Slow cooker favourites

tain

Beef rendang.


If you haven't had it before, try it. Seriously.


Get the cheapo bag of frozen beef chunks from Tesco and cook it down for 4-8 hours and you're left with a triumph.


Couple of tips:
- Cook the rendang paste with the onions for a lot longer than you usually would if it was just spices. Like, 3-5 minutes cooking.
- Add stock to the paste before putting it in the slow cooker (usually wont appear in recipes like this - they tell you to go straight in with the coconut milk). Add more stock if it looks like drying out.
- Finish it in a pot over a hob by adding coconut milk, then reducing it down until there's almost no sauce left. It should be SERIOUSLY concentrated and delicious.

tain

I also do loads of tagines in the slow cooker if I don't have the time to properly watch over an actual tagine being used in the oven.

Eenymeeny

I sometimes find that I prefer foods cooked in the slow cooker for a shorter time than recommended. Maybe, as mentioned, the cooking temperature of mine is a bit high? (Don't really want meat that's falling apart, but like vegetables properly cooked. I suppose that you get used to your own pot )
I've just made a lovely rice pudding by heating the milk and rice up to boiling point in a pan then adding the sugar and giving it 2 hours on low in the slow cooker. Thinking of it as a low simmer or very low oven temperature works for me.
I know that I'm fortunate in being in the house and being able to switch it on after lunch now, but I find that about 4 hours is enough for most of my recipes. Hope that helps some of you who find some dishes a bit overcooked!

katkin

We love stuffed peppers done in the slow cooker - stuffed with anything from spicy sausage, rice mix even chilli or bolognaise. They can sit in a tomato sauce and get a topping of cheese towards the end.

I also love doing lasagne in it, its so easy and a lovely treat to come home to.

Meat loaf works well too, though I tend to surround mine with an oniony / veggy gravy to give it a bit of colour. A variation on this is meatballs that are quicker to cook.

Mock-roast veggies work well as long as you don't over fill the crock and ensure a light coating of oil on crock and over the veg. Add some spices such as garlic, parpika etc and keep the veg fairly chunky - they sort of caramelise and take on some colour from touching the hot sides of the crock.

My best surprise to date has been slow cooker crumble - using half wholewheat flour and part muscovado sugar to give the topping colour. Oh my it's so lush it should be illegal...fruity squidgy on the bottom, crumbly on top :cool:

Tink_04

Wow loads of gorgeous recipes to try - think I'll try soup again and see if it's any better this time as has been a while since I did it!!

I thought the jacket potatoes were crazy at first but it works and I great when you want something ready without any prep - I have also heard people cooking full meals in dishes and bags inside the sc to keep items separate but have not tried it myself!

suzukigirl2009

I've cooked a whole frozen chicken in my slow cooker - 4 hours at high and bingo! Just be careful when getting it out as the whole thing falls apart.

IrishWasherWoman

I'm surprised everyone's using power to do slow cooking. We use a hot box. I suppose it's what used to be a hay box, but we just have a large cardboard box containing a large beanbag, with a small beanbag for a lid. The beanbags are filled with polystyrene beads inside a cloth bag. These are then covered in a zip-up cloth bag which can be taken off for washing. We put our joint of meat, chicken, or stew on the stove top, bring to a vigorous boil in a lidded pan. Then quickly transfer it to the box, nestled in the big beanbag, place the small one on top and leave it 3hrs+. Delicious and cheap!

tain

IrishWasherWoman wrote: »

I'm surprised everyone's using power to do slow cooking. We use a hot box. I suppose it's what used to be a hay box, but we just have a large cardboard box containing a large beanbag, with a small beanbag for a lid. The beanbags are filled with polystyrene beads inside a cloth bag. These are then covered in a zip-up cloth bag which can be taken off for washing. We put our joint of meat, chicken, or stew on the stove top, bring to a vigorous boil in a lidded pan. Then quickly transfer it to the box, nestled in the big beanbag, place the small one on top and leave it 3hrs+. Delicious and cheap!

This method is unlikely to break down collagens in meat, which makes tough meat tender and is the prime purpose of slow cooking.


Plus that's a fairly crude way of managing cooking temperatures. For large cuts of meat, you're risking the food being raw on the inside. Not to say you can't use this method, but temperature probing the meat becomes quite important.

Pollycat

IrishWasherWoman wrote: »

I'm surprised everyone's using power to do slow cooking. We use a hot box. I suppose it's what used to be a hay box, but we just have a large cardboard box containing a large beanbag, with a small beanbag for a lid. The beanbags are filled with polystyrene beads inside a cloth bag. These are then covered in a zip-up cloth bag which can be taken off for washing. We put our joint of meat, chicken, or stew on the stove top, bring to a vigorous boil in a lidded pan. Then quickly transfer it to the box, nestled in the big beanbag, place the small one on top and leave it 3hrs+. Delicious and cheap!

How does the above method manage cooking vegetables - because it's very rare that I put meat only in my slow-cooker?

I thought the whole principle of slow-cooking was that it cooked all day using very little energy.

craigywv

I have bbq pork in mine now,diced mixed peppers and hm sauce just red sauce brown sauce and tiny bit of sugar ,using pork steaks I got ages ago ys so cheap and easy cooked on low from this morning while at work xxx