So on my friend's advice I bought myself a slow cooker. It arrived on Thursday and we tried it out today. The instruction manual had only 4 recipes in it but I found this website:
Allrecipes
I chose a recipe which appeared easy enough, tortellini in tomato sauce:
Cheesy Italian Tortellini
It turned out all right though the sauce seemed a bit overcooked to my taste. Anyway, I'm thrilled and currently planning at least two more delicious meals. Have any of you had experiences with slow cooking? Feel free to share!
Hi Sanne,
ReplyDeleteI've had my slow cooker for nine months, and use it about once a week during the colder months. There's something about having dinner bubbling away by noon, that makes me feel so organised and energised! So far, I have tried an assortment of curries, and burritos and souvlakis. Osso bucco is next on my list. And I've yet to try making my bolognese sauce in it.
Mara.
Hello Mara,
ReplyDeletesouvlakis and osso bucco sound intriguing:) as I understand you can just prepare the whole dinner in it (meat, veggies and potatoes) which makes cleaning afterwards so much easier. And you basically assemble you meal in the morning, when you energy levels are high.
You add things later in the day that might get over-cooked.
ReplyDeleteAm sending you a crockpot recipe cookbook.
My favorite is the frozen boneless turkey roast with gravy. No need to thaw it. Put in the slow-cooker, with the gravy, and it works fine. Add vegetables later.
I mean the small turkey roast that fits niceky
ReplyDeleteDawn, Lydia, thanks for the tips. I made some calculations and discovered that I just overcooked the sauce a bit. My manual gives shorter cooking times on SLOW, like 5-6 hours, the recipe called for 7-8, I cooked it 9:) Anyway, it was my first time so I hope I'll learn. Interesting, this about packages. Will certainly try it.
ReplyDeleteI have 3 different sized crockpots. Crockpots make life a lot easier. Put in a roast in the morning and there's a delicious meal waiting at night!
ReplyDeleteI still have to figure out how this thing works. My second meal in it was far from success:)
ReplyDeleteI have no Crockpot but do lots of slow cooking. We spent the Easter at our off-grid cottage, so I had meat stew on the woodburner stove while I was warming the cottage. That is several hours, since the stove stays very warm long time after the fire is gone.
ReplyDeleteAt home I have a soapstone pot that "collects" heat. You put stew or roast to it, keep oven on some time (depends on the food) and switch it off. The pot stays warm on the oven and gives you 1-2 hours of "extra heat".
I quite often put potatoes in the pot, too. For some reason they do not overcook, but become so tasty since they are cooked in the liquids of meat.
Here in Finland one can also buy so called "aroma nest", which is a modern version of "hay box". Back in the old days women used to have hay box in the kitchen, you just cooked food for a while and then put it in the box, where hay kept the heat and food cooked slowly. That "aroma nest" is a similar thing but made from styrofoam. This is the "aroma nest":
http://www.aromipesa.fi/Aromipesa
Oh, and pressure cookers seem to be "in fashion" at the moment. I wonder how well they really work, and how safe they are?
i have recipes for hay box in my 1960 cookbook. It was done to save on fuel, btw. Pressure cookers have already existed in the 1950s, I've seen one featured in I Love Lucy. It exploded so not sure about safety:)
ReplyDeleteHello from Massachusetts! I love to stop by your lovely blog. On slow cookers, I really like them for some things and not for others. One tip that can be handy if your is not programmable to switch off automatically is to use a light/appliance timer. Some things like plain baked potatoes can be cooked very easily in a slow cooker and make a good start to a meal but they maintain the best color and texture on high for about 3 hours. I like to set up the cooker on a timer so that the potatoes will be ready for dinner time even if I need to go out. There is a woman on YouTube that has some crockpot tips. I think her name is Joann Rachor.
ReplyDeleteI wish you well always! God bless!!!
Mrs. Cote, welcome to the blog and thanks!
ReplyDeleteMy slow cooker is really very simple, it has no timer of any sort and 3 settings (low, high, keep warm). I have decided to stick to the recipes before I figure out the cooking times. in fact, I'm planning to try it again tomorrow hoping for a better result.
Al the best to you and yours, too!