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I finally have a working slow cooker again! Made chicken and sweet corn soup night before last and served it for dinner last night. I used this recipe as the basis.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/18...

I fried off the garlic, ginger and chicken, dumped everything in the slow cooker and ignored it for the day. Oh I also added hot chilli. About a half teaspoon, ish.

Was yummy.

More recipes, please?

Oh yes! Love the slow cooker! If we have to go out for the day, or if I am feeling poorly, I just bung a load of stuff in the slow cooker in the morning, then it is ready and waiting for us in the evening!

I have a couple of fav recipes which I will gradually type up for you all. I'm on slow cooker number three now, and not sure how much longer it will last as I do wear the poor things out! I've kept the recipe books for all of my slow cookers, so amounts vary according to whether it was a large or small slow cooker that the booklet went with..

Will fetch booklet now but will have to type up recipes a bit later.

Karen, you're a super star! Thank you!

Dave has made me promise to actually use recipes. I've made a couple of disasters by just bunging stuff in.

Oops

Ok - favourite recipes!

First recipes are from the smaller slow cooker that we had..

Bolognese sauce
Cooking oil - 15ml (1tbsp)
Onions, finely chopped - 1
Garlic, crushed - 1 clove
Minced beef - 450g (1lb)
Can chopped tomatoes, including juice - 396g (14oz)
Tomato puree - 140g (50z) can
Beef stock - 150ml-300ml (1/4 - 1/2 pint)
Button mushrooms, sliced - 75g (3oz)
Dried basil - 10ml (2tsp)
Bay leaf - 1
Bouquet garni - 1
Dried mixed peppers - 30ml (2tbsp)
Heat the oil in a pan. Added the onion and garlic and fry lightly. Add the beef and continue to fry until golden brown. Stir in the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil. Transfer to the Slow Cooker and cook for the recommended time. Remove the bay leaf and bouquet garni. Serve in the traditional style with spaghetti or noodles and top with grated parmesan cheese or with fresh crusty bread.

High 3-4 hours, low 6-10 hours


Country Chicken Casserole
Chicken joints skinned - 4
Can tomatoes, including juice - 397g (14oz)
Can sweet corn, drained - 198g (7oz)
Sticks celery, finely chopped - 2
Onion, finely chopped - 1 medium
White cabbage, finely shredded - 50g (2oz)
Bay leaf - 1
Mixed herbs - 5ml (1tsp)
Fresh ground black pepper - to taste
Salt - to taste
Chicken stock, boiling - 300ml (1/2 pt)
Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker making sure that the fresh vegetables are covered by the boiling stock. Cook for the recommended time.

High 5-7 hours Low 8-10 hours

Thank you!

My new machine has a medium setting. Never saw that on one before.

These recipes are from a larger slow cooker that we had, and also give alternative sizes..

New England Beef
2.5 litres.....4.5 litres
1kg............1.5kg piece of topside
1..............1 bouquet garni
1tsp...........1 1/2 tsp thyme
1tsp...........1 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
4..............8 shallots
225g...........400g carrots, sliced
100g...........200g swede, diced

Put the beef into a pan and cover with cold water. Add all the remaining ingredients, cover and bring to a simmer. Season well and then transfer all the ingredients to the slow crock pot. Place the crock pot in the slow cooker base. Place the lid over onto the slow cooker. Cook for approx 5-7 hours. Take the beef out of the slow cooker with a slotted spoon and allow to cool for 10 minutes. The cooking liquid can be used as a base to make gravy. Cut the beef into slices and spoon a little of the cooking liquid over. Serve with vegetables and garnish with fresh parsley.

IMPORTANT
When buying a joint of meat, make sure that it will fit the slow cook pot. It should fit into the crock pot so that when it is covered with liquid it will still be 2.5cm below the rim of the pot. The joint must not stick out above the rim and there should be enough room to cover the meat with water. The shape of the meat is just as important as the weight.

Hungarian goulash (absolute fav!!)
2.5 litres....4.5 litres
500g..........1 kg stewing steak, cut into cubes
30g...........75g seasoned flour
3 tbsp........5 tbsp vegetable oil
1.............2 large onions, finely chopped
1.............1 green pepper, de-seeded and chopped
2.............2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1.............2 sticks of celery chopped
1 tsp.........3 tsp paprika
3 tbsp........5 tbsp tomato puree
pinch of grated nutmeg
3 tsp.........5 tsp mixed herbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
200ml.........400ml beef stock
200g..........400g can of tomatoes, roughly chopped
200ml.........400ml red wine (optional)
3 tsp.........5 tsp worcestershire sauce

Toss the meat in seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a pan and fry onions, pepper, carrot and celery until soft. Add the meat and fry until browned. Add the paprika, tomato puree, nutmeg, mixed herbs and seasoning and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add stock, tomatoes, red wine and worcestershire sauce. Bring to a simmer. Transfer all the ingredients into the crock pot and place the pot into the slow cooker base. Place the lid onto the slow cooker. Cook for approx 5-7 hours.

I'm going to have to go back and edit the last post - it has deleted the spaces between sizes, I'll replace them with dots... I may be gone some time...

:0)

Ha!

Oh yes. The shape of the meat is VERY important.

I also have a couple of actual recipes books that I've bought, I'll have a look through and add some of my favs from them later. I often don't use a recipe though but just make up a casserole with whatever meat, veg and stock that I have to hand.

I have a slow cooker sitting in my mum and dads house but no room in my kitchen for it. I want it.

I use mine a lot. I rarely use recipes though. I bung in what I want to cook - usually with some chopped chorizo - and off we go. It's excellent for cooking lamb shanks to which I also add tinned toms (and chorizo!) I often add soaked dried beans - my home-grown ones. Loads of mash to soak up the gravy.

Just sorted all the veg for the minestrone. Can't wait to see the recipe from Janet.

Make room in your kitchen Jud. They're a godsend when you work all day.

Patti (It's a grape life) wrote: "Just sorted all the veg for the minestrone. Can't wait to see the recipe from Janet.

Make room in your kitchen Jud. They're a godsend when you work all day."

You will have to wait - won't be home for another 4 hours or so. Then it probably won't be worth the wait. ( I like it - I have made it in both the normal huge pan & the slowcooker & then freeze some of it.)

I can't even there is already hardly any space for preparing food, it's the most stupidly designed kitchen I've ever seen (must have been done by a man). It's a good sized room but just no surface space. They could have easily fitted more counters along the wall with the window and put the sink there so I would have had the full length of the longer wall as preparation/bread maker/slow cooker space

I'd stick my slow cooker in the lounge if I had to.

Jay-me (Janet) ~plum chutney is best~ wrote: "Patti (It's a grape life) wrote: "Just sorted all the veg for the minestrone. Can't wait to see the recipe from Janet.

Make room in your kitchen Jud. They're a godsend when you work all day."

You..."

Not gonna throw it in the machine until the morning so no rush.

I'm sure I remember you talking about it before.

Does it have pasta in it?

Patti (It's a grape life) wrote: "Does it have pasta in it? "


yes. & bacon.

I have a nice lentil & bacon soup recipe too - not tried that one in the slow cooker though.

There was the slow-cooker pork chop one I tried - got that off the internet somewhere.

Gimme the lentil n bacon one, please????

I think you posted the pork chop recipe in the recipe thread. I think I made them back when we were on the island.

I'm glad I bought pasta this morning. Teeny little stars.

If I were a mod, I'd ban the lot of you! :)

To have a slow cooker thread and not even mention lamb casserole...criminal!!

Ahem. Lamb shanks!

Bleech. I don't like lamb.

My favourite meat.

What no slug recipes? Actually Hugh Fearnley-Eatsitall has one but it's not for the slow cooker.

My fav slow cooker recipe is Moroccan lamb casserole (yes Patti you can do it with beef/pork if you must)

Lamb, cubed - about 500g
2-3 onions chopped (I like lots but reduce if you're not so keen)
Garlic cloves, 1-3
Ras al hanout spice powder 2-3 teaspoons
Tin of chopped tomatoes
2 or 3 small carrots, chopped
good handful of dried apricots, chopped.
Salt to taste (or nice stock cube)

I suppose you could just throw it all in the pot with enough water to cover and leave it to it. But I like to fry the onions and garlic first, then toss the meat in a little flour and the spice mix and fry it. Pop into the pot and then "deglaze" (ooh) the frying pan with the chopped tomatoes and pour it in to. Then throw in the rest.
Cook until it's ready!

I didn't know you were meant to cover a meat joint - the only thing like that I have done so far was a chicken which went straight in the crock with a small glass of white wine and various herbs and garlic. It certainly wasn't covered over, and produced lots of liquid itself which made a nice gracy

I don't always cover a joint - I just turn it at half time.

I doubt I can get that spice mix in Baku.

Who's gonna send me some?

http://www.healthysupplies.co.uk/ras-...

50g for £1.69 @ above address if it helps

Will put the minestone soup in the recipe thread - it's mum's recipe & she doesn't use a slow cooker for it.

That helped, thanks Pat!

Thanks Janet! Off to look now.

Here's my minestrone!

http://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/...

Patti (It's a grape life) wrote: "Here's my minestrone!

http://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/..."

But does it taste OK?

It's yummy!

Dave's on his second bowl. The piggy.

Take extra care with minestrone. If you get the vegetables wrong, then you end up chewing something similar to grapeshot!

I decided to not add BBs to this batch.

boeuf bourguignon
cubed ox cheek
diced streaky bacon
2 cloves of chopped garlic
coarsely diced onions
julienned carrots
herbs de provence
olive oil
1/2 bottle good red wine
1/2 pint beef stock
2 tablespoons flour

toss the ox cheek in seasoned flour
heat a tablespoon of olive oil in large frying pan
fry off the bacon until crisp and add the ox cheek, brown and add the vegetables, brown briefly.
Add the wine herbs and stock stirring well and bring to the boil.
Decant to the slow cooker and cook on low for about 5 hrs.
Accompany with mustard mashed potatoes.

Favorite meal in our house. Use my slow cooker a lot. Soups, stews, stocks, pot roasts and jams.

I've only just spotted this thread. I'm going to take a deep breath, shout this, and run away.
Slow cookers are a waste of money, time and space!
Seduced by talk of 'bung everything in and leave it' we bought a large capacity Russell Hobbs slow cooker. The reality is completely different. Meat has to be browned, root vegetables have to be sauteed and cooking stock has to be brought to the boil before transferring to the slow cooker. If cooking is to be on the 'low' setting the device has to be pre-heated for 20 minutes.
Meat has to be submerged in the stock with the stock level being at least an inch below the rim. This means that even a modest-sized chicken has to be jointed.
I can see no advantage over casseroling in the oven, when other dishes can be cooked at the same time.
Patti - your chicken & sweetcorn soup can be prepared from scratch in less than 15 minutes.
Kath - lamb is a very fatty meat. I always cook shanks on a high trivet so that the fat can drip out. Surely cooking in a slow cooker means that all the fat is in the stock which must be unpleasantly greasy.
I could go on.
See that figure in a tin hat running down the road - that's me.

Calm yourself BJ.

I don't see any problem with browning and pre-heating. I set it to auto (kerching - David Wailing's till!) and it heats up while I do the meat browning. I'd do the same if I were doing an oven-cooked casserole. With lamb shanks I skim the juice at the end, before thickening the gravy. I'd do that if I did it in the over too. It makes everything succulent and tender and I can use my home grown dried beans in there without having to risk boiling them dry on the stove.

*ding* - the sound of stones hitting Barry tin hat!

Quite calm now, thanks Patti. Having a coffee looking out over the harbour. Just deciding which charity shop should receive our slow cooker.

Good luck finding one that will accept electrical goods.

I made a huge pot of chilli in the slow cooker yesterday.

No worries about it sticking or burning.

The British Heart Foundation have shops for electrical goods and furniture.

Mind you when I was looking for a washing machine the ones they had looked pretty worn out and a bit battered, also they were dearer than Argos!

I know they have to check stuff out but I still found them very expensive.

We tried to get rid of some stuff and not a single charity shop in Barry would take electrical goods. Something about elf n safety.

Those blasted elfs!

At least it wasn't gnomes. Nasty critters, gnomes.

Patti (Fluffy) wrote: "We tried to get rid of some stuff and not a single charity shop in Barry would take electrical goods. Something about elf n safety."

Been involved in this sector myself as I used to do basic testing on electrical goods. To be honest, the stuff I've seen that's been handed into charity organisations is usually broken or a deathtrap! Can't blame them for refusing electrical stuff.

Yep, I could their point. Would cost them money to have stuff tested before they sold it. I assume they could be held liable if someone got hurt.

Shame my new slow cooker already arrived. I'd happily have had you ship yours out to me.

There's no better feeling that waking up during the middle of the night and having the smell of a casserole wafting up the stairs. Well, there is a better feeling but you know what I mean!!

I love my slow cooker.
The only problem I've ever encountered is spuds.
Meat succulent lovely gravy veggies flavoursome, spuds still undercooked even after 10 hours. I do them seperately now.

Some of our local charity shops take electrical goods. I assume they have a qualified electrician among their volunteers who does the required testing.
What's this R.M.F.? A slow-cooked breakfast?

I never do potatoes in the slow cooker anymore. I usually freeze half of whatever I make and I find spuds don't freeze well. The texture changes and they go 'grainy'.

Maybe not all varieties do though, as I know you can get frozen mash n such.

Why anyone would buy frozen mash is beyond me, mind.