Slow Cooker Recipes

Like a lot of people, I own a slow cooker, and I love using it. It surprises me how many people tell me that they never use theirs. The things that you can do with your slow cooker are amazing. Stews, casseroles, curry's, slow cooked meat, stroganoff, pasta, etc, etc, etc.

First things first, This is similar to mine

 Not expensive, and has three settings, warm, low and high.

Lets say that you have a piece of meat that you want to slow cook, beef or maybe pork. what I do is seal the meat in a large iron skillet then put into the slow cooker. Pour hot water in until it just covers the meat, then two halves of onion, a chicken or veg stock cube, a stick of celery and a carrot sliced up the middle. finish with a bay leaf and leave it for about an hour per kilo. I just leave it for about five hours, checking every two or three hours, the longer you leave it, the softer it is. This is a good way of making pulled pork. 

The slow cooker is basically an electrical heater which houses and heats a large earthenware oven dish. When this dish is hot it cooks the contents as though it were in a low oven.

You can prep your slow cooker by pouring a kettle of boiling water in to heat the earthenware dish quickly, rather than waiting. You should never turn on your slow cooker when its empty as the heat could possibly crack the dish. 

Think of cooking in the slow cooker as you would in a large pan or in the oven. Water, veg, stock and seasoning in a pan, boil everything up, then transfer to slow cooker, and you have a soup or broth on the slow cook.

Get some mince, flash off in a large fry pan, add to slow cooker with gravy and peas, and leave for an hour or two. Throw in a few dumplings or add what ever you want, like tomatoes instead of gravy and build up a bolognese from scratch

One of my favorites is sausage casserole. I cook off a pound of sausage (pork and beef, but anything works, even quorn) and prep the veggies while the sausages are in the halogen. 

I finely slice celery, carrot and white onion (mirpoix) and this is the basis of your stock, so fry and soften in butter or oil. I then start on the red onion, peppers and baby leeks and add them to the mix, and then either four or five tomatos or a tin of plum or chopped tomatoes. Salt and pepper, bring to the boil, adding maybe half a pint of water, and this goes into the slow cooker. Add the sausages when they are ready, and a half teaspoon of garlic powder or a crushed clove. Finish with a large dessert spoon of tomato puree and a teaspoon of ketchup. Leave in the slow cooker on high until it starts to bubble then drop down low for the long haul. 

If you want to, you can add your spices and a little cream to curry this up really easy, even change the meat for chicken. I once did it with chicken thighs and it came out great. 

  How about Beef Bourguignon. Place a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add chopped bacon and a couple of sliced shallots and fry for 3 minutes until just starting to brown. Add chopped or diced  beef, a few sliced mushrooms and stir-fry for 5-7 minutes over a high heat until browned. Stir in chopped garlic, a glass of red wine, a pint of beef stock, a teaspoon of tomato purée and some mixed herbs. Add a couple of small carrots cut into large chunks or quartered length-ways. Season, bring to the boil and then transfer to the earthenware dish. Cook in your slow cooker for at least 2 hours.

 One that I haven't done in a while is a full chicken in the slow cooker, but it's really easy to do. The trick is to keep the chicken off the bottom of the pot and cook it low and slow.

Cut a few large carrots into three or four pieces and drop them into the pot with a quartered onion and a couple sticks of celery, and a few quartered potatoes. The chicken will sit on these during the cooking process.

I take the chicken and give it a quick wash in cold water, shake it off, and put it to one side.

Melt some butter in a pan or a jug in the microwave, and add finely chopped garlic, squeeze of lemon, a cap of white wine and chopped parsley, and coat the chicken, or make a dry rub, an easy one is salt, pepper, tumeric, paprika, onion powder and mixed herbs, and rub it into the chicken.

Into the cavity place a couple garlic cloves, half a white onion and a quarter of a lemon.

Place the chicken in the pot, on top of the chopped veggies, cover and cook on low for around 7 or 8 hours.

I think I'll end this with a fish recipe. Sturdy fish tend to fair better, such as monkfish, but any fish can be cooked in a slow cooker. Just adjust the times and dont over cook. The last two times I did fish, it was cod loin, but I have done salmon, trout, seabass and basa, but only had them cooking for an hour or less. The last one I did was a couple of cod loin, which I did in a lemon butter. 

I started with a jug of milk with a large knob of butter and a large pinch of cracked black pepper, and warmed it in the microwave before pouring it into the warming pot. I placed the cod loin into a frying pan with a knob of butter and sealed each side for a minute, then place into the pot, which was now up to temp. I left it on low for about an hour, and it was beautifully poached but still firm.

The time before was also cod loin, but I did a tomato and basil sauce, made by using a tin of tomatoes, fresh basil, butter, seasoning and a squeeze of lemon in a food processor, then pre-warming in a jug in the microwave for a minute or two, and that too took about an hour on low.

So get that slow cooker out, and start experimenting. Cook in bulk, and freeze the excess, home made ready meals, no nasty chemicals or preservatives.

The slow cooker is designed to be filled, then left, and later, enjoyed. And there is very little washing up, just the earthenware dish and the lid. Get on youtube, check out a few websites, and have fun.