| Lamb Stew in a slow cooker
Take a piece of lamb - most slow cooker recipes suggest browning
the meat first before putting it in the slow cooker. Cut into small
pieces, place with chopped vegetables and potatoes, add stock, herbs
and anything you’d add in to a normal lamb stew.
The recipe is simple - or as complicated as you want it to be.
Anything you can do on a low simmer in the oven or in a saucepan
can be done in a slow cooker so feel free to experiment. As long
as you follow the basic rules of a slow cooker, ie: the right amount
of liquid, browning meat where necessary then you’ll find
most things will work. If things don’t turn out quite how
you want them to then why not give the dish French name?
I will be trying some recipes over the next few weeks and letting
you know how well I get on.
Stew is one of the few dishes I remember my mother making when
I was a child. I remember it mostly because she used to cut parsnips
up to make them look like potatoes in the vain hope she’d
be able to get me to eat more veg! I never fell for it - but would
happily eat all the rest of the stew she’d make. She used
left over Sunday roast beef cut into small pieces, add with potatoes,
carrots, parsnips and stock cubes to make a really nice stew. Very
occasionally she’d make dumplings. These I completely loved!
Chicken stew would also work in a slow cooker. You can imagine
how nice the carrots, leeks, potatoes and chicken would all taste
together.
Slow cooker recipes might not necessary appear to be a great low
calorie food until you realise that you can control the amount of
calories in them, put masses of vegetables in, and limit the amount
of oil and fat used to brown the meat. Stews and other slow cooker
meals are very traditionally winter dishes and ideal for those cold
days when you might otherwise rush to the biscuit box whilst waiting
for tea to be ready, but if you’re clever you can time tea
to be ready as soon as you get home from work - eliminating any
possible snack-danger points you might find!
Slow cooker recipes usually freeze well too, so can be used to
put extra portions into the freezer so you can get maximum benefit
from the time you spend choppig veggies. Some people think its better
to chop things late the evening before you’re putting it on,
but that’s entirely up to you. If you don’t have time
to do it before rushing out to work then spending five minutes chopping
in the evening might be the best idea.
Anything which is ultimately labour saving is good - getting great
food for less effort is something I think everyone would like.
Need instructions for a slow cooker?
Crockpot
manual - Crock-Pot® Stoneware Slow Cooker Owner’s
Guide 38601. You can download this as a pdf also.
Sunbeam
manual - this is a pdf file and has lots of recipes.
MSC60
Mistral/AWW 6litre Slow Cooker Instruction Manual - pdf file.
Includes recipes from Australian Womens Weekly. Looks like the stainless
steel slow cookers available in the UK.
BSC100
Black & Decker Slow Cooker Instruction Manual - pdf file
again with recipes including fruity beef curry and chili con carne
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