Crockpot testing day

We had slow-cooked something or other with tomato/bbq type sauce. It was supposed to be beef, then it looked a bit like pork when it had defrosted a bit, but by the time it was cooked I couldn't be sure at all. I just know it wasn't chicken or lamb! The sauce was tomatoes, brown sugar, sherry vinegar, worcester sauce, pepper, sweetcorn, garlic and maybe some other stuff. Don't remember adding any salt interestingly enough. Turned out kind of BBQ flavoured, and DD asked what was in it because she thought it was a bit spicy!

Anything with a can of tomatoes and some meat and veg will work in a slow cooker. If I didn't have an aversion to using canned soups I could probably widen my raneg considerably!

I tend to put mine on around lunchtime (that would be midday Honey!) but I didn't used to need it until 7pm. Now it will probably have to go on a bit earlier. You'll have to let us know what you ended up with...

Kerri.

Try this next time you have chicken breasts:
cubed Chicken breasts
1 can (I use a family sized one) of Cream of Chicken soup
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup chopped green onions
dash of chayenne pepper
salt and pepper

Mix it all up in the crockpot and cook for 8 hours. Serve over or with rice.

What happens when you overboil broccoli?? Well, why do you expect it to stay a beautiful green in a slow cooker if it turns to yellow slime in a pot of boiling water??? Add the broccoli towards the end of cooking another time, or start off testing with vegetables which are safe in a slow cooker forever like sweetcorn, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions. Green veg is asking for trouble, and even carrots courgettes and aubergines will turn to mush eventually, so if you want texture, add them later.

Another thing you might want to try next time is to do an all-in-one recipe you're already familiar with. A lot of one pot stuff translates easily to the slow cooker, just ensuring that you can walk out of the house safely while it cooks, instead of having to turn the gas off. My number one safe suggestion?? Pasta sauce. Whatever you normally do for pasta sauce will work perfectly in a slow cooker I promise, so no need to splurge on fancy ingredients for a new recipe. Just don't leave it on high after the first hour or so or it will eventually dry out. You could probably resurrect it - I've had to in the past when I forgot to switch to Auto (starts on high than automatically moves to low after a couple of hours), but it's best not to have to!

Stick to what you know. The slow cooker is new, so don't also try to work with new and unfamiliar recipes or you're asking for trouble.

Kerri.

Hey you guys! Please chuck recipes into the recipe box. A place for everything and everything in its place, blah de blah.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Details!

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Thanks to the slow cooker even my DD occasionally eats beef. She's the type of child who chews her own saliva (at the age of 7 1/2 - we're not talking about a toddler here!), so the slow cooker does all the hard work for her!

A lot of the cheaper cuts respond well to slow cooking, and they're also usually far tastier than the more expensive, leaner cuts you'd buy for quick frying. Brisket is one example I played with a bit recently - very tasty!

any all-in-one dishes will work in a slow cooker... I'm just glad you had a success with the second one, because I could see that Christmas present quickly becoming a white elephant otherwise!

Kerri.

Brisket is the same in the UK and in the US. Check the meat section at Tesco more carefully. (It's a cut of beef.)