What's in your slow cooker today?

CHokKA

CHokKA

CHokKA

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Hey everyone

I know a few on here slow cook, but I've just started and I thought it'd be fun to make a thread to see what people are slow cooking whilst at work :) Please post what you're cooking, the recipe for it, and the slow cooker you're using, so that if others see this thread and read it, it'll give them a good idea of what they should be looking at getting themselves if they wish to slow cook and they'll have some great recipes to get started with :)

Today I'm cooking a chicken casserole. The slow cooker I am using is a Crock-Pot Sauté Countdown with a 5.7 litre capacity.

The recipe for my chicken casserole is:

Eight skinless and boneless chicken thighs (I'd normally use bone in but they didn't have any)
4 peeled and chopped carrots
2 peeled and chopped onions
4 cloves of garlic
A handful of rosemary, thyme, and flat leaf parsley
4 bay leaves
40g pearl barley
20g split peas
650ml chicken stock

To start, I fried off the carrots, onions and garlic in the Crock-Pot. One of the benefits of the Sauté Crock-Pot range is that you can cook with it on direct heat or in the oven, as well as in the base unit itself. Next, I added the chicken thighs and browned them off. Finally, I added the herbs and cooked them for a few minutes more just to let the flavours absorb.

Next, I added in the bay leaves, pearl barley, split peas and chicken stock, and then I transferred the Crock-Pot into the base unit and I've set the heat to low and the timer to 8 hours. Hopefully when I get home I'll have a lovely chicken casserole to serve up with some Orzo pasta :)

So what are you cooking?
 
FrenchTart said:
I don't have a slow cooker but last night I had some 60 dry aged beef in my sous vide. Does that count? :p
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Of course it does! Sous-vide is really slow cooking, but I didn't really count on many here having one so I opted for the traditional slow cookers instead :) Post up your recipe so we can have a look!
 
Didn't do it today... this is my basic go to slow cooked meal when I'm lazy / busy.

In a 3L Chinese Made Slow Cooker, that survived 5 years of my studenty abuse, I make 4 portions of beef and carrot cass.

500g of diced beef - Last Sat was Aldi's for £2.50
~400g Carrots - chopped rustically
half bulb of garlic, bashed with a knife / bowl / palm if you're feeling it
1 Can of Guinness or any dark roasty ale
Equal amount of stock
~200g Mushrooms
4 Tomatoes
1 Star Anise (brings out the meaty flavour)
A teaspoon of oregano and rosemary

Add them all in the pot - I tend to layer firmest to softest in my pot because I just that kind of person, low heat, ~7 hours, before adding half teaspoon of chili flakes to give it a kick (optional).

Drop in dumplings for an hour to cook, before seasoning and serve. I sometimes need to add some cornflour to thicken up my gravy, or omit the seasoning and go with a heap spoon of Onion Gravy Granules to the mix 5 mins before serving.
 
Benihana said:
Haha! Rustically = Lazily?

What do people recommend for a slow cooker then, I'd like to dabble, but wouldn't know where to start!
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Depending on mood. If I've got 10mins before I need to head out (or I'm saving precious minutes to game on Diablo 3), it's rustically i.e. washed but not peeled. Cut 2 cm length, turned 90 degrees at every cut so it at least look a little different.

I honestly don't think there is a need for fancier slow cooker, as long as it works, has a slow, high and auto settings, that's good to go~

Aldi might still have some left from their student special a month or so ago. £30 IIRC. I got mine from ASDA but not own brand, chinese make, the pot is solid and heavy. Good enough for me since 2008, using it at least once a month and up to 2 times a week during winter months.
 
Benihana said:
Haha! Rustically = Lazily?

What do people recommend for a slow cooker then, I'd like to dabble, but wouldn't know where to start!
Click to expand...

I have two Crock-Pot Sauté slow cookers, one 4.7l and a 5.7l (the 5.7l is an oval pot and is for cooking larger items like whole chicken or pork joints etc, whereas the 4.7l is a round pot so I do smaller cuts of meat in that). I chose the sauté cookers as you can fry your food off in the pot first and then transfer the whole pot into the slow cooker base. You can also put them in the oven. The 5.7l also has a countdown timer on it, which you set with the recipe cooking time and once it reaches that mark it automatically switches to warm mode which keeps the food warm for you so it is ready to eat when you come home from work :)

However, there are far simpler slow cookers out there. I have only ever used Crock-Pot so I can't speak for the other brands like Morphy Richards, Russell Hobbs etc (they'll be good I'm sure). Crock-Pots range from £15 all the way up to £80 or so. It all depends on the size and functionality that you'd like. Amazon have a basic Crock-Pot for £25 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crock-Pot-C...=UTF8&qid=1383147246&sr=8-1&keywords=crockpot) and it is meant to be pretty good for the money. It is also huge with a 6.5l capacity! It doesn't do anything fancy like automatically switch to warm mode etc, but it'd be perfect for most uses. There are also smaller options like a 3.5l for £15. That would be suitable for meals for two people.

What I like best about the slow cooker is that I can just throw ingredients into it in the morning, add in some stock, and then when I come home it is all ready to eat :)
 
I bought myself a slow cooker at the weekend and made a random beef stew effort. Need to work on thickening of the sauce though as it remained pretty much liquid, probably to do with the amount of stock added. My question is do you have to ensure the meat is fully covered with stock, or just cover the veg leaving some meat poking out above the liquid? Also bought some plain flour to add to it next time. I also have no clue about what seasoning to add, I just bought some random herbs and hoped for the best.
 
CHokKA said:
Of course it does! Sous-vide is really slow cooking, but I didn't really count on many here having one so I opted for the traditional slow cookers instead :) Post up your recipe so we can have a look!
Click to expand...

There's not much of a recipe to be honest with you....It was "put steaks in a bag and then cook at 56C for a few hours" :p

The old "chinese pork butt" recipe I posted on here a while ago would work very well in a slow cooker though I think:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18381192
 
I wana make a beef casserole and make my own stock from herbs in the cupboard, any one know a good combo i have a fair few herbs so hopefully can do what is suggested like. Hope to stick it on to cook in 20 mins or so tho.

Alternatively ill just use a lamb stock cube.

What i would put in is some reduced beef slow cook stuff i bought other day from tesco, some baby carrots chopped, a pink onion or just frozen chopped onion, some peas, some broth mix, some taties chopped.
 
Bubo said:
I bought myself a slow cooker at the weekend and made a random beef stew effort. Need to work on thickening of the sauce though as it remained pretty much liquid, probably to do with the amount of stock added. My question is do you have to ensure the meat is fully covered with stock, or just cover the veg leaving some meat poking out above the liquid? Also bought some plain flour to add to it next time. I also have no clue about what seasoning to add, I just bought some random herbs and hoped for the best.
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Did you coat the beef in flour prior to frying and sealing it off first? That definitely helps thicken up the stock whilst it cooks. Most beef recipes ask for the meat to be floured and fried off first so try that next time :) I made the most amazing beef stroganoff in the slow cooker last week. It was the best I've ever had!
 
Bubo said:
I bought myself a slow cooker at the weekend and made a random beef stew effort. Need to work on thickening of the sauce though as it remained pretty much liquid, probably to do with the amount of stock added. My question is do you have to ensure the meat is fully covered with stock, or just cover the veg leaving some meat poking out above the liquid? Also bought some plain flour to add to it next time. I also have no clue about what seasoning to add, I just bought some random herbs and hoped for the best.
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You don't need liquid to fully cover your meat / veg. I've cooked pulled pork with hardly any liquid to start with.

The key is to have enough for your need, none of the liquid evaps. In fact, some veg gives more liquid by the end of cooking - see tomatoes, celery and mushrooms.

If you've got gelatanous meat or pieces with enough bones and cartilage, you'll have a natural thick gravy. If you're using diced beef and veg, nothing to give it thickness like skinned potatoes or barley, then prepare a teaspoon - a tablespoon of plain flour / corn flour, mix in a small amount, I usually use about 20mls of water per teaspoon. Mix well then add it into your gravy if wet :)

As for herbs and seasoning, it's experiment. I take them from other recipes or other methods of cooking and add them in. Some works, some fails. Beauty with experimenting with a casserole is, if it's bad, there's always Aunt Bassie's Gravy Granules to the rescue...
 
I fried it, along with the mushrooms, onions and leaks, but didn't coat it. Is it the simple fact that you have added some flour that thickens it by itself, or are you talking about sealing juice inside the meat? I have since seen that you can simply add flour during the last hour to thicken it up.
 
SkeeterUK said:
I wana make a beef casserole and make my own stock from herbs in the cupboard, any one know a good combo i have a fair few herbs so hopefully can do what is suggested like. Hope to stick it on to cook in 20 mins or so tho.

Alternatively ill just use a lamb stock cube.

What i would put in is some reduced beef slow cook stuff i bought other day from tesco, some baby carrots chopped, a pink onion or just frozen chopped onion, some peas, some broth mix, some taties chopped.
Click to expand...

Not sure you can do what needs to be done in 20 minutes. That's a fairly low amount of time for a stock. Here's a rough idea of what you need to do for a decent stock:

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_beef_stock/
 
If you're slow cooking like me, nothing but raw ingredients in the pot, click on slow and leave it to it's business, add flour in water then add into the pot at least 30mins before eating will thicken it up.

If you're already sealing meat and cooking some veg, add the flour to the meat and the flour over time will burst to thicken up your gravy.
 
Bubo said:
I fried it, along with the mushrooms, onions and leaks, but didn't coat it. Is it the simple fact that you have added some flour that thickens it by itself, or are you talking about sealing juice inside the meat? I have since seen that you can simply add flour during the last hour to thicken it up.
Click to expand...

You can also do that, but make sure you sift the flour very well and don't add it all in one go otherwise it clumps up horribly and you end up with tiny balls of flour that remain flour in the middle and just go soggy on the outside. It is a terrible pain to correct that if it happens. I'd still go with the method of flouring the meat beforehand. Flouring it and then frying it first effectively creates a roux which thickens your stock and creates a lovely sauce for your food. If you still don't have a thick sauce then you can always add flour in at the end and cook for a bit longer. Alternatively, try some pearl barley in the recipe. It will help thicken the sauce as well, although I've never cooked pearl barley with beef so I have no idea what it would be like.
 
Bubo said:
...I also have no clue about what seasoning to add, I just bought some random herbs and hoped for the best.
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For beef seasoning I'd recommend salt, pepper, thyme, garlic (not too much) and parsley. Anything else might be a bit too much. But play around with the combinations and quantities. The beauty about cooking is you can experiment. If you're not sure about a flavour combination then just hold back on adding too much of something until you know it works :)
 
FrenchTart said:
There's not much of a recipe to be honest with you....It was "put steaks in a bag and then cook at 56C for a few hours" :p

The old "chinese pork butt" recipe I posted on here a while ago would work very well in a slow cooker though I think:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18381192
Click to expand...

Ah well that sounds simple enough :) I bet the steak was lovely! I might try that chinese pork butt recipe sometime but at the moment I have lined up a whole bunch of other slow cooker recipes to try :)
 
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