Taming Twins’ slow cooker lamb curry

[Todayisanewday75]

So far I’ve had very limited success with my slow cooker, all seems a bit watery and tasteless. But I have all the ingredients for this lamb curry, has anyone tried it? I’d love to use the slow cooker more but don’t like seeing disappointed faces at dinner time

I think one of the biggest issues with slow cookers is people use the same amount of liquid you would if making on the stove and it ends up watery. You need very little liquid, very very little as none evaporates.

I generally don't add any liquid to my slow cooker now.

Meat, veg, seasonings all in the pot and then switch it on. The liquid from the meat and veg are usually enough to make a sauce.

I have it's lovely and not watery

Thanks for the advice. I’ll definitely give it a go

@ThePoshUns did you add the mango chutney?

What have you been making? I think veg dishes turn to slush in a slow cooker, every mouthful tastes the same.

Meat, nuts, beans or dumplings etc needed to give texture or ok if you don't mind it all tasting the same, as with some veg curries.

Yes it adds a bit of zing!

I haven't tried that one, but I can recommend the beef & broccoli recipe. I cook the broccoli separately to stop it going soggy. I also really like the bored of lunch beef curry with peanut butter.

I made this one recently and it was really nice, not watery at all

https://www.tamingtwins.com/chicken-chorizo-stew-slow-cooker/

Or, drain the sauce off and reduce it 10ish mins before serving. I do this and it gives me a chance to tweak seasoning etc at the same time.

I like the chicken casserole and Parmesan dumplings

The recipes I’ve tried just don’t seem to have the depth of flavour of say something I have cooked on the hob and then into a low oven for a couple of hours

Not tried this one but have done the korma ones loads and everyone in my house loves it.

Another question, does high or low cooking make a difference to the taste or does it just depend on how much time you have before a meal?

I'd say it makes more of a difference to the meat rather than the taste. Low and slow gives lovely tender meat, but, ONLY for certain cuts, it can be a little bit tougher on high. If I'm a little tight on time I sometimes put it on high for the first hour to get the food up to cooking temperature quickly, then knock it down to low. The rough guide is 1 hour high = 2 hours low.

Obviously, if you keep taking the lid off to look at it or taste it you reduce the temperature and it'll take longer or cook less well. I also drain the condensation off the lid straight away when I lift it off, because why put water back into the sauce?

One other thought - if it's a joint oven or slow cooker recipe, I usually add more stock cube and/or spice than the recipe suggests as slow cooking seems to cook off flavours a bit.

I’ve found this issue is only on day 1 of the slow cooker. It’s usually better on day 2.

I usually opt for low and longer cooking time but I'm not sure if it makes any difference to the taste.

I actually really rate the Taming Twins slow cooker recipes. I think she's cracked upping the flavours. In my house her Honey Garlic Beef Noodles are a hit (with the meat eaters):

https://www.tamingtwins.com/slow-cooker-beef-noodles/

Thanks for all the advice. It’s now on, just need to stop myself from checking on it for the next seven hours!

@Todayisanewday75 sorry for bumping an old thread - but how did it go?! I'm trying out more slow cooker recipes yet again and have had a few fails recently

I’m afraid it didn’t go well for me. I did buy her books though and everything I’ve made so far has been really good, haven’t tried any of the slow cooker ones yet though

I think as a rule with slow cookers, they need less liquid (as others have said) and you also almost always need MORE time than they say. 4 hours on high of 8 hours on low is the standard while I find 5 and 10 are actually better in almost every case.

You also need stronger flavours. Nothing fills me more with horror than seeing a recipe for a slow cooker stew that basically involves meat, a few veg, and maybe a bit of stock. You need to punch up the flavour. I do a lovely lamb stew thing with lots of cloves and some cinnamon and some tomato, for example. I

Finally, too often people use really lean, tasteless meat in the slow cooker. You need meat with flavour - don't buy "stewing lamb/beef.

I just wanted to jump on as I got a new slot cooker book recently and it's really revolutionised our family meals. It's the Poppy Cooks actually delicious slow cooker book. Really good tasty recipes, easy to throw everything in at once, minimal ingredients.

*slow cooker of course!!

Her slow cooker chicken curry is a firm family favourite here.