It’s that time of year again where we bring our neglected slow cookers out of hibernation in order to enjoy (or not in most cases) some over cooked, wishy washy stew. This blog here is to let you know, YOU CAN DO BETTER, your slow cooker deserves more credit!
Slow cooker meals are generally infamous for uninspiring, void of any texture stews or casseroles. There’s no wonder that there is a long running stigma that everyone groans when the house cook explains there’s a beef stew to come home to (typically mums get targeted for this on social media 😅) but its not too late to turn the slow cooker haters in the it’s no1 fans!
Don’t misunderstand me, there’s nothing wrong with a hearty beef or chicken stew if, ironically, you don’t stew everything to death. I mean lets face it even the word ‘stew’ is enough to out you off a dish so lets start by perhaps changing the name of the dish altogether. A sneaky way to do this is to, and I highly recommend this part for any slow cooking anyway, is actually brown or seal the meat and veggies before you put them in to slow cook, because believe it or not your dish can now be renamed a fricassee (in loose terms anyway)
Imagine that, your teenager, husband/wife texts asking what’s for dinner and instead of replying with the two dreaded words beginning with ‘b’ and ’s’ you can respond with beef fricassee, their imaginations will be running wild!
Next up on my one woman mission to change your outlook on slow cooker dinners is if you are able to as mentioned above brown off your ingredients and toast any herbs and spices before you let the slow cooker works its magic.
Allow me to use a simple example.. the humble carrot, simply boiled or steamed its a perfectly adequate addition to a meal but unlikely to arouse your tastebuds.. however get that carrot in to an oven to roast or a parboiled carrot in to a sauce pan to get some colour and caramelisation on it, now were talking.
After all the convenience of a ‘dump & go’ recipe is just that, suitable, useful, practical but surely we all deserve a bit more then that after a long day?
I can sympathise that its adds a little extra cooking time maybe 15mins and hey there’s no need to brown everything every single slow cooked meal but it sure as hell adds ALOT more flavour.
Next tip, try and get all the larger ingredients roughly the same size they’ll cook more evenly, and more importantly if you’re cooking, for instance, a beef goulash try to buy whole cuts of meat, I really like shin of beef and then cut them in to large chunks yourself, large enough that they’ll take a similar cooking time to you veggies, carrot/potatoes or what ever they may be. My reason being, if you chuck a whole large chunk of beef in that will take far longer to get tender then the carrots will do to get soft.. resulting in mushy veg and an over sweet gravy!
Reduce the gravy/sauce always try to schedule in some time to reduce the gravy at the end on a high heat, you can either do this carefully by transferring to a sauce pan and reducing on a heat or adding a cornflour slurry.. which really doesn’t sound as bad as its namesake, its just a thickening agent, normally around 1.5tbsp of cornflour mixed with 3tbsp of cold water and then mixed in to your slow cooker meal at the end.
Another great tip is to add a fresh garnish at the end, some chopped parsley, chives, coriander or spring onions, whatever suits the recipe you’ve cooked, it will add a freshness and lift the sometimes heavy meals and add another dimension to your comforting meal.
Lastly get adventurous, don’t just leave your slow cooker for colder months, they work fabulously for pasta or noodle dishes to. Some of the recipes you can find on my website are full of exciting ideas such as, beef & mushroom pasta, lamb & orzo, firecracker sausage casserole, Spanish chicken, moroccan lamb and much much more, please check