Why haven’t I been slow cooking all my life!?

[icebearforpresident]

After gathering dust for years i’ve actually started to use my slow cooker, 3 times in the last 4 weeks and I genuinely don’t understand why I haven’t been using it! Everything tastes amazing and I love not having to rush to get stuff ready by 6 o clock. This weekend I made chicken tikka and it was better than any supermarket ready meal or jar of sauce. The beef stew last weekend was also a roaring success, even the kids ate it.

Any recipes you can share, I plan on using it as much as possible from now on.

I am also place marking for recipes. I love doing lasagne in the slow cooker. Always tastes nicer than from the oven.

I just use a pork loin and it comes out like pulled pork delicious .

Love my slow cooker.
This is a gem in terms of slow cooker stuff if you are willing/able to prepare in advance.
biamaith.ie/recipe-view/7-days-slow-cooker-dishes-prepared-in-1-hour/

My favourite at the moment is a chunky chilli.

Cheats version is :
Diced beef skirt
2 x sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
Tin of tomatoes
Packet of dried chilli con carne mix, eg, Colman's.

Shove it all on low for at least 6 hours. Half an hour before you dish up, bung in a tin of kidney beans.

Lovely served with potato wedges and a dollop of sour cream on the top.

I’d love a slow cooker but the people who say it makes the food tasteless and watery put me off! Is that really an issue?

Also, is it worth getting one if I work from home half the week?

Crimson we had many tasteless meals until I learned how to use it. I've found with good recipes, the correct size slow cooker and using a timer means that meals are always delicious now. I wfm and use it all the time. It's far cheaper than using the oven.

One tip I have is using bags of frozen mash as an accompaniment. I lay the bag over the top of the slow cooker which defrosts and heats the mash through in an hour or so with regular turning. Mash from Aldi is excellent. 75p and it feeds 5 of us.

*wfh

I confess after years of use my slow cooker is gathering dust after I got an electric pressure cooker - it's so much more versatile and my old slow cooker recipes taste vastly better. And I can still put food on in the morning and have it ready after work, though mostly I have a dump bag to chuck in after work and then leave it to cook while I spend time with DS.

Oh yes and it works very well when working from home - I generally do the prep and start it off at lunchtime ready for food that evening.

I love my slow cooker -- currently have sausage and bean casserole cooking away for tonight's tea. We'll have it with root vegetables mash & green beans.

Also agree that pork shoulder tastes fantastic in the slow cooker. We're having it next week with baked potatoes + coleslaw. We also have it a lot in the summer with bread/salad/etc.

I'm going to try the chicken tikka masala next week as well, that sounds lovely!

I love mine and love brisket in there. Also love the Mexican chilli beef from the pinch of nom site.

I do steak and kidney pudding. I make the pudding in a pyrex bowl and then put it in the sc with boiling water up to about 2 inches and leave it for the day.

https://www.coop.co.uk/recipes/chocolate-cinnamon-sponge?utmsource=Twitter&utmmmedium=Social&utmcontent=O&utmmcampaign=P2cinnamonn_sponge

This just popped up on my Twitter - looks amazing.

@diamantegal we just put ours on the low setting and it gets left from the morning (7:30am) right through until eating about 6pm. It's always worth doing the recipe the first time when you're in the house or can check it part way, just so you can keep an eye on the liquid levels as you don't want it to dry out, but I've not had any disasters. Things with vegetables in usually release more liquid as they cook, so stew, casseroles, chilli/bolognaise etc. Our slow cooker also then switches to an hour long stay warm setting, which stretches the time out a bit longer too.

@icebearforpresident we use a microwave rice steamer. Perfect rice every time :)

We do this casserole recipe in our slow cooker... www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1940689/beef-and-vegetable-casserole-

I use probably 300-400ml of water instead of the 600ml in the recipe as it's for the oven rather than the slow cooker. Absolutely delicious and great for reheating (we have it with rice then as it's usually because we need a quick meal).

Place marking for ideas!
Love my slow cooker but the only thing I really do in it in sausage casserole which requires browning the sausages otherwise they look too anaemic. I'm yet to do a cake in mine but my teenager would love the aero mint cake mentioned earlier on in the thread.

I’ve just done my weekly food order online and planning a veg lasagna for the weekend and meatballs and fajitas for during the week. I will report back!

I’m thinking brown the meatballs so I don’t end up with loads of fat in the sauce? Loads always comes out of them when I fry them, and they taste much better fried!

Using mine now. Put it on at 9am. Making chicken casserole.
Liking posted recipes.

I've recently found a new found love of my slow cooker being able to come home to a lovely warm meal with no messing around is such a treat!

I am irrationally scared of pressure cookers. I want one because of its many selling points but each time, Frank Spencer and his blown up pudding flashes in front of my eyes and it puts me off.

Why didn't I think of the two bag thing? So obvious when you think about it.

You can also use pyrex or ceramic to do things like individual pots or to make yogurt in small portions and of course the cooked breakfast.

I'I've got the macaroni cheese in the slow cooker . I'm on tenterhooks!

Joint of Gammon in mine. The cat is sat staring at the pot.

Hmpf. I dont like it
The texture of the pasta is weird, can't explain it. It's just really meh.
I've obviously cocked it up but what a waste of cheese.

I love mine. If we have beef stew I usually add dumplings about an hour before the end of cooking. They fluff up a treat. Also love oxtail stew. Brilliant too for making stock with chicken carcasses.