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I have bought a small boneless lam shoulder rolled and it has the string all over it. I know this may seem a dumb question but do I need to take the string off before I put it in the slow cooker? Or will the string be ok in it? Should I just put it in there or should I add oil or anything else on the bottom?
Leave the string on to hold it together.
Haven't done a roast in a SC before, but it'll cook in its own juices,, so i don't think you need oil, or anything else. Unless you want something for flavour :)
I just leave the string on, so it all keeps together. In the bottom, I add just under a cup of liquid. I did a slow cooked roast beef today and I mixed up about a tablespoon of molasses (you could use brown sugar), some worcestershire sauce, a bit of tamari sauce, a dab of apple cider vinegar, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, some dried herbs and some water. You could substitute red wine for the water. Mix it up and add to the slow cooker. Then sear the meat in a pan on all sides before adding to the slow cooker. I use a wok as I find it sears things better. You dont have to sear the meat, but it does give it a better flavour. I had the meat with fat side on top, so it flowed down through the meat as it cooked.
For lamb, I recently slow cooked 1.5kg with a similar gravy mix as above for about 6-8 hours on low. For the beef today, it was about 4 hours on high.
Once cooked, take it out and let it rest, covered, for 10-20minutes before carving. As it rests, I add some cornflour to the juices to make gravy.
When I do a slow cooked leg of lamb, I don't use a slow cooker but a dutch oven for 6 hours but anyhoo I add bacon on the bottom, a cup of vegetable stock, a cup of white wine and then cut up onions and garlic to float around in the water! It's yummo and then I use the fluid to make the gravy and to cook potatoes and carrots for the last 30 mins.
When I use the SC to roast I usually rub stuff onto the skin then sit the meat on top of an upside down saucer otherwise it seems to sit in it's own juices and it's casseroled as much as roasted. Some people use rolled up balls of tin foil to keep their meat out of the juice but they gross me out.
When would you add veggies?
This is what I do. My sc seems to make steam, which then falls on the bottom & I use it for gravy.....:
I don't do my veg in the slow cooker, I use my oven
I usually use my oven for veges too because I love crunchy roast potatoes.
If I do use my SC I usually chuck them in about 1 or 2 hours before we eat. Depending on how large they are and whether I have it on high or low.