Slow Cooker Chatter #19

[Salsa]

Hey - just making something yummy (yes in this heat ) but it needs thickened.
My SC book says to thicken add a butter flour ix and stir at the end of cooking, but when we try this it makes all the food go mushy.

What can we do (for tonight and or future meals) to make a thicker sauce/gravy rather than the water stuff that is usually there at the end of cooking?

[Sair]

I would say corn flour. Good on you for using the slow cooker, probably generates less heat than slaving over the oven and stove, must dust mine off!

[Salsa]

yup, i would use cornflour but we out of it.

Definatly good with new baby to chuck stuff in the cooker earlier in the day whenever i get a chance. that way we get something decent to eat rather than oven chips late in the day....
eewww - i have just got vomit running down my clevage

[briggsy's girl]

ok, these are some super simple recipes we made up for my aunt (who has an intellectual disability and intelligence somewhere between a 10 and 12 year old) - so far, she's managed to make them all perfectly! they are VERY basic, very vege rich and work out very economical (even doing the big bad and using spag bol sauce rather than making it from scratch!). so, hopefully for those who arent sure how a SC will work for them (or those who've had issues in the past) these might get your mojo happening again!

a quick note - if i put "soup pack" and you can't get one at the moment, it's basically 3 carrots, a parsnip, swede, turnip, onion and a spud.
i use powdered stock, rather than cubes, as they work better, aren't as salty etc - if i have the time, i make up stock myself but not possible for my aunt, so again we made it easy for her!


Slow Cooker ? Spaghetti Bolognaise

1kg mince

4 jars of spaghetti sauce

1 small tub tomato paste

Soup pack* (finely diced)

2 decent onions (finely diced)

3 large spuds (finely diced)

4 sticks of celery (finely diced)

Capsicum traffic light** (finely diced)

Average zucchini (finely diced)

Frozen peas and corn

500g packet of spiral WHOLEMEAL pasta

Brown mince in electric frying pan ? make sure that the mince is well broken up, just cooked. Don?t over cook. If you like the onion slightly cooked first, you can brown it at the same time

Transfer browned mince (and onion) to the slowcooker pot. Add all vegetables (excluding peas and corn). Mix to combine

Add jars of sauce and tomato paste.

Fill one jar to approx ? with water. Add lid, shake to get sauce of outside of jar. Transfer this fluid to next jar, cap, shake. Continue with all four jars. Transfer the water mixtured to the pot. Ensure not to add too much water.

Mix well

Put lid on slow cooker, turn it to LOW and leave to cook.

Stir every hour to two hours.

After FOUR or FIVE hours, cook pasta in water on the cook top (per instructions on the pack)

While that is cooking, stir through peas and corn ? generally about a cup and a half, but you can add more or less to taste

When pasta is cooked, drain well, and stir through bolognaise sauce. Leave on low for approx half to an hour more (not essential). Depending on the size of your cooker, you may need to remove from the cooker and add pasta in another pot. Turn cooker off, allow to cool then dispense into the containers for freezing. Serve straight away if you?re having it for current meal.

Defrost in the fridge overnight. Before heating, transfer to microwave safe container. Heat until piping hot. Serve with a sprinkle of grated cheese if desired.





Slow Cooker ? Chicken Bolognaise

1kg chicken breast fillets, skinned and diced

4 jars of spaghetti sauce

1 small tub tomato paste

Soup pack* (finely diced)

2 decent onions (finely diced)

3 large spuds (finely diced)

4 sticks of celery (finely diced)

Capsicum traffic light** (finely diced)

Average zucchini (finely diced)

Frozen peas and corn

500g packet of spiral WHOLEMEAL pasta

Transfer diced chicken breast to the slowcooker pot. Add all vegetables (excluding peas and corn). Mix to combine

Add jars of sauce and tomato paste.

Fill one jar to approx ? with water. Add lid, shake to get sauce of outside of jar. Transfer this fluid to next jar, cap, shake. Continue with all four jars. Transfer the water mixtured to the pot. Ensure not to add too much water.

Mix well

Put lid on slow cooker, turn it to LOW and leave to cook.

Stir every hour to two hours.

After approx FIVE hours, check chicken to ensure it is cooked through (break a piece in half and ensure it is enitrely white through). If chicken done, cook pasta in water on the cook top (per instructions on the pack)

While that is cooking, stir through peas and corn ? generally about a cup and a half, but you can add more or less to taste

When pasta is cooked, drain well, and stir through bolognaise sauce. Leave on low for approx half to an hour more (not essential). Depending on the size of your cooker, you may need to remove from the cooker and add pasta in another pot. Turn cooker off, allow to cool then dispense into the containers for freezing. Serve straight away if you?re having it for current meal.

Defrost in the fridge overnight. Before heating, transfer to microwave safe container. Heat until piping hot. Serve with a sprinkle of grated cheese if desired. If chicken is in the tin container, it can be reheated in the oven as it is ? ensure it is piping hot. DO NOT reheat in microwave in a tin dish! this dish can also be topped with white sauce and baked in the oven for a simple dinner





Slow Cooker ? Braised Lamb

1kg lamb chops (preferably with single round bone)

Soup pack* (finely diced)

2 decent onions (finely diced)

3 large spuds (finely diced)

Extra carrot and onion (or a second soup pack) to taste

Chicken stock powder

Beef or vegetable stock powder

Traditional Gravox gravy powder

Curry powder, salt and pepper (to taste)



Dice the meat from the bone of your chops ? take notice of how many bones you have! Place ALL of this in the slow cooker pot ? bones included (they add flavour)

Add all the vegetables and mix together

In a seperate bowl, combine 4 teaspoons of chicken stock, 2 teaspons of beef or vegetable stock, some salt and pepper, curry powder (teaspoon) and approx a cup of gravox. Mix. Add boiled water to cover, stir into a paste ? make sure there are no lumps

Add to pot and mix. Cover ingredients with water

Lid on the cooker, put it on low and leave to cook. Stir every hour or so. When meat is cooked thoroughly, turn it off and leave to stand.

if you find the liquid is a little too watery, remove some liquid, mix with gravox to make a paste and mix this into the pot.

Serve as is or with mash. Ensure you locate and remove all bones (as noted in the first step ? so if you put 8 in, take 8 out!) Freeze remainder in meal containers.

Defrost in the fridge overnight. Reheat in microwave safe container





Slow Cooker ? Braised Beef

1kg stir-fry beef or similar (we use 1kg diced blade steak)

Soup pack* (finely diced)

2 decent onions (finely diced)

3 large spuds (finely diced)

Extra carrot and onion (or a second soup pack) to taste

Chicken stock powder

Beef or vegetable stock powder

Traditional Gravox gravy powder

Curry powder, salt and pepper (to taste)



Place your meat in the slow cooker pot. Add all the vegetables and mix together

In a seperate bowl, combine 4 teaspoons of chicken stock, 2 teaspons of beef or vegetable stock, some salt and pepper, curry powder (teaspoon) and approx a cup of gravox. Mix. Add boiled water to cover, stir into a paste ? make sure there are no lumps

Add to pot and mix. Cover ingredients with water

Lid on the cooker, put it on low and leave to cook. Stir every hour or so. When meat is cooked thoroughly, turn it off and leave to stand.

if you find the liquid is a little too watery, remove some liquid, mix with gravox to make a paste and mix this into the pot.

Serve as is or with mash. Freeze remainder in meal containers.

Defrost in the fridge overnight. Reheat in microwave safe container






Slow Cooker ? Vegetable Soup

2 soup packs* (roughly chopped)

4 sticks of celery (roughly chopped)

Small head of brocolli (roughly chopped)

Small cauliflower or half large cauliflower (roughly chopped)

Average sized zucchini (roughly chopped)

3-4 extra potatos (roughly chopped)

1-2 extra carrots (roughly chopped)

Pumpkin ? ? butternut, ? jap OR full butternut OR ? decent sized jap***

2 tetra packs of liquid stock (generally use one chicken, one vegetable) OR

8 teaspoons of chicken stock powder, 4 of vegetable ? dissolved in 1L of water ? plus additional water as noted

Salt and Pepper to taste



Peel and roughly dice all vegies ? place in the slow cooker crock pot. Add any other vegies you want to add until crock pot is almost full

Season with salt and pepper

Add 2L of stock. You may need to add more liquid ? use boiled water from the kettle ? take fluid levels to within approx an inch of the top of cooker

Place lid on cooker, turn it on low, and allow to cook until vegies are cooked. Bamix or food process until it is pureed. Serve.

Freeze additional amounts. Defrost overnight in the fridge ? reheat on stove top in a saucepan to ensure it is piping hot.

[Meo]

Brontide requested my slow cooker baked beans recipe, so here 'tis. I like this one for breakfast You can drain the beans or not, depends on how much sauce you like with them.

1 can of pinto beans
1 can red beans
2 cans white beans or navy beans
250 g sausages (can put in whole and chop at serving or cut into bits and cook first)
1 1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup chopped onions (optional)
1/8 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1/8 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons prepared mustard (we use Hot English)
1/4 teaspoon pepper (or to taste)

Bung it all in the crock pot. Cook on LOW 5-6 hours. I have put this on at bedtime and left it cooking for 8 plus hours with no detrimental effects in our crock pot. You may want to make sure that the sausage is covered by the liquid as otherwise it can dry out a bit (gets crispy bits on it).

[MsPink]

Hello all you SC experts,

I am a self confessed SC virgin. I bought one (Ronson) on sale at the end of last winter and attempted to use it for the first time the other day.

OK so wanted to make this European bean stew that I normally make in the oven and bake on really really low overnight... so thought the SC perfect for this.

Anyway, I put it all in, turned it onto low and thought it would be fine overnight. I woke up at 1.00am (must have had a 6th sense) and went to check on it. Ahhhhh it was simmering and was on low. This stuff needs to cook realllllllly slowly and simmering is too fast. So at 1.00am I started taking it all out of the SC and moving into the oven to cook as I usually do.

So after my long involved story...my question is - should the SC simmer at low??? The base liquid was water (lots of beans and smoked meat).

Did it simmer because it was water based or does this SC overheat?? Having never used it before I have no idea what is normal. Obviously now I am so hesitant to use it again...

Over to you SC experts - any feedback you can provide would be appreciated. Help me overcome my dislike of the thing...

[alioops]

If you have your SC on low or high the temp will continue to gradually increase, but low means it will increase slower. Once you are at the temp you need switch to auto and this will hold it at that temperature.

[Netix]

I made a similar vege soup to the one you posted BG, on Saturday. The veges were cut up nice and small, but were undercooked, and it tasted really bland. Oh well. I actually had the thing cooking for about eleven hours! I served it for Steph and I for dinner after about nine hours, and the veges were underdone then, so I let it go longer. Steph didn't touch it at all!

I put in it: crushed garlic, turnip, zucchini, quartered brussel sprouts, carrots, lombok, onion, tin of tomatoes, chicken stock powder, dried herbs, bay leaf, and black pepper (and water).

Today, I am trying lamb forequarter chops, with barley, onion, carrot, potato, bay leaf, salt, pepper, and some water. Think I'll go turn it to high though. Maybe that will work better?

How would things cook if not covered with liquid in the sc? A roast has its own juices to cook with, so that wouldn't dry out. But what about what I'm cooking today? If I made the same thing again but without the barley, would it cook okay with no added water?

And when you guys put onion in the sc, do you cook the onion first before putting it in? I'm trying to save time (and dishes ) by not browning meat, and so I don't want to have to fry the onion either, really going for the whole "one pot" concept (says busy me). Or should I fry up a heap of onion and freeze it?

[briggsy's girl]

i never pre-brown the onion - can't be bothered! i only pre-brown mince cos i can't stomach the pinkish shade of meat (even though its' cooked, it does my head in!) and cos i like it to be broken down properly

if your soup wasn't cooked (that really surprises me!) when you first put it on, put it on high to get the temperature up and then lower it once it is heated, so it's just low for the cooking part if that makes sense

everything you put in should have cooked up ok so i'm not sure what happened there!

ummm, for the stuff in the cooker - if you're making it into a stew, you'll want a reasonable level of water in it - but as long as there is some liquid in there, the steaming liquid should keep your meat and stuff tender. i think i'd be reluctant to expect that vegies would go soft (as in soup soft) without extra fluid added. if you're looking for steamed type texture, you could try it - have you looked at the "just slow cooking" website for recipes that have been tried and tested by real people?

most of what i make has high fluid content cos i freeze it for DH to heat while he's away - i don't want him to have icky dry reheats!