Slow cooker beginner - question/s

B0bbyEwing

Pollycat said:

What advice has your wife given you about cooking in general?

"Let me do it, it'll be quicker"

maman

B0bbyEwing said:

Pollycat said:

What advice has your wife given you about cooking in general?

"Let me do it, it'll be quicker"

🤣

Full marks to you for persistence and doing your bit @BobbyEwing. You'll get better with practice both with the cooking and the timing. I still write down a timetable sometimes (especially at Christmas) of when different things need to be cooked, using my phone as a timer.

Like you, I'm not tied to a brand. I shop in Aldi mostly but I like brown rice best but use white for some recipes. 

On the freezer question, we have two under the counter freezers. I used to have a chest freezer in the garage but when it died we bought the second one for the kitchen. Fortunately, we had space to move the WM and dryer out.  I have 8 drawers so room for batch cooked HM ready meals.

 I'm a big football fan so happy to potter in the kitchen listening to away games on the radio. Having the batch cooked meals takes the pressure off midweek. 

Pollycat

B0bbyEwing said:

Pollycat said:

What advice has your wife given you about cooking in general?

"Let me do it, it'll be quicker"

That's an awful, unsupportive, unhelpful comment.
What if she's really ill sometime?

My OH cooks, vacuums, can iron, sort the laundry and do it. 

LittleGem

I’m sure it was said in jest. I’d say the same to my OH despite him knowing what he’s doing he does like to drag these things out 😆

bouicca21

At its most basic OP needs to learn the difference between basmati, generic long grain, arborio and ‘pudding’ rice.  Then he can work up to brown and specialised rices.  Google it.

Pollycat

LittleGem said:

I’m sure it was said in jest. I’d say the same to my OH despite him knowing what he’s doing he does like to drag these things out 😆

The guy's trying to learn how to cook.
If it was said in jest, his wife would then show him/give him advice instead of him needing to ask on here.

bouicca21 said:

At its most basic OP needs to learn the difference between basmati, generic long grain, arborio and ‘pudding’ rice.  Then he can work up to brown and specialised rices.  Google it.

I agree.
I touched on the different rices up- thread.

maman

I explained about me using brown rice in my examples because it takes longer to cook and can be more expensive than basic white. That's why I find it particularly useful  and mse to batch cook it make my own microwave pouches.

I think @BObbyEwing is happy with plain white. It's a good place to start as a new cook IMO.

I agree that encouraging him to experiment and giving him mse tips is the way to go. 

ariarnia

if its' boiling in the hob that's the faf then you can cook dry (raw) rice in the microwave as well. it takes longer than 90 seconds but doesn't really need to you do anything during that time. all you need is a microwave container with a lid. a mug. cold water and a bag of that 45p rice.

for two people i'd use a coffee mug full of rice to about a mug and a half of cold water. put the water and rice in the bowl. check there's about an inch of space in the top of the bowl (the rice will swell to the waterline but the water will boil a bit while its cooking so there needs to be space or it will make a mess in the microwave. if in doubt use a larger bowl). put the lid on. microwave on full for 5 mins. then microwave on half power for 15 mins. then leave the bowl in the microwave (leave the lid on) for 5 mins. stir with a fork and serve. exact amounts and timings might take a little practice as it will depend on how much rice you have as a serving and how big your mugs are or how powerful your microwave is compared to mine. given your only real cost is a 45p bag of rice it might be worth a try?

the advantage of doing it this way is you can put some curry powder or stock or water from the slow cooker with the rice (just make sure the total amount of liquid is the same). that way you could have rice that is flavoured to complement the food. so if you make a curry in the slow cooker you could have turmeric or saffron rice. 

bouicca21

My SiL used to put the rice in with the meat.  Worked fine.

Been thinking about someone I know who is just starting to cook, and his problem is confidence. He can follow a recipe perfectly but is totally thrown unless he has all the right ingredients. It needs a combination of confidence and experience to say, well I haven’t got X so I’ll just throw a bit of Y in instead.  He’s found that it helps to do the same recipe several times, and then start experimenting with it.

Katiehound

ariarnia said:

if its' boiling in the hob that's the faf then you can cook dry (raw) rice in the microwave as well. it takes longer than 90 seconds but doesn't really need to you do anything during that time. all you need is a microwave container with a lid. a mug. cold water and a bag of that 45p rice.

for two people i'd use a coffee mug full of rice to about a mug and a half of cold water. put the water and rice in the bowl. check there's about an inch of space in the top of the bowl (the rice will swell to the waterline but the water will boil a bit while its cooking so there needs to be space or it will make a mess in the microwave. if in doubt use a larger bowl). put the lid on. microwave on full for 5 mins. then microwave on half power for 15 mins. then leave the bowl in the microwave (leave the lid on) for 5 mins. stir with a fork and serve. exact amounts and timings might take a little practice as it will depend on how much rice you have as a serving and how big your mugs are or how powerful your microwave is compared to mine. given your only real cost is a 45p bag of rice it might be worth a try?

the advantage of doing it this way is you can put some curry powder or stock or water from the slow cooker with the rice (just make sure the total amount of liquid is the same). that way you could have rice that is flavoured to complement the food. so if you make a curry in the slow cooker you could have turmeric or saffron rice. 

Even easier, as I said before is 1 x measure rice (rinsed) 2 x measures boiling water. large pyrex bowl. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes (uncovered) in microwave- full power (850) Done

I also suggested very early in this thread to use the juice/ gravy from the SC but Bobby thought I had lost the plot! No, I didn't understand about expensive microwave rice! (Wouldn't buy it or use it with standard rice @ 45 pence for 1kg)