Nice People 13: Nice Save

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

I always thought it was about that food safety thing of "meat has to reach X degrees and stay at X degrees for Y minutes to be safe" - and I wondered/worried if it ever would, or how I'd know.....

Having said that, I'm happy to just use it for veggie stuff and desserts for now. I don't buy meat as a rule, so it's not as if I'll be missing it.

A slow cooker goes at about 80C on low and about 90C on high, either temperature will kill bugs in your food that can be killed by heat if left in for long enough for the heat to penetrate the food properly. The required internal temperature of the meat only needs to be maintained for a few minutes.

Cooking meat hot and quick on the outside will also help kill bugs, after all most bugs on any food will be on the outside as they can settle there from the air/food handling/cross contamination. That quick zap of heat will help the process of making meat safe to eat. It's mostly about making it good to eat though.

lostinrates

Gen, maybe you should do some np slow cooker recipe posts. I just cannot like mine. It makes more work than the same meal on the cooker and I cannot get the alchemy right.

michaels

The show on food and health seemed to suggest it was something to do with cooking meat at high temperatures that resulted in a change that makes it cancer causing, bbqing being the extreme example. This is a bit unfortunate as I can't stand red meat and like it cooked all the way through and don't mind it seared on the outside.

I am sure the better taste on reheating is as a result of effectively a good marinade effect, we tend to reheat (from chilled) using first the microwave and then the oven of the combi, the relative proportions depending on how hungry we are....

Yorkie1

PasturesNew wrote: »

One way to get round that would be to use the takeaway boxes only as a container/portion size - pop a cheap freezer bag in it and pour the stuff into the bag, then freeze. Then, the next day or when you remember, take the bag out of the plastic container, leaving just the bag of frozen mystery contents in the freezer.

True. I don't enjoy washing freezer bags though, and I find they tend to get holes in them from ice or being caught on other things in the freezer, so they leak when defrosting or refilling. I've got the takeaway boxes already so would have to spend more to get freezer bags.

Generali

lostinrates wrote: »

Gen, maybe you should do some np slow cooker recipe posts. I just cannot like mine. It makes more work than the same meal on the cooker and I cannot get the alchemy right.

I think the mistake people make with slow cookers is to think of them as a labour saving device; they're not. What they are is a hassle saving device. You don't need to stir and timings are much more flexible as temperatures are very low.

My basic slow cooker recipe is:

Get 4-6 rashers of streaky bacon and cook them gently in a frying pan. Put them in the slow cooker, keeping the fat in the frying pan if you can.

Take some veggies:

2 x onions
2 x carrots
2 x celery
2-4 cloves garlic

Roughly chop & gently cook them in the same pan with the bacon fat for ~10 mins with a little salt and pepper. Add a bit of oil or butter if they need it. Add the garlic just for the last minute or so. Scrape the veggies into the slow cooker.

Take 750g - 1kg cubed beef shin and fry it in 3-4 batches in the same pan as the veggies only now on high heat. The idea is to get a nice brown colour on the outside, like how you cook a steak on a BBQ. Bung that in the pot as each batch turns brown.

Take a bottle of red wine. Pour about 1/3rd into the fry pan and scrape up any grungy bits from the bottom of the pan. Pour into the slow cooker.

Add a stock cube/3 of my frozen home-made stock ice-cubes. Then add herbs, tied together if poss: 3-4 bay leaves, some parsley stalks, some thyme and perhaps half as much rosemary as thyme. Top up with a little water if needed just to cover the meat.

Lastly, some more salt and pepper as needed and a little sugar (1-2 scant tsps) or perhaps a large tsp redcurrant jelly.

Cook for ~8 hours on low or ~5 hours on high.

You can either just adjust the seasoning (remembering that the sugar is part of the seasoning) and serve as is or, if you're feeling fancy, chuck away the herbs and then strain the stew. Take the liquid and reduce by about 1/3rd in a saucepan and whisk in some cold butter to it before adding back to the stew (makes it glossy and shiny and delicious). For mushroom lovers, at the end whilst making the gravy also saute some mushies in butter and also add to the stew.

That's kinda the base recipe. You can change the meat and the flavours but it all hangs around the idea of browned meat, 'mirepoix' (the veggies), some fat/oil to keep the meat moist and then some herbs/spices to make it all yummy.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

I think the mistake people make with slow cookers is to think of them as a labour saving device; they're not. What they are is a hassle saving device. You don't need to stir and timings are much more flexible as temperatures are very low.

.

Ok, so I like stirring, lots, but when I cannot I just leave things on lowest and ( picturing pn's horror), get on with life.

I'm thinking slow cooker would be after and cheaper than my way though.

Generali

lostinrates wrote: »

Ok, so I like stirring, lots, but when I cannot I just leave things on lowest and ( picturing pn's horror), gegood pie filling. n with life.

I'm thinking slow cooker would be after and cheaper than my way though.

The slow cooker is great for us on the weekends. We can go out for the day and come back to a cooked meal. The washing up is all in the dishwasher and all I need do is add pasta/spuds/rice and perhaps some greens.

I also get losts of leftovers that the nanny can feed to the kids or which I can freeze for another day. That above recipe makes a very good pie filling.

Yorkie1

Generali wrote: »

My basic slow cooker recipe is:
...
That's kinda the base recipe. You can change the meat and the flavours but it all hangs around the idea of browned meat, 'mirepoix' (the veggies), some fat/oil to keep the meat moist and then some herbs/spices to make it all yummy.

Thanks, Gen.

For curry, how would you adjust it?

lostinrates wrote: »

Ok, so I like stirring, lots, but when I cannot I just leave things on lowest and ( picturing pn's horror), get on with life.

I'm thinking slow cooker would be after and cheaper than my way though.

I'm sure it would be cheaper for those cuts of meat which you would usually stew for a couple of hours in the oven.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

The slow cooker is great for us on the weekends. We can go out for the day and come back to a cooked meal. The washing up is all in the dishwasher and all I need do is add pasta/spuds/rice and perhaps some greens.

I also get losts of leftovers that the nanny can feed to the kids or which I can freeze for another day. That above recipe makes a very good pie filling.

For me that kind of thing is great for feeding to RP, and freezes well, and as you say, can be presented in different ways without huge effort. But.....even food with RP is very! very difficult ground ATM .

Fir, who used to be really laid back, is getting really cross about a bag of potatoes RP bought and didn't put away ( and I left out because ...well, just did) and now they are green. ( silly, silly thing to get cross about, but it just shows we're tense and grouchy. Also RP was meant to be away all weekend and we had planned on that, doing labour yesterday and planning on today 'off' and RP has turned up with no ' hey, I'll be back today after all' warning. So....partly why we are tense and grouchy about green potatoes, :rotfl:

Generali

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Thanks, Gen.

For curry, how would you adjust it?



I'm sure it would be cheaper for those cuts of meat which you would usually stew for a couple of hours in the oven.

I do a Thai curry.

So skip the bacon.

For veggies its aubergine, onion and garlic.

Then add a step to fry off your curry paste and add chillies.

Fry the meat (chicken) as above then for liquid use coconut milk and some lime juice.

Add lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves.

No need to finish at the end with butter or anything. Just add chopped coriander.