Slow Cooker recipes

Antifa161

Ended up paying €9.20 for 1kg (although he gave me 1.2), without the bone (a mistake tbh but that's all they had).

Dolbert

I have a nice piece of bacon waiting for me in the slow cooker after work I steeped it first and then threw it in with some diced onion and a can of coke. Hope it's nice!

beertons

Does the coke have to cover the bacon? What size bacon piece would you be using?

Dolbert

beertons wrote: »

Does the coke have to cover the bacon? What size bacon piece would you be using?

It's a small 700g joint, the coke only comes up about halfway which I'm hoping will be fine. I'll report back with my findings

r3nu4l

Okay so I was searching for vegetarian recipes and found this.

Now I don't normally eat chickpeas and thought this would be great. However, on cooking this I found the following issues:

Waaaay too many chickpeas
All I could taste was rosemary

So I played around with it and found that the following recipe works best (for my tastes)

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
5 medium carrots, sliced
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
0.25-0.5 teaspoons dried rosemary
500 mls chicken or vegetable stock
0.5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

I also add celery on occasion.
low for 8 hours
high for 6 hours

All done
I sometimes add some cornflour to thicken the sauce at the end.
Really simple to make, no fuss and tastes great. Also very healthy if you're looking for something with no saturated fats but still has lots of protein.

Dolbert

Dolbert wrote: »

It's a small 700g joint, the coke only comes up about halfway which I'm hoping will be fine. I'll report back with my findings

The bacon was nice and tender, it came out a little like pulled pork! There was a very slight hint of cola off the edges so quite pleasant, would do it again.

casio4

Dolbert wrote: »

The bacon was nice and tender, it came out a little like pulled pork! There was a very slight hint of cola off the edges so quite pleasant, would do it again.

did you steep the bacon over night? I did and there was no taste off it when it was cooked:(

Dolbert

casio4 wrote: »

did you steep the bacon over night? I did and there was no taste off it when it was cooked:(

I actually only had time to steep it for an hour, so I let it simmer for that time to get as much salt out as possible.

the beer revolu

most ham and bacon these days is not all that salty.
If I'm boiling a ham, I usually don't soak it. IMO ham or bacon only really needs soaking if you're going to bake it.

A_Sober_Paddy

Hey all,

Considering joining the world of slow cooking as it make my live easier...having my dinner ready when i get home from work(well nearly:D)

I'll be only cooking for myself and was wondering what size cooker i should be looking at, ideally I'd be cooking enough for 2 servings, but my two servings(if it were a chicken dish) would have 4 chicken fillets in it and ideally a lot of veg when veg is called for...

Cheers in advance

Wexy86

I'm using my slow cooker more and more these days, just makes life easier!

Not sure if this has been already mentioned but while googling I came across this website, 40 meals in 4 hours - has anyone tried it? would love some feedback

Does seem like a lot of prep but imagine how handy dinner would be for 40 days

hattoncracker

We cooked our Christmas ham in the slow cooker, was the best part of the meal! Just threw it in there with some honey and cloves on low for about 8 hours, turned the cooker off and then stuck it on a roasting dish, put a little maple syrup on it and finished in the oven for 20 mins.... Mmmmmmm!!!!!

Toast4532

I plan on doing a bit of beef in the slow cooker tomorrow. Have it marinading and all, dying to have it for dinner tomorrow.

Its 1.36kg, any idea how long I should cook it for?

Dizzyblonde

Since it's marinating I'd give it 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Any more and it might just fall apart - which would be nice too

Toast4532

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Since it's marinating I'd give it 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Any more and it might just fall apart - which would be nice too

Would four hours on high really be enough time to cook it thoroughly? My mother and granny will be eating it too, so if its pink at all they won't go near it

This is the slow cooker I have (not sure if that makes a difference)

http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-sc356-slow-cooker-brushed-steel/100-2168.prd

casio4

if it has a medium setting stick it on that for 4 hours:)

Dizzyblonde

Toast4532 wrote: »

Would four hours on high really be enough time to cook it thoroughly? My mother and granny will be eating it too, so if its pink at all they won't go near it

This is the slow cooker I have (not sure if that makes a difference)

http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-sc356-slow-cooker-brushed-steel/100-2168.prd

It would be plenty of time in mine, but some posters have mentioned that the Tesco slow cookers can be a bit cooler so to be on the safe side you might need to cook it for 5-6 hours on high. I'd say that would definitely do it.

Edit: My daughter has the same slow cooker as you and 5 hours would be plenty in hers. I'd test it at that point, and if it's ready you could switch it to low for the last hour.

vibe666

I find a digital meat thermometer is invaluable for doing large pieces of meat in the slow cooker, just to be sure if you're cooking on the fly like i normally do, rather than following a specific recipe just stick so you know 100% where you're very quickly.

recently I've been finding Irish ham/gammon/bacon etc. a lot less salty to begin with than I used to and have ended up leaving some joints a little tasteless due to mistakenly over soaking them thinking they would be the traditional Irish 50% meat 150% salt joints my mother in law usually gives that almost turns my head inside it eating it!

My solution recently is to just slice off a tiny bit, rinse and cook it quickly in a pan just to get a taste for it first so I know much soakage is needed. Seems to be working so far anyway.

frag420

Picked up a slow cooker yesterday. Its a 6.5 ltr Morphy Richards. I didnt realise how big it was so was wondering how does one adjust recipes to suit a 6.5 ltr capacity. As in I dont want to be making over 6 ltrs of curry but if the recipe says cook on medium for 6 hrs do I need to adjust time/heat if I am only half filling the cooker? Would only using half the available capacity damage the cooker? is there a min capacity I should fill it to for to work proper?

cheers

frAg

Dizzyblonde

frag420 wrote: »

Picked up a slow cooker yesterday. Its a 6.5 ltr Morphy Richards. I didnt realise how big it was so was wondering how does one adjust recipes to suit a 6.5 ltr capacity. As in I dont want to be making over 6 ltrs of curry but if the recipe says cook on medium for 6 hrs do I need to adjust time/heat if I am only half filling the cooker? Would only using half the available capacity damage the cooker? is there a min capacity I should fill it to for to work proper?

cheers

frAg

Mine's a 6.5 litre one too, and you don't have to make any allowances for smaller amounts. the timing etc is the same. I mostly make stews for 2-3 people in mine, or cook small ham joints. The really good thing about having a large slow cooker is that you can comfortably fit a big piece of pork in to make pulled pork

A_Sober_Paddy

So I've been looking at a couple of slow cooker recipes and a lot of them seem to call for brown sugar, is there really a need for this is Teriyaki Chicken, Cashew Chicken and even Sesame chicken?

If there is, is there a healthier alternative?

BaZmO*

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

So I've been looking at a couple of slow cooker recipes and a lot of them seem to call for brown sugar, is there really a need for this is Teriyaki Chicken, Cashew Chicken and even Sesame chicken?

If there is, is there a healthier alternative?

There's nothing 'unhealthy' about brown sugar.

thegreatiam

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

So I've been looking at a couple of slow cooker recipes and a lot of them seem to call for brown sugar, is there really a need for this is Teriyaki Chicken, Cashew Chicken and even Sesame chicken?

If there is, is there a healthier alternative?

Dont think of your food intake in terms of ingredients but as your diet as a whole.

a couple of spoons of sugar in a whole meal is not going to affect your diet, a tub of sugar a week will.

Just calculate the ingredients into your macro totals using myfitnesspal or similar and stay under your requirements.

A_Sober_Paddy

thegreatiam wrote: »

Dont think of your food intake in terms of ingredients but as your diet as a whole.

a couple of spoons of sugar in a whole meal is not going to affect your diet, a tub of sugar a week will.

Just calculate the ingredients into your macro totals using myfitnesspal or similar and stay under your requirements.

I know, but a lot of the recipes I've seen and like call for brown sugar, ideally i'd like to reduce my sugar intake a bit, some of which call for 1/2 cup of sugar for 4 servings

thegreatiam

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

I know, but a lot of the recipes I've seen and like call for brown sugar, ideally i'd like to reduce my sugar intake a bit, some of which call for 1/2 cup of sugar for 4 servings

fell free to reduce the sugar a little. Mostly the sugar will be in a sauce or a glaze, so you wont really be eating that much sugar. unless its so tasty you lick the plate clean

and a 1/8 of a cup is about a 2 spoons i think (80 calories), if you have minimal added sugar in the rest of your diet then you'll be grand.

BaZmO*

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

I know, but a lot of the recipes I've seen and like call for brown sugar, ideally i'd like to reduce my sugar intake a bit, some of which call for 1/2 cup of sugar for 4 servings

1/2 cup of sugar is about 100g
divided by 4 = 25g (per serving)
which is actually not that much when you consider a can of coke has about 40g of sugar.

homemadecider

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

I know, but a lot of the recipes I've seen and like call for brown sugar, ideally i'd like to reduce my sugar intake a bit, some of which call for 1/2 cup of sugar for 4 servings

Without being smart, why don't you just choose different recipes? A lot of chinese recipes are very sweet hence the sugar. I also find that if you're using American slow cooker recipes the ingredients can be horrendous.

We regularly use the slow cooker to make things like meatballs, curries, bolognaise, chilli etc - no sugar in them.

frag420

Back again......so the curry turns out delish! Loads left over to freeze for office lunch. Anyway I just bought a 2.5kg topside of beef. I have halved it and wondering best way to roast it in slow cooker? Any and all suggestions welcome!

Marty McFly

BaZmO* wrote: »

1/2 cup of sugar is about 100g
divided by 4 = 25g (per serving)
which is actually not that much when you consider a can of coke has about 40g of sugar.

That's till the equivalent of 6 spoonfuls of sugar per serving, given the average person should only consume 9 per day that's a fair whack of sugar although on average most people are consuming 20 odd spoonfuls of sugar which is horrendous.

A can of coke should not be used as an indicator all fizzy drinks and drinks like Ribena are truly shocking in the amount of sugar they contain.

BaZmO*

Marty McFly wrote: »

That's till the equivalent of 6 spoonfuls of sugar per serving, given the average person should only consume 9 per day that's a fair whack of sugar although on average most people are consuming 20 odd spoonfuls of sugar which is horrendous.

A can of coke should not be used as an indicator all fizzy drinks and drinks like Ribena are truly shocking in the amount of sugar they contain.

You're missing the point.