my husband is arriving in sydney this arvo on a business trip. although we are canadian, we are currently based in hong kong. i am craving a slow cooker/crock pot.
my sweet, sweet husband is quite excited about the idea. would you ladies (who provided the recipes that got him excited about the idea!) be able to recommend the a cooker for us?
- we have four kids - ages 6, 4,4,4 so a six l (plus) would be best
- we dont' need a sc with two compartments
i have read your threads, and i have seen three or so names tossed around. my fear is the meal being ready TOO SOON. i guess i don't have the confidence that i would know the meal was ready and instead i would pick up the top after the allotted time and find a shrivelled tiny vegetables and wizened meat, or risotto so dry it looked like it never came out of the packet.
so i would love your recommendations and also - where to buy???
many many thanks
fourscore
METHOD
place corned beef in slow cooker, place in onion and golden syrup(optional), pour over ginger beer.
Cook on low 8-10 hours
or cook on high 4-5 hours.
I add an orange and 1ltr of vege or chicken stock when cooking corned beef and potato. yumbo.... I put it on at midday and it is usually ready by 5 ish
I own a slow cooker, have had it about five years. In that time I have used it once (and this was only last year!), to cook a roast (beef). I also have a recipe book for SC which I got the roast from. I was not very impressed, it didn't turn out all that nice. I am glad that I got both second hand, so that I didn't spend a heap of money. At the moment, I am doing a purge of all my kitchen cupboards, and the SC takes a heap of room, and I am really thinking about getting rid of it.
How often do you guys use your SC? Are you happy with how the food turns out, not just because of its convenience of "set and forget" cooking?
I would rather use the SC than the oven in summer, as I am sure we all would.
I am now going to go through the SC recipes on here and see if I can't find some that seem more appealing than those in the book that I have.
Any positive points on your SC's would be good to read.
I've only had mine since Christmas, so it is still the honeymoon, but i am using it 2-3 times a week. I've made 2 beef cassroles with dumplings, a split pea, lentil and smoked bacon soup, a lamb stew and (last night) a chicken broth.
Honestly i am LOVING it. I really like that i go to bed and when i get up the food for the next few days is ready to go. The first few times i floured and fried the meat first but after reading a post by Cai that she didn't bother as it defeated the "chuck it in and leave it" benefit of the SC i stopped doing so and it works great still. My triumphs were probably the lamb stew which was totally amazing and the pea and bacon soup which was like eating smoky velvet, it was SO good. Mine's only a 2.5litre crockpot, but that still means 4-6 portions of whatever i make, and i have a good selection of samples in my tiny freezer now too. I've not tried the chicken broth yet, but i just took then thighs out to take the bones out and it certainly smells very good.
I think it being winter here helps. NOt sure i'd want to eat stew throught the heat of summer, although the chicken broth would be ok in hot weather.
One thing i REALLY love is that i recently decided to make the switch to free-range chicken (i've never bought battery eggs and now i'm not buying into force-raised meat hens either) and i'm on welfare so for the price of 4 force-raised chicken breasts i can only get 4 free range chicken thighs, but because the SC cooks everything so slowly it actually means i'm enjoying my chicken much more and SAVING money - 4 breasts would have made 2-4 meals for us. I used 3 thighs in the broth which will last days and still have a thigh in the fridge to do something else with.
we had a bit of a last minute thing the other day where it got to 2pm, the boys had been into town and grabbed bbq meat, cooked it up, then my bro made the announcement that they were staying for dinner too! we live 20k's from anywhere that you can buy meat, had nothing defrosted - DH and i were going to have bbq leftovers - but that's not enough for four adults and 3 kids!
sooooo, we grabbed some chooken fillets out of the freezer, chucked them into the SC with a couple of jars of spag bol sauce - and let it go on low! once the meat had thawed a bit, we grabbed it out, diced it and threw it back in - and then about half hour before we were ready for dinner we threw in some almost cooked spaghetti and mixed it through - let it sit on low for half hour - where the spag finished cooking and soaked up the excess fluid - served it in bowls with grated cheese on top - was delish!!! even the kids, who were tired and picky, sat there and ate massive meals - the three year old came back for more...
I haven't used my SC in ages. It does get a pretty good workout in winter or the cooler weather. I have done roast's in it, stews, pumpkin soup, chicken and sweet corn soup, lots of yummy things.
The one thing I haven't tried yet is making sweet's in there. Not sure if I'm game or not.
Wow, you guys really do a lot. And a lot of feedback in just a day.
I am inspired to keep my SC and give it a go.
I should use it, as it gets to 5pm and I really can't be bothered cooking anything, so if I can get it all in the SC in the morning, when I am most motivated, dinner will be under control and most importantly, ready at a certain time, ie, 6pm.
I really love slow cooked meat, where it just falls off the bone, so I am kind of surprised myself that I haven't used it. I have two lamb shanks in the fridge, which I will try to put on for tonight. I won't even brown them before I put them in, as Hoobley said it does defeat the purpose. If not for tonight, then tomorrow. I will let you know how they go.
I think I will also have to keep reading this thread and the SC recipes to keep motivated, my SC in use, and my kitchen cool!
Oops! They will be tomorrow, I forgot the Man said he wants Indian for dinner tonight! We have the most fabulous Indian restaurant near us, and our 11month old absolutely loves it too!
Last edited by Netix; January 20th, 2008 at 10:18 AM.
Hi girls - i am a slow cooking novice and i have a quick question. I normally do a beef casserole in the oven using a Maggi packet mix and my own added extras and was wanting to try it in my NEW slow cooker! Do i just make exactly how i would for oven cooking? Any idea of how long and what temp to cook on? I usually do it on about 180 in oven for about 2-3hours..
Oh and one more question in regards to roasts - for example a leg of lamb. Just chuck everything in the SC? Some recipes seem to add water and i am not sure why?
Netix, you'd be wanting to put your shanks in before 12 pm too hun. I would aim for 10.30 am at the latest. That way you can cook them on low for the day. Cooking them on high king of defeats the purpose.
Em, with a roast I don't add any water. With a chicken I put it on an upside down saucer so it's not sitting in it's own juices as such. Otherwise then it is more stewing. Same with a lag of lamb, or you can chop up potato's and sit them on top of them too.
The maggi casseroles, I would do the same only less water. So if you need a cup, use half a cup. If you want to cook it really slow then put it on low for around 6-7 hours, or if you haven't started dinner until late put it on high for atleast 4 hours.
I guess it's all personal taste and what works in one SC doesn't always work the same in the next. And everyone has different tastes etc.
Trish, I have just put a couple of lamb shanks, on low, so we'll see how it goes. I also put in a tin of tomatoes, a bit of beef stock powder, mixed herbs, and a bit of worchester (sp!) sauce.
Dinner at 6pm, and I'll probably cook some mash to soak up the tomato sauce that will be left over.
Sounds yum. Oh hun I just had a thought. See I have a huge family so I am cooking like 8 shanks at a time. Yours might be ready sooner than 6 pm. If you are home I would check them around 4 pm and if ready turn them off for a bit and back on when your nearly ready to serve.
which slow cooker would you recommend?
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