Slow Cooker

Robbo said:That sounds tasty smalls. Surely i need water in it aswell?

John, thanks for your in depth answer. Ill just chuck some meat and veg in and see what happens.

VanillaGorilla said:I love my slow cooker! Can make pretty much owt in it, from lamb casserole to chicken noodle soup and chilli con carne.

Try lamb neck (browned off in a pan) thrown in with new potatoes, peas, mint sauce and stock.

Another favourite is dead simple: Chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, onions and carrots. Literally chuck it all in, cover with stock or gravy and leave it fir 6 hours.

Thing said:I need to start using my one. a 6lite beast from morphy richards

i wonder is they would mind if i took it into work with me??

Robbo said:
6 litre?!?!?! Beast!!!

hifilover said:Yup... Easy and great things to use

I whack ours on in the morning (even though I work at home it's a pain having to figure tea out late in the afternoon)!

Sausage casserole is good as are chicken, beef & lamb stews

Thai curries work very well in them too as they're already a fairly thick sauce etc...

If youre doing stews my only recommendation is that you fry off the veg (onsions, carrots, celery etc...) to begin with and once nicely & lightly browned off; toss in a tablespoon of plain flour and cook it off for 5mins

This will then help to thicken the stew nicely and you wont need to add cornflour to it at the end to thicken it etc...

My recipe for sausage casserole:

6 - 8 decent pork/cumberland sausages
1 onion, 2 carrots and 2 sticks of celery
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Paprika & a little cayenne pepper
1 pint of veg/chicken stock
Mushrooms

Fry the veg off in a little decent olive oil for 10mins; really you want to sweat it off but have it lightly browned as well. Once cooked off add a tablespoon of plain flour and cook this off for 5 mins. It'll become sticky/gloopy but that's the gluten cooking off

Add this to the slow cooker and pour in the tomatoes and stir until it's all broken up; add the sausages and push them under. Then add the stock (you may only need 3/4's but usually a pint is bang on).

Chop the mushrooms into halves/quarters (if theyre big) and then add to the stock; add a good pinch of paprika and a small pinch of cayenne, black pepper and a little sea salt (not rock salt)

Push the sausages down again as theyll float and then cook on high for 4-6 hours and then hold it on low until ready to serve

This with some decent roasted spuds, new potatoes or mash and some green veg is f**kING godly