Have decided to embrace Autumn and purchase a slow cooker, now tell me your favourite recipes

[Katyathegringa]

I know there are loads of sites out there on the internet but I would appreciate some recommendations on the best slow cooker recipes/tips.

The way i cook my lamb or brisket or silverside is to add water till it covers about halfway up the side of the joint, that way it stops it drying out.

Allrecipes.co.uk have some good slowcooker recipes - i get a lot of mine from there.

Chocaholica - yes, you should be able to.

Oh and scratch, i always tend to do my joints on low, or start them off on high for an hour an turn them down to low.

OMG I think I've found my perfect slow cooker.
On the hob to brown stuff and then a long languishing simmer.
And a perfect size (my 3 litre is a bit small)

Anyone got the 4.7L crockpot - the one on Amazon? - (thanks to Dinahrod)

mummylin - I want to experiment with a ham before I have a disaster on Xmas day.
Do you turn it, brown it or just leave it.
My spag bog once burnt to the bottom so I'm a bit wary.

MoragB, this one?

A-ha, so it's a crockpot we're after, I just assumed it was another name for a SC but a CP can go on the hob, so truly one-pot cooking? Yay!

Sausage casserole & dumplings was delicious! Liquid was a little on the watery side even with the corn flour but I guess that's trial & error :)

Has anyone made a dish that requires a mash potato topping? I want to make my Boston Bean Bake but it has a mash potato topping so not sure how it would work?

did my beef joint yesterday...a posh marksies one that had been in the freezer for months and it was just ok...i think i let it dry out too much. taste was good, and it was quite soft, but not as lush as id'd hoped...

just bought some pork shoulder chop things and a bottle of cider to do a casserole....will add some onions. what else shall i chuck in??

Carrots & mushrooms chimchar?

I have my Boston Bean Bake cooking in my SC at the moment & it smells yum....I'm starting to get a little obsessed with it

I have a chicken casserole in mine at the moment - manshape has requested sumplings with it!

Sumplings??

Obviously, i meant dumplings!

I loved our dumplings last night, really chuffed with how they came out!

First slow cooking experience today. Veggie thing from the Sara Lewis book. Came home to lovely cooking smells. That was £30 well spent.

Is a 3.5l SC big enough to cook a chicken or joint of meat? I really fancy getting one but think the 6l will be too big (I haven't got much freezer space so wouldn't want to make double portions).

You could do a medium sized joint in it as it's more of a pot shaped, but i don't think you'd get a whole chicken in it - i use my 6.5l SC to do whole chickens - i lay them flat as the SC is oval shaped.

Not sure 3.5l would be big enough.
I'm a veggie so not clued up on meat cooking but aksed my mum yesterday who said it would have to be a small chicken to fit in my 3.5l.

Luckily I have a 6.5l aswell so will be trying it out this week as DH and the kids are meat eaters.

Thanks to this thread I had a lovely rice pudding yesterday. Next on the list to try is veg curry, banana bread and a joint of meat.

I have fallen in love with the simplicity of the slow cooker and can see this being a regular for our meals. Would it be too obsessive to get another little one so I can have one for veggie cooking one for meat and one for puddings?

Not at all - i'm contemplating getting a little 1.5ltr to do fondues/chutneys/jams in or maybe crayons and soaps as Christmas presents...

OMG crayons & soaps!!!

do you have a link for this?!

DH is going to think i have lost the plot but I am off work at the moment so trying my hand at all sorts of crafts to keep me away from day time telly.

Here you go

halfway down the page

Soaps! I can see I'm going to have to buy several SC's (DH will think I've gone mad - I'm not usually very domestic - I blame pg)

Asda have one for £7 at the moment btw direct.asda.com/Asda-Slow-Cooker/001557078,default,pd.html

I bought a slow cooker a couple of years ago and got very excited about it but got really confused about the whole food safety thing and only used it once!

The appeal for me would be to chuck in raw meat/veg and put on low all day for 6-8 hours but I thought I read something about having to brown the meat and get it cooking on high for a bit first to quickly get it up to temperature - which kind of ruins the point of it as its supposed to be so easy.

Has anyone else ever heard of this?

Jan, I don't bother, except with chicken.

Secretnut - do you bother with chicken because you think its nicer that way or for food hygeine reasons (was bought up veggie and am completely dense about cooking meat!)

The only things i brown are sausages (flacid penisis otherwise ) mince and occasionally chicken if it's on the bone. Otherwise everything else just gets thrown in raw, as does chicken off the bone.

If I don't brown the chicken it ends up looking insipid and unappetiseing. So just light fry it to give the skin a coalour.

I love my slow cooker and use it all the time.

I just wish I had bought a bigger one to do meat joints in iyswim.

I did a roast chicken in it on Sunday and I just had a bed of onions, carrots, leeks and then popped the bird (has to be a small one )on top with a stock cube

Did not add any water or anything...

Then I popped chicken into the oven for 30mins or so to crisp it up and to roast the spuds.

It was super yummy Am going to do a sausage casserole tomorrow.

I have yet to try any puddings though.

If anyone has a good chicken curry receipe I would be grateful

But it must be dairy/soya free as DD is intolerant.