Two meals slow-cooked so far. Two piles of inedible slop

[Bibulus]

I don't know how this is so difficult!

one chicken stew with chicken legs that completely disintegrated into individual fibres

one pearl barley stew (Hugh F-W's) which turned into lumpy glue

and both of them tasted of nothing! all the lovely veg etc I put in was totally annihilated

Each time I have left it on low all day and gone to work. That's how it's supposed to work, isn't it?

IamtheSnorkMaiden did you put any liquid at all with the gammon or just honey? Sound delicious!
I have to say I am on the verge of getting rid of my slow cooker, as, like others have said, if you are out to work all day all you get is tasteless mush! Maybe I'll invest in a timer switch instead. Hmmm....

I cooked my gammon in a bottle of cherry coke and addes some spices to the coke .

A cup of oats will eek out a minced based dish, in the slow cooker or conventional cooking.

Another request for the beef and guinness stew recipe here please!!
I might buy that book too. I have had a slow cooker for years and only used it a handful of times as I also found that it cooked the flavour out of all the wine and stock and stuff I put in it....would love to get the hang of it.

I quite fancy doing the Pork, bbq and coke recipie.

How do you do the rice pudding?

Also hate slow cooker!

I've found plenty of good casserole recipes that only take an hour or so so you can just stick them on when you get in from work / school run and by the time you've got kids bathed / homeworks done / a wash on they're ready to go and imho they taste better a lot of the time than something that's been cooked all day.

my top casserole tips: marinade the meat either the night before or before you go to work and leave it chilling in the fridge until it's time to use, makes the meat less chewy and gives it better flavour when you're sticking it in a stew, casserole, curry or whatever.

the other is using tinned potatoes - I only started doing this cos i had a weight watchers cookbook with a few casserole recipes that always suggested using tinned jersey royal potatoes and i'd never used them before. now i'm hooked no peeling, no slicing, no waiting forever for them to get soft enough. they're waxy in a way that tastes great in sort of spicy casserole or spanish/french stuff. give them a try and stick the slow cooker on ebay!

thanks for the tinned potatoe tip, I have never tried them, I will give them a wizz next time!

Only got mine a few months ago and have also had mixed results but LOVE it for veggie soups, bolognaise, chilli; I could never walk away from it for hours on end though, like you're SUPPOSED to be able to do, as so often (even on low) I've had burnt-bottom disasters, so it doesn't actually function that usefully as a slow cooker in that respect!! No way could I go to work for 8 hours and leave it on for instance - I've clearly either got a slow-cooker that cooks too fast, or have got a lot to learn, still...I did a fab fish curry in it last week though which I was rather proud of:-)

meerkate, do you have recipe for the fish curry please. I've never tried cooking fish in mine.

I've had mainly success and a few disasters.

Chicken casserole turns out fine. I use boneless and skinless thighs, chopped up into big pieces, chantenay carrots, onion, leek, clove or 2 of garlic, sometimes add mushrooms. I just put it all in and add some stock, one stock cube dissolved in a small amount of water, about 1/3-1/4 of a mug. Then a squirt of tomato puree. On low for 6-8 hours

I've made soups, lamb casseroles, chillis, mince dishes.

Just to add, if it needs thickening, I'd add some cornflour blended with a small amount of water. Then put on high with the lid off for a while.

Thanks for the tips Totem!

Fish curry's full and slightly intimidating title is 'West Sumatran Fish Curry' It is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's recipe and involves making a paste from: 6-8 dried chillies, a handful of unsalted cashews (soaked together in a small bowl of water first, chuck in the water too), grated ginger (about a 2.5 cm piece), 3 cloves of garlic, some paprika, turmeric, coriander (whatever you have lying around the spice rack, basically); frying this paste in some oil for a while,with some spring onion or finely chopped onion; then adding some chunks of good quality cod and salmon (4 large fillets in total should be fine for a family of four) which you've previously ground salt over and doused in lemon or lime juice and left to sit around for half an hour or so. Oh, and some red pepper pieces. After a few minutes, put all of this into the slow cooker with a can of coconut milk, cook on low for an hour or two, and add a big bunch of fresh coriander and some squirts of lime or lemon juice towards the end. Basically you don't really need the SC, I just did that bcs I was off on the school run and knew I'd be out of the house for a while! And devour with lots of Basmatic rice. Amazingly both kids loved this, and DH was v impressed (mainly bcs it WASN'T spag bol )

Thanks to the poster who suggested BBQ pork with coke - tried it today and it was really good and so easy! DH is finally convinced that the slow cooker is worth digging out from the back of the cupboard and dusting off.

A fave here is (another!) lamb tagine. Lamb bunged in with some cumin, coriander, ginger, tumeric, cinnamon, dash of cayenne, orange juice, dates slivered almonds and a bit of chicken stock. Use some of the excess liquid to prepare cous cous to go with it. Smells & tastes fab after a day cooking though (unlike many curries etc), leftovers don't taste better next day. I rarely bother with any prep such as browning meat though sometimes I find onion a bit over-powering if its not been softened. Dumplings work well too & are great for thickening up (though not great for health...)

We mainly do meat bunged in with veg, some stock & herbs/spices. I bought some slow-cooker packet mix recently (Coleman and supermarket own) & we were really not impressed. Supermarket coq-au-vin was the best of the bunch but we struggled with both versions of sausage casserole & beef with ale though I have read good reviews elsewhere. Much preferred our `throw it all together' versions.

Also have used it for steamed puddings - far better than the Russian roulette of burning pans dry every Christmas when making puds!

meerkate, thanks for that. It sounds nice and I usually have most of those bits and bobs in for the paste.

Could anyone give me any recipes for chilli or spag Bol? Do you need to brown the mince?
Also any curry recipes would be fab.
I have a great recipe for chicken and chorizo casserole.
4 chicken breasts,
2 tins chopped toms,
1 onion chopped
Chorizo chopped
Approx 1lb potatoes, I use very small baby potatoes or if too large chip in half.
2 cloves garlic
2tsp chilli powder
2 tbsp tomato puree
Veg or chicken stock. Recipe says 1/2 pint but I actually find that too much.
Put it all in slow cooker I do 8 hours on low my sc only has low anyway
Serve some nice warm bread to mop up juices and I add a dollop of sour cream.
Yummy!
You can adjust the chilli powder to your preference or leave it out and add mixed herbs instead to make it more like Mediterranean chicken.

I use mine about x3 per week for chilli, beef stew, brisket, soups and curries. I always use a timer switch because all it ruins things to cook all day.

Gammon/ ham joints are great for lazy people like me. Bring to the boil on the stove top first, and simmer for a few mins to get rid of too much salt. Put the joint (without the salty water) in the slow cooker and top up with boiled water from the kettle. Cook on low for as long as you like, then turn off, but leave to cool in the water.
Easy meal with baked potatoes and salad, and foolproof. Leaving in the water to cool keeps it moist.
You can also used the left-over liquid for stock/ soup.

Some really good tips on here! Must dust it off.

I smashed my 6.5ltr crock pot

Time to invest in a new one as I loved my slow cooker.

This thread has made me hungry!

I am definitely going to make that fish curry. It sounds gorgeous.

Dear Thread,

I'm doing an experiment today. You know Aldi's legendary four-bird roast? Well, it was on special offer (still £8 though, eek!) so I got one. I defrosted it yesterday; it's now in the slow cooker with lashings of extra salt, pepper, herbs and spices. I squished the 'glaze' over the top of the roll and have put it on high for four hours.

If it doesn't go brown on top, I'll try sticking some foil on it for an hour at the end. If that fails, too, I'm sure a scorching oven will do the job! Not exactly sure how I'm expecting the juices to turn out with all that extra seasoning, so shall report back.

I'd be holding my breath ... but not for 4 hours

pieceofthemoon glad you enjoyed the BBQ pork! We love it in this house

I can't see the bbq pork recipe. Can someone repost?

I use my slow cooker mainly for soups, chilli and beef hotpot. I have also used it one Christmas when my oven was broken to "roast" the pheasant and it turned out well.
I did try to do a chicken thigh curry in it but like the OP my chicken just turned out shredded which I didn't want