buy the EPC ready chopped garlic (I think Delia calls it a cheat but I've been using it for years) to save the hassle and it lasts for ages.

You really don't want the liquid to cover the food as the veg gives up water as it cooks and the most common problem is too much liquid. Was the beef actually cooked when you tried it?

Sui_Generis

fedupandskint wrote: »

I've been brave and I am trying the whole chicken today in the SC

Put it in on HIGH for an hour and have now reduced the power to LOW

Following advice on here it's in on it's own - finger's crossed!

I'll let you know how it turns out....

Did one over the weekend and rushed to make stock for soup and haven't finished with that yet and still have lots of chicken left.

Oh and with luck shepherds pie in mine today when I get around to it.

Zootoxin

Sui_Generis wrote: »

@zootoxin
Was the beef actually cooked when you tried it?

Yeah, it was actually I little tougher then I expected. surely 5 hours is enough?

with all the ingredients in I filled about 1/3 of the pot.

Sui_Generis

Zootoxin wrote: »

Yeah, it was actually I little tougher then I expected. surely 5 hours is enough?

with all the ingredients in I filled about 1/3 of the pot.

Probably OK on high but on low then 8 hours might be more like it. Haven't cooked it so maybe others can comment on that but beef will take longer and should be tender when cooked.