Slow cooker meals

Cottesmore1, try the web site all recipes uk, really is the best site for any type of cooking

Did a whole chicken resting on plum halves and coated in Chinese 5 spice powder. A little stock. 6 hours in low. Served with noodles and pak choi. Yummy!

willa I love Spanish flan

(wish I hadn't seen that, I shall be making - and eating - too much!)

I made beef olives in the slow cooker yesterday and ruined them. Didn't help that OH was so late home. I turned them off after 6 hours on slow, and just kept them warm. When I took them out an hour and half later and tried to take the string off they just fell apart. They did taste OK but looked awful. Perhaps we should have eaten them in the dark!

I'm doing Persian lamb at the moment
This is a shoulder of lamb coated in a paste of onion/garlic/chilli/ginger and spices and cooked on low for 24 hours. Smells wonderful!

We have quite a large crockpot, had it about 8 yrs now. we are only two, but it makes sense to do a large batch of something then freeze portions. Enjoy your slow cooking, best thing since sliced bread

thank-you for ideas kittylester and charleygirl, I do try and cook several things at once, chilli, casserole, etc. think these sort of things taste better for being left in the fridge for a day or even two, may look at slow cookers again, see what the wattage is

muddynails I would think that it is cheaper to use a slow cooker than an oven even on low for many hours unless it has the S facility like kittylester's.

elra, there is a thread about this already and this thread is about slow cooking!!

Hi! Guys and dolls. Halloween again. What is everyone's opinion on this. Is it only myself that thinks it's all death, doom and gloom. Sweets resembling body parts etc. Gravestones, blood and gore. Is it appropriate for small children. I am 59 and it freaks me out

My oven has an S setting which I use for slow cooking. I also use it for plate warming.

Advice Please.......
Often looked at slow cookers, are they any different from slow cooking in a casserole in the oven?

Did you know you can make a Spanish Flan in a slow cooker?

Place about 6 to 8 centimeters of water on the bottom of your cooker and then place the rack on the bottom. Caramelize your custard mold or use a large (12 to 15 centimeters in diameter) tin can without a label, which is suitable too. Pour in the custard and place on the rack. Cover the cooker and cook on Hi for about 30 minutes then switch to Lo for the next 1 to 2 hours. Flan is ready when a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean even if it doesn't look solid but it will have skin on top. Flan will firm up once it cools. Keep in mind that Lo/Hi settings can also vary depending on your cooker, so check on your flan from time to time.

Remove the mold from the cooker and let it sit until Flan cools to room temp. Then refrigerate overnight or at least for six hours before un molding. Use a serving platter that has a lip, so the syrup doesn't spill over the sides. You'll want to spoon a bit of caramel syrup over each serving.

Here's the complete recipe:
TO MAKE CARAMEL:
Use one cup of CANE sugar (no substitutes)

In a small saucepan with a heavy bottom, begin to heat the sugar slowly at medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar begins to soften. Little by little it will be crumbly at first then begin to melt. Once it begins to liquefy, lower the heat and continue stirring (patiently) with the wooden spoon until the sugar melts completely and begins to turn yellow. Continue stirring until you acquire a clear, deep amber colored syrup, being careful that it doesn't darken too quickly. Turn off the heat and remove from the burner, as sugar will continue to burn and darken all by itself. Caramel should be medium to deep amber, never brown. Using a good pair of oven mittens and being very careful (melted sugar can give you a bad burn), immediately pour the screaming hot syrup into the mold, twisting and turning it so as to coat the bottom and as high up the sides as possible. Work quickly because sugar hardens fast. Set mold aside to cool.

THE CUSTARD:
3 cups of whole milk
1 (12oz) can of evaporated milk
3/4 cups of sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 whole eggs plus 4 yolks

Mix all of the above in a large bowl (I use a hand mixer) and pour into the caramelized mold (you may hear it crack if it's still warm...no worries). Put it in your cooker per previous instructions until you're ready to serve. Enjoy!!

My mum used to call neck of lamb nuts and bolts! Very tasty! Fatty but tasty.

margoescargo would you add water to that?

Cubed stewing beef, a chopped onion and a tin of oxtail soup makes a tasty stew in the slow cooker.

I think if you intend to use alcohol in a slow cooker, it is best to boil and reduce the beer or wine first because it doesn't cook fast enough to reduce and drive off the alcohol, and you don't get the full flavour.

I have not made anything adding beer as I am not a fan of beer normally but red wine for me really makes the dish.

My problem is that I never know how much water to put in.

I usually use stewing steak & throw in loads of different veg & potatoes all chunked to approx same size, herbs/seasoning to taste. Lots of good ideas here - I don't use mine much as it is small (rice cooker/steamer/slow cooker) & will use the hob to make larger quantities - I may decide to invest in a larger one as I no longer use it as a rice cooker & I have an excellent steamer so it's just taking up cupboard space. Good Luck - I'm sure you'll soon be producing tasty meals

You know I don't actually think you can go wrong with a slow cooker. Whatever you put in turns out great! Make sure there is always a bit of liquid (water/stock etc) in the bottom and you are golden!

Slow cookers are amazing if you want to cook quantities of dried beans - very cheap and very healthy. It's important to give the beans a good soak, and a ten minute boil on a good heat before popping them in the slow-cooker to simmer. This initial boiling will destroy the harmful and poisonous proteins (phytohaemagglutinins) sometimes found in dried beans, especially red kidney beans. This toxin can make you extremely ill, so it's a precaution well worth taking.

For me, the Slow Cooker must be the best piece of kitchen equipment ever. You can cook just about anything in it. Best of all, it is incredibly cheap to run.
For those who are thinking of buying one, I recommend getting one with 3 heat settings--High, Slow and Auto. The 'Auto' setting means that you do not have to manually change a setting from High to Low ( if the recipe states ) as 'Auto' does it all for you.
Also, if you have a freezer, buy the next size Slow Cooker that you think that you will need so that you can bulk cook things like soups and stews and freeze the leftovers. When I started out, I had a Slow Cooker that was big enough for 1-2 portions. I soon realised that a bigger one was more economical.
My favourite cooks are Lamb Shanks, the meat falls off the bone.
Stewing steak with onion that I cook using a bottle of dark beer as 'stock' which I thicken at the end. I then use this as filling for the best steak pies you could ever hope to make.
As for useful cookery books, I bought one years ago that has been the best one as it gives lots of practical tips (which most cook books do not ), as well as recipes It is a cheap paperback called:
Slow Cooking properly explained by Dianne Page.
Published by Paperfronts.
I was about to write good luck, but quite frankly, with a slow cooker, you do not need it.?

Gammon !

The Ammon and root veg revoke on hransnet says cook for 30 minutes....can't be right surely!??

I don't think anyone here has mentioned lamb shanks. These are both delicious and nourishing, and they really benefit from slow cooking. The meat just falls off the bone. I think an "average" size slow-cooker should easily accommodate two shanks. (Usually recipes suggest one shank per person, but for people with small appetites I guess one shank might be enough for two diners.) Wishing you every success with your cooking, Cottesmore1.