In my (totally self-proclaimed) role as leader of all cooking, I do declare this to be The Week Of The Slow Cooker. Yep, we're celebrating that terrific invention that, through my 70's childhood came in garish orange, poo brown and vile green and was known as the Crock Pot. Now they're all sleek and shiny and chrome and pretty but they do exactly the same job - cook delicious meals over a long period of time leaving you free to get on with your day.
I don't pretend to be an expert on them. My first one lasted about four years and now I'm onto my second and love, love, loving it. I'm one of those cooks that's great with a recipe but not so great without one so it took me a while to get the hang of switching a regular recipe to make it work out in the slow cooker but eventually I got there. I did find that the slow cooker recipe books that were Australian or English were much nicer than the American ones. The former were full of recipes with fresh ingredients where I found that the latter relied on lots of tinned, canned or bottled goods. A couple of my favourites are Slow Cooker by Sally Wise, Slow Cookers: more than 100 easy recipes published by Murdoch Books and The Australian Women's Weekly Slow Cooker . All terribly original titles, I'm sure you'll agree! I also find lots of good recipes in the foodies mags, particularly Australian Good Taste and Super Food Ideas.
Here are the slow cooker recipes I've posted before. Have a look through and see if anything takes your fancy.
I'm actually a little surprised that I can only find three slow cooker recipes on here - if I'm doing lamb shanks, beef hotpot or a roast of pretty much any description they're always done in the slow cooker and I know I put one for Lancashire Hotpot on the facebook page a week or so ago
So, what do you want to know about slow cookers? Are you trying to convert a recipe but not sure how? Are you searching for a particular recipe? Have you got a great recipe you want to share? Let me know and I'll open it up for you all to chime in and provide answers. And by the end of the week, hopefully, we'll all have some yummy new ideas for dinner!
5 comments:
I am *so* buying a Slow Cooker when we move back to Australia one day!
Hi, de-lurking to let you know I cooked the lamb forequarter chops, sliced potato & onions slow cooker recipe you posted on Facebook a little while ago and it was delicious! I love your blog, especially the recipes, and have been reading since your red dirt mummy days when we used to live in Perth (now in Sydney).
Cheers, Sue.
It´s really weird. I have to explicitly switch to English at Wiki to learn about a slow cooker! The German version has no article about it.
And really: I grew up with a Schnellkochtopf, too funny, with schnell = fast (you call it "pressure cooking").
We live in different worlds, huh? ;-)
I really do wonder how many years it will take to come over here? I still wait for Germany to offer cooking oil you can spray! No such thing here! So I always end up using a paper towel to get rid off the oil that´s too much in the pan.
Embarassing, huh?!
I mean... in times with internet and all. Why does it take forever with the good stuff to get here?!
@Melody - I had mine up north and it was fantastic. I could cook a leg of lamb or a nice casserole type meal without heating up the house.
@Sue - thanks so much for de-lurking. Your comment made my day!
@Iris - we have pressure cookers too but... they kinda scare me LOL. Rather than wiping out the excess oil what about pouring a little bit onto the paper towel then using that to wipe the pan?
I made Osso Bucco last night, I think the secret is to get really, really good veal shank bones. I bought some from an organic butcher a couple of months ago and popped them in the freezer until the weather turned nice and chilly. I'd never made it before - big hit with everyone. I used Ian Parmenter's recipe from delicious magazine.
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