Please help me with some cooking questions!

[LaDamaDeElche]

I'm really time poor at the moment, so have decided I need to learn how to cook simple stews, casseroles and soups, which I can batch cook. I don't have any equipment to do this, and am looking at purchasing some, but I'm a bit confused. There is conflicting info on the internet and I don't want to end up buying things I have no space for and spending money unnecessarily.

So, my question is, regarding casseroles - are they cooked on the oven or on the stove? Do I need a pyrex dish and some kind of casserole pan that you can put in the oven and on the stove too, or just one?

I'm also looking at cooking soups and stews, so is there a multi use thing, like a slow cooker/crock pot, that I could use for all? Is it worth purchasing a soup maker separately to this as it gives different consistencies without having to use a blender?

At the moment I have a soup maker, pyrex dish, hand blender/normal blender, crock pot and a casserole pan on my Amazon list and it seems like that may be an overkill - also £££. Also, no idea where I would store all of those things as my kitchen is pretty small. Would be grateful for advice on this!

God, what's a pressure cooker? 😅 I'm so not in the know with cooking gadgets. I've survived so far just with normal pans!

while I am a big fan of a slow cooker, I would be hesitant to make that your main tool for cooking stews, casseroles and soups unless you routinely plan to prepare the food in advance and leave to cook all day.

A casserole in the oven will take between 1.5-2.5 hours usually, depending on what you do. A stew on the stove will take about 1-1.5 hours.

I would purchase a casserole dish like the one a PP has posted that can go on the stove or in the oven. this is also useful if you have to brown the meat before you put the liquid in and place in oven.

Soups on the stove can take as little as 20 minutes, depending on what you're making. Our favourite quick soup is: chopped onion sautéed in some oil. Add a bag of fresh spinach and approximately 1 cup of frozen peas. Add enough stock to wilt the spinach and once wilted, top up sufficiently so that the spinach and peas are just covered. Simmer for 10 minutes. Once slightly cooled, blend with a stick blender, adding a generous squeeze of lemon juice, a little bit of nutmeg, a drizzle of honey and salt/pepper to taste. Serve in bowls with a large dollop of greek yoghurt added.

Buy a slow cooker.

Basic casserole:
Put some flour on a plate, and mix in a fair bit of salt and pepper. Take your meat/chicken/sausages and coat them in the flour, and then brown it in a hot pan for a few mins. Chuck it in the slow cooker with carrots, onion, potatoes, a stockcube but NOT liquid stock as the liquid doesn't reduce or thicken in a slow cooker, a very large squirt of tomato puree, 2 or 3 bay leaves, and your choice of herbs and spices, and a glass of wine. Cook it on medium for 4-5 hours, or low for 8ish. Stir it now and again, and add a splash of water if needed. At the end you can add some crispy fried bacon or chorizo if you feel fancy.

A pressure cooker is a pot whose lid can be sealed to create a vacuum once heated. Speeds up the cooking process for a lot of tougher substances. E.g. it's great for dried beans/chickpeas, bone broths or ox or veal tongue that take forever to soften in a conventional pot. They're also great soup pots used at normal pressure.

What times are you free if you're working split shifts?

I have a "sear and stew" slow cooker which I can also put on the hob which is very helpful. So I can fry onions etc and get the whole thing up to boiling before I put the pan into the slow cooker case.

That means I "only" need to slow cook things for 6? ish hours - it would be fine if I put something on late morning to then eat dinner, certainly.

I can cook things for 12+ hours but it's not necessary.

I find I get a much smoother soup with a jug blender than a stick blender, but that might be that I have a decent jug blender and a cheap stick blender - I'm not sure.

Re blender, if you like your soups on the chunkier side I often don't even mess with a stick blender - once the ingredients are cooked and softened often it's quite enough to use a potato masher. Much easier cleaning, plus I've got the stick blender stowed away for space reasons.

You don't need packet mixes for casseroles! Just good quality base ingredients, and then whatever herbs/spices you like.

Personally, I wouldn't get a slow cooker. Search for 'Serious Eats' and 'why you shouldn't buy a slow cooker'.

I'd suggest either a stovetop casserole dish, or a pressure cooker (eg instant pot). The instant pot is ideal for all sorts of dishes and you can leave it unattended, just like a slow cooker. But with the advantage that the food will almost always taste better, and it can do many more things.

Crock pot is a brand name. Go for a slow cooker, I use nine a couple of times of week in the fall and winter and occasionally in Sumner.

Things I cook in it regularly are
Curries
Bolognese
Stews - all sorts
Cassoulet
Coq au vin
Beef bourguignon
Casseroles
Hams/ gammon
Brisket
Short rib
Hot pots
Goulash
Brown stew chicken
I have one smaller one kept for mulled wine and hot apple cider
And the lists goes on.

You brown your meat and soften onions, celery and carrot or cook off any spices in a skillet first then add that to the slow and all other ingredients. Put the lid on and don't remove it! Put it on high for an hour and turn down to low and leave for another 7 hours. Or tou can do 6 hours on high but I always choose the slower option. Some recipes like the Brisket depending on size can take 10 to 12 hrs. But it's so worth it

I'm a good cook-but I've had two goes with slow cookers (separated by several years) and I'm always disappointed in the results. @LaDamaDeElche think of the last three soups and casseroles you've really enjoyed and we'll talk you through making them. It's honestly easy once you've had a go.

Buy wonky carrots and onions and celery too. Chop them up finely to make soffritto - I urge you to spend some money on a good set of knives and a knife sharpener. I also chop peppers and freeze for sauces that require them.

I still have pans that were given to me or that I bought in charity shops, all good as new.

Soffritto is an excellent base for stews, curries, chillies and Bolognese. I freeze the extra, which you can also buy in the freezer section in supermarkets and should cost no more than £2.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/17/batch-cooking-italian-soffritto-recipe-get-ahead-eleonora-galasso

I personally think casseroles taste far better done in the oven, in something like BIWI linked above. You could also do soups, curries etc in that, anything sloppy.

Not a huge fan of slow cookers but they do have their place.

I'd put the blender on the list of things to buy in the future.

Many soups don't need blending at all, minestrone, French onion soup, potato & leek, for example. Any soup with pasta such as chicken vermicelli won't require blending.

If you feel you want a thicker vegetable or bean soup for instance, you could just mash up a small bowlful of the soup, then return it to the main pan.

a slow cooker. You can do soups and casseroles in this and it should be cheaper to run than the oven. You can also use it for pre-soaked dried beans (cheaper) and use the liquid as part of your stock.

Be v careful with dried beans in a slow cooker: some beans, particularly red kidney, need to be boiled for a time or they can be toxic.

I don't think I've ever had a casserole in my life. I like all kinds of soups, particularly tomato and butternut squash. Not really a fan of meat or fish soups, just veggie soups. I quite like creamy rather than broth.

Off to work now, so will catch up on everyone's suggestions this evening. Thank you 😊

I use a pressure cooker for pulses etc, but in Spain you can get such wonderful ones ready cooked in jars, so if I were you, I wouldn’t bother.

Just go for a big cast iron pan you can use both on the hob and in the oven, then take it from there.

Personally, I think that as a rule, slow cookers don't work as well as a traditional casserole. But the convenience is worth a great deal.

Also, I have learnt to extend the time suggested for most things. If a casserole should be 8 hours, I will usually leave it for more like 10.

And don’t bother with “non stick”. The coating only lasts for a few years, anyway, and you need to get a new one - such a waste of money and resources!

I was very disappointed when I invested in a slow cooker. I was promised it was easy and quick, and all I’d have to do would be chop stuff up and bung it in, then at the end of the day, lo and behold - tasty stew/curry etc.

But in reality, most slow cooker recipes involve faff like browning off and other preparation, before the chopped stuff goes into the slow cooker, thus defeating the object (for me anyway). Plus the results weren’t all that good. It went into a drawer and after a year of non-use I gave it away.

Dh cooks nice casseroles and chillis in a big cast iron thing on the hob.

Just here to say Sainsburys often does really good deals on casserole dishes that seem just like the expensive option. I have one a bit like this massive one: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-home-53l-ciron-casserole-dish-cream which is currently on offer. (Other sizes and options here https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/groceries/homeware-and-outdoor/kitchen-and-dining/cookware/casserole-pans-and-stew-pots/c:1020136)

I don't work for them I just bought one hopefully and have found it fab, works on the hob and in the oven, gets used several times a week.

If you've got a big roasting dish type thing already you can roast some vegetables (or meat I guess) at the same time as the oven is on and have them in pittas for another meal or in couscous etc.

If you already have a large pan, knives and a chopping board, i wouldnt buy anything other than a blender right now.

Cook some recipies on the stove top, and see if you stick with that style of cooking. After that, I'd buy a cast iron pot. We don't like slow cooker food - it doesn't get hot enough to caramelize imo. The le Creuset pot gets used maybe once a week in winter (stew) and once a month on summer for pilaus and biryani.

Technically, a casserole goes in the oven, a stew is cooked on the hob.

I have an instant pot that combines pressure cooker and slow cooker functions, also sautes, you can get models that do air frying too.

I use it eg making a beef stew you can saute the onions and meat in it then add veg and stock, set to pressure cook and it will reach a much higher temp and pressure than an oven, then after the pressure cooking time elapses it goes to slow cooking automatically so it stays warm until you get home.

The benefit of plug in type devices is they don't need to be watched really - I wouldn't go out and leave a casserole in the oven but I don't mind leaving my instant pot on. Might fit well with your shift work.

A stick blender is your friend for all sorts of things, and very cheap to buy. I use mine for soup, making curry paste, whizzing up breadcrumbs, getting lumps out of sauces etc.

I would say that I think slow cookers and pressure cookers are not that great for vegetarian things, every mouthful ends up tasting the same and the texture can be a bit mushy and samey. So if you want to make veg stews and soups, just use a saucepan!

@LaDamaDeElche OK. My standard really easy batch cook and freeze things are chickpea curry, parsnip soup, red lentil dal and Irish stew. I won't give you recipes because I don't use them. I suggest you have a look at BBC Good Food. They will have absolutely fail safe easy versions for you to start with. I suggest you buy a Le Creuset type pot (Sainsburys are brilliant for these) a stick blender and freezer containers of the right size for a meal for your family. I have Tupperware equivalents for one, two and four portions, which is what suits my family. Don't forget to label and date your boxes clearly. I'm really bad at this and once defrosted apple sauce instead of dal. Don't overwhelm yourself by doing too much at once. You'll get into the swing of it!

Sorry. Make sure you have a sharp knife, measuring spoons, a couple of things to stir with and a ladle. None of the recipes I suggest need scales-but you might want some soon.