Slow cookers and slow cookery 4 July 2020 at 4:27PM in Old Style MoneySaving 73 replies 5.2K views

greenbee

I'm sorry to hear that there were problems with the MRI. Hopefully they'll come up with another solution - or maybe try again sometime depending on the reasons they struggled to find a suitable vein. But it's good to know that you did at least have a good hot meal ready at the end of the day. Hopefully you'll have many more successes now you've got going!

balabooberlies

 Thank you from me too............had given up on slow cooking, think my mistake was over-filling it.  But now I find myself willing to attempt it again.

bala

goldfinches

Sorry to hear the MRI was such an ordeal for your poor wife. 
Like greenbee I was interested to hear how your first effort turned out and generally fascinated to find out what others think about slow cookery overall. I have one or two tried and trusted recipes using mainly tinned and dried ingredients which are very good for those days when the muse has got up and gone elsewhere if you would like them.
Meanwhile I hope you both enjoyed today's meal, best wishes from this part of the internet.

Si_Clist

goldfinches said:

 I have one or two tried and trusted recipes using mainly tinned and dried ingredients ... if you would like them.

Ooooh!  We always keep a reserve of dried beans, pasta and rice, together with tins of baked beans, corned beef and Prince's/Tesco Chicken In White Sauce, so I'm now keen to know of any simple slow-cooker recipes based on any of those.

We normally also have spuds, carrots and onions from the garden to go with the beans which we dry.  Peas though we can't be doing with unless they're either fresh from the garden or bottled at home ...

maman

Not sure if this is too spicy for you-

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2019/06/13/bean-goulash-recipe/

It's Jack Monroe's recipe from Cooking on a Bootstrap. The frying at the start isn't essential. You could just put all the ingredients straight in the SC. 

Si_Clist

Merci beaucoup, maman.  That's a very interesting site, of which I was not aware.  That recipe's given us some further ideas, and the penny's finally dropped that I can simply adapt quite a lot of the recipes in our treasured 1970's Good Housekeeping cookbook for slow-cooker cooking

maman

Si_Clist said:

Merci beaucoup, maman.  That's a very interesting site, of which I was not aware.  That recipe's given us some further ideas, and the penny's finally dropped that I can simply adapt quite a lot of the recipes in our treasured 1970's Good Housekeeping cookbook for slow-cooker cooking

You're right. All I'd say is go easy on liquid as it really doesn't evaporate as it would on the hob. Easier to add more than take it out. 😉

missychrissy

Chicken carcass, onion, leek, carrot, celery and 500g pack of Asda broth mix (80p) as well as the jelly from the roast chicken in my SC today. I usually get about 8 good portions of chicken and veg broth from it for not much over a £1. The carrots and leek needed using up or would have been thrown out. 

goldfinches

Sorry I'm so late replying to you, life has been rather hectic here.
I'm not sure that our ingredients overlap much but here goes.
1 tsp olive oil, 1 medium onion sliced into thin rounds or half moons, 1 tbsp brown sugar (the darker the better the resulting flavour but any from light muscovado to dark brown molasses will do), 1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, 250ml vegetable stock (I use half a kallo organic stock cube), 1 400g tin cannellini beans (drained and rinsed), 1 400g tin of butter beans (drained and rinsed), 50g frozen petit pois, 2 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste.  Heat the oil and then fry the onions until nicely softened and just beginning to brown then tip in all the other ingredients and stir well to combine and bring to a just bubbling boil on the hob, then move to the already warmed slow cooker to continue cooking. I'm not sure of the minimum time you need to leave it for as I always just leave it bubbling away all afternoon on low but I imagine that a couple of hours on high would be sufficient as all you really need is long enough for the tomatoes to cook. When it begins to smell good, give it another good stir and taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary and decide whether you're happy with the consistency, if you aren't either add more stock or leave the lid of the slow cooker off for it to reduce a bit. I like it with pitta bread or cous cous and carrots and tenderstem broccoli and sometimes have strong cheddar cheese in the bread too. If you like the combination of olive oil, onion, brown sugar, tomatoes, dijon mustard and paprika you can then play around with the stock, beans and peas part of the recipe to suit your own tastes, I've tried pinto, haricot and black beans which were all a success and sweetcorn instead of peas which was also good.
I hope you find this useful and look forward to hearing how you get on.

Si_Clist

Here's me back to this thread with a quick question before I set to with the gammon.  Can somebody please explain why some recipes would have you covering your gammon joint with liquid in the slow cooker whereas other say to use just 100ml?  I can't see how the one with 100ml will cook without sticking to the crock, unless the idea is to kind-of steam it?