PS this is my slow cooker - it's just a basic Aldi one, but all my other Aldi kitchen gadgets are very good quality
OK, so I know this is a bit of a "mumsnet" post, so please forgive me!
I am really not a cook, but am learning and really enjoying it - I can do all sorts of soups now, can manage a simple roast chicken dinner and have mastered chili-con-carne but that's about it!
I bought a slow cooker, and wondered if anyone had any favourite simple but hearty recipes? Also, I try to be fairly healthy so I am keen on simple, fresh ingredients and nothing processed. Also want to try and avoid adding sugar / fat wherever possible, but I am not completely averse to using, say, sausages for example but wouldnt want to add cream / sugar / lard / whatever.
I have looked on google, but I am looking for personal recommendations and any TZUK clever tips and tricks.
Please assume I know nothing! (I havent even unpacked the slow cooker since I bought it a month ago!)
I have heard that sausage casserole is easy, so I bought some sausages and a Schwartz powder packet thing, but where to start?!
Thanks!
PS this is my slow cooker - it's just a basic Aldi one, but all my other Aldi kitchen gadgets are very good quality
I've decide this is my 'winter social/dinner party' signature dish:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/m...urguignon.html
You don't need a slow cooker per se. Just a large casserole dish. And allow time to prep the ingredients - that go in at different points.
~4hrs, gentle cooking in total and then I let it cool down and reheat before serving. Served with baby potatoes and maybe carrots.
YUMMY :)
This is one of the best slow cook Stews I've ever made, it was incredible, in fact I'll be making this again soon as Winter is firmly here. You can easily adapt the recipe and add whatever you like too.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/b...2Uirby7V0Oo.97
I'll ask the wife tonight about her slow cooked brisket. Not sure how she does it but the end result is amazing. She tells me briskets are perfect for slow cookers.
Are the two recipes above casserole dishes not slow cooker? Not used one for a while but a slow cooker cooks at a lower temperature than the casserole. The one big problem I has with my slow cooker was that it did not really boil off the water and concentrate the flavours like a casserole does. So I never really found it very useful which is probably more my problem than the cooker.
That looks great, and as a new cook I must admit Jamie's recipes have been consistently easy to follow and turned out great when I have tried them. Thanks!
Beef Stew, easy. But fry the beef in flour and OXO first to get good gravy. Lots of onions, swede, carrot.
I love sausage and(baked) bean casserole.
Chicken - use thighs, breast just does not cook right in a slow cooker IMO.
Overall - use lots of seasoning / flavour - slow cookers need it for some reason.
Well sausage is going to be my first recipe, so does anyone have any specifics?
Do you literally just add a tin of baked beans?
Found this via google - feel free to add amendments / suggestions!
1. Set the slow cooker to HIGH
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan, add the sausages and quickly brown on all sides, then transfer to the slow cooker
3. Add the onions to the frying pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft but not brown - stir in the flour and cook gently for 1-2 minutes. Make sure you scrape all the flour from the bottom of the pan
4. Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the stock - bring to the boil, stirring continuously, until thickened
5. Stir in the chutney (?), Worcestershire sauce and pepper
6. Transfer to the slow cooker
7. Turn the slow cooker down to LOW, put the lid on and cook on LOW for 5-8 hours
According to Mumsnet, it shouldn't make any difference (link)...perhaps you could cut down on the water/liquid when using your slow cooker? And the slow cooker is meant to be cheaper (link):
"...the slow cooker comes out as the cheaper appliance to use, as well as being a useful way to cook if you have a busy schedule. Although it requires - as you say - more faffing in the mornings, it does make your stew tastier than if it was cooked in the oven, and saves you a few pence."
I just keep it simple with slow cooker. Yesterday I did slow cooked lamb stew. The recipe was:
Lamb chunks
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
Handful of rosemary
Diced carrots
Chopped up kale
1 beef stock cube
Pint of water
Salt and pepper
Cooked for 10 hours on low, served witha fee new potatoes. Healthy and tasty.
Beef brisket
A pulled pork powder mix following instruction but still add
Pinch of brown sugar
Couple table spoons of Tom sauce
Cook for as long as possible 8 hours plus
Pull beef apart and serve on lightly toasted brioche buns
Brilliant, thanks for all the help so far!
Takes 3 hours - serves 4
300g easy coook basmati rice
2 TBSP korma curry paste (I perfer jalfrezi myself)
2 eggs
600 ml/1 pint veg or fish stock
100 g frozen peas
140 g smoked mackerel
3 tbsp low-fat creme fraiche
handful of coriander leaves
Instructions
1) Heat the slow cooker
2) Rinse the rice and tip into slow cooker, Add curry paste
3) Snuggle in unshelled eggs and cover for 2 hours
4) Finish out egg and stir in peas, fish and creme fraiche and cook for another 30 minutes
5) fork through rice, serve with egg quarters
Our slow cooker gets used for about three things but still fairly regularly and they're all dead easy.
1. Pulled pork - cheap pork joint with anything you fancy to pep it up lobed in too. I generally go for garlic and caramelised onion chutney. 8 hours or so on low - fantastic.
2. Whole chicken - again just lob a little seasoning in with it, baste occasionally and good luck getting it out without it collapsing after 8 hours.
3. Campfire stew (don't know why it's called that - it's a slimming world recipe my wife found) - big Gammon joint, chopped onions, garlic, chili and peppers plus two tin of baked beans and some paprika (I often add dried lentils and kidney beans too) - after 8 or so hours the gammon just falls apart and can be stirred into the rest making a very thick hearty mess!
Jamie Olivers 14 hour Rabbit bolognaise is flipping tasty, healthy and thrifty.
Can you just put meat directly/on its own into a slow cooker or does it need liquid?
We put meat in on it's own all the time. The juices from the meat start to sweat out quite soon in the process so it always seems to work very well. This may be why our slow cooker dish has a few hairline cracks in it though so maybe a small amount of stock isn't a bad thing...
A couple of weeks back Mrs. MST cooked a lovely Slimming World pulled pork recipe, the recipe is as follows:
1.5-2 kg Pork Shoulder - All visible fat removed
5 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 heaped tsp of mustard powder
3 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
500g Passata
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 tbsp sweetener
Salt and pepper
Remove all fat from the pork and place in the slow cooker (controversial I know but it is a SW recipe after all!)
Combine all other ingrediants in a jug or bowl, and mix well
Pour the sauce over the pork, and cook covered on a low heat for approximately 6 hours
Using a knife and fork, shred the pork roughly*
Next time I want to incorporate some Diet Coke into it, perhaps substituting some, if not all, of the passata with it.
Enjoy!
I have never cooked this in a slow cooker (I don't own one), but assume it would work great, as I cook this in a large pot over a low heat. I normally make this in big batches so divide as necessary to fit.
2Kg diced beef
3 large onions
500g carrots
500g parsnips (optional)
2 or 3 bottles of beer (sometimes more)
Flour
Salt and Pepper
Butter
Dice the onions, carrots, and parsnips, and cook slowly in butter in a large pan till translucent, but not brown.
Put a large amount of flour in a bowl, and season with salt and pepper.
Muddle the beef in the flour, and make sure it's well coated.
Heat a frying pan to a medium high heat and melt some butter.
Fry the beef in batches until the outside is nice and dark and transfer to the pot.
Add more butter, and fry the next batch of beef until it's all done and in the pot.
Pour beer into the pan and scrape to get all the burnt bits, then into the pot until the other ingredients are all covered.
Bring the heat up until it bubbles once, stir, then turn down very low, cover, and wait. The longer the better. Give it a good stir to get any stuck bits off the bottom every 30 mins (probably not an issue in a slow cooker).
You can experiment with the recipe, but that is always the base.
Dark or rich beer works well, Guinness original works well, Guinness Extra even better. I had great success with Duval as well. I would avoid anything hoppy though.
I normally make this on a Saturday afternoon, cook for about 6 hours, let it cool overnight, then heat for a further 2 or 3 hours before serving for Sunday lunch. Dumplings go in 30 mins before the end, and best served with crisp jacket spuds.
Whether or not you feel that is fairly healthy is up to you. You could use oil instead of butter, and I suppose you could substitute the beer for beef stock, but I wouldn't.
I don't bother with recipes too much, just veg - as much variety as you can muster - couple of cans of tomatoes, some stock, seasoning, maybe some smoky paprika and you're good to go.
We normally make up batches of bolognese / turkey chilli / chicken in white wine are our normal slow cooker favs, the mrs doesn't eat carb & protean in the same meal normally so that limits the beef stew as that has to have lentils and barley.
Easiest to find a recipe online and follow just adjusting the timings to allow the cooker to do its job. We prep when we get home, cook over night and turn off int he morning, reheating a coupe of portions that night with the rest being portioned up put in the freezer for easy quick mid week meals. Not in the slow cooker but a caldron turned 3kg of mince into over 20 portions of bolognese
I have found this curry recipe I might have a play with.
Ingredients
4 tbsp sunflower oil
800g/1lb 12oz beef braising steak, cut into 2.5cm/1in pieces
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 chillies, finely chopped, plus extra to taste
2.5cm/1in piece fresh root ginger
4 tsp ground cumin
4 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 x 400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp garam masala
200g/7oz natural yoghurt
small handful fresh chopped coriander (optional)
Preparation method
Heat half of the oil in a frying pan and fry the beef pieces for 4-5 minutes, or until browned all over. (You may need to brown the meat in batches.) Tip the browned meat into the slow cooker.
Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan and fry the onions for five minutes, then add the garlic, chilli and ginger and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add the spices and fry for another minute, then tip the mixture into the slow cooker.
Add the chopped tomatoes to the slow cooker, then fill one of the empty cans with water and add the water to the slow cooker.
Stir everything together, pressing down so that everything is covered in liquid and cook for 8-10 hours on low.
About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the garam masala and yoghurt and season to taste with salt and a little more chilli. Cook for a further 30 minutes, then stir in the coriander.
Get a joint of beef or leg of lamb (that fit into slow cooker.
boil up some water and put about half a pint into slow cooker with one red and one green Oxo cube with a bit of salt and pepper.
Put slow cooker on high.
Chop up one half onion, a large carrot and a stick of celery and add to liquid.
Seal your meat by briefly frying all surfaces in frying pan with a little oil.
Put meat in slow cooker.
Cook on high for about an hour then turn down to low and cook for 3 - 4 hours.
When ready your meat will be really tender.
Now comes the magic. Skim fat off top of liquid, liquidise remaining liquid including the onion, carrot and celery and you will have delicious gravy. You can add a bit of Bisto but usually not necessary.
Serve with mash, yorks puds and veg.
You can do same with any meats but if making casserole or steak and kidney roll the meat in plain, seasoned flour before the brief frying step
Last edited by brigant; 24th November 2015 at 17:00. Reason: spelling
Osso buco from your butcher is the key to a good beef slow cook. It's the shin and the fat breaks down and marrow makes any stew amazing! Sold in sawn rounds
The Schwartz chicken curry one is a goodun, but my favourite is this. It's so simple too.
Roughly chop one onion, one celery stick, one carrot. Bung in the cooker with a clove of garlic and a bay leaf.
Add a medium sized unsalted gammon joint. Fill and cover the joint with full fat coca cola (honest)
Cook on low for 8-10 hours, remove the ham and bin the rest.
You can eat it at this point, but I like to dry it slightly by pullin apart and bunging in the oven at 100' for 20 mins.
You can glaze it with honey etc too, but that's too much work for me.
Serve with whatever you choose. I like it in fresh brioche buns drizzled with BBQ sauce with potatoes on the side.
There's a great newish BBQ sauce in Asda called Red's btw
Makes great sandwiches all week too.
Always brown sausages and onions first, then add your beans, personally I'd add a handful or two of lentils and a tin of chick peas or other beans, tinned tomatoes, slug of port, tea spoon of mustard, whatever takes your fancy.
Personally I don't use a slow cooker but stick stuff in the oven on low all day, Pork belly slow roasted or beef brisket over vegetables are my favourites.
Has anyone mentioned ox cheeks yet?
No? Good.
They're great in the slow cooker and dead cheap. As long as there's just me buying them they'll stay that way.
I don't use a slow cooker, but cook slowly a lot :)
It seems like simple advice, but you said assume you know nothing so here goes:
Whatever you're cooking, make sure you avoid lean meats. Things like chicken breast, fillet steak etc are great for quick frying, but get murdered when you slow cook. Look for a nice marbling of fat running through the meat, even tough looking sinew becomes juicy and gelatinous when you cook it for long enough, so aim for those cuts.
A chunk of beef shin with some red wine becomes one of the most succulent dishes if you cook it for long enough.
The beauty of the search function,i didn't need to start a new thread.
Just like the OP in his original post I've just bought a slow cooker, any more recipes are welcome.
If you like a curry, try this mate ;)
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2...ed-beef-madras
We have a cookbook for slow cookers, the amount of prep required for decent meals surprised me. We basically got the slow cooker on the premise we could put a load of stuff in before work, whack it on and come home to a beautiful aroma and dinner ready.
Slow cookers can be brilliant - I use one for making soups, and occasional chilli. But - the favourite use - is to make Cassoulet.
Top Tip: Heat the inner liner in the oven at 100Cdeg just before use - otherwise the cooker can take an age to bring your ingredients to temperature.
Al
I've just popped into mine...
a layer of red onion and garlic
a good kilo of beef skirt
a can of cola
a squirt each of ketchup and sriracha and a splash of Worcs sauce
a couple of bay leaves
This will chug away until bedtime tonight. Assuming it's cooked by then I'll warm it through tomorrow evening.
Shoulder of venison, bottle of red wine, couple of onions.
Cook on Hi IIRC for several hours. Make gravy with the stock. Enjoy a drink or three whilst cooking. Serve with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puds etc.
Rolled breast of lamb. Stab and poke garlic slivers into it. Cut an onion into half inch slabs and put these in bottom, then lamb on top. We usually add some rosemary sprigs on top. Cook on Hi for day whilst at work. When you come home sling in some mushrooms to confee in the fat.
Gammon or ham joint. Stab with a fork whilst smearing with honey. Sit on cut onion cook on Hi for three or so hours.
Dave
4 btls of red wine.
6 star anise
4 cinnamon stick
8 clove
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest and juce of 4 large oranges
250ml Cointreau
250g brown sugar
All in the slow cooker for three hours and then enjoy on night such as last night.
Loved this thread and just got a new slow cooker! Anyone got any new recipes?
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the best thing about slow cookers is there's no real right and wrong
Chop up a load of veg, throw in your left overs, maybe some sauce of some kind - switch it on and boom - its so cheap to cook and eat his way - and you end up buying a lot less
Buy yourself a big joint of beef (1.5 – 2kg), put it in the slow cooker on low for 10 hours and crack plenty of black pepper over it. After about 8 or 9 nine hours it will just fall apart with a bit of help from a fork. Pour the juices into a jug and make a pint or two of gravy then pour it back over the ‘pulled’ beef and mix it up. let it bubble away for the last hour or so and serve with steamed veg or / and Yorkshire puds. Left overs make and awesome sarnie but go with ciabatta or French baguette so the soggy factor doesn’t catch you out. This works equally as well with Pork / lamb leg or shoulder.
This is a favourite in our house
https://delishably.com/meat-dishes/H...ed-Ham-in-Coke
Don't use diet coke though!
Short ribs on their own or with some onions and red wine.
Skinless chicken with your choice of seasoning sprinkled on. My favourite is Dunn’s River Jamaican Jerk seasoning.
Brisket with a little bit of beef stock or barbecue seasoning.
I have a slow cooker with a delay timer which makes it even more convenient!
That sounds amazing must try it.
Last Black Friday the Mrs bought an instant pot which seems to be a mix between a slow cooker and a pressure cooker she loves it and I must admit some of the food she’s made with it has been amazing especially the meat which just seems to fall apart. I haven’t used it myself yet but I’m assured it’s as simple as a slow cooker only faster if you want it to be
So first attempts of the winter. In our small slow cooker we have my wife’s tea.
Chilli
500g mince
Mushrooms
Onions
Grated carrot
Couple of tins of tomato’s
Herbs and spices
In the bigger family slow cooker
1kg stewing steak
2 bottles of Guinness
Carrots
potatoes
Brown sauce
Herbs and spices
Both off going on low and will be on for 9+ hours! Can’t wait!
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Great for cooking jacket potato's, 4-5hrs.
They come out lovely and soft, you can always crisp up the skins in a high oven temp later if required.
Andy
I came across this thread again this morning and saw a recipe I'd added with a kilo of beef and a can of cola and thought I'd do that again.
But then I opened the fridge and there was a butternut squash and a chorizo that both needed eating up so I've done something loosely based on this: https://www.wholekitchensink.com/cho...ealthy-dinner/
It will cook for 6 hours now and then be reheated tomorrow to be served with some chunky bread.