Winter is well and truly here, bringing with it freezing temperatures and gigantic appetites. In my house, there is a huge variance in routines, which really works against the traditional set daily time for dinner.
This was something that frustrated me in the past, but those days are gone since I discovered the slow cooker. I know I am late coming to the slow cooker party, but I am so glad I made it.
I first heard about slow cookers from other mothers. As I stood in the freezing cold at cross-country meets, cheering my son on as he ran through the muck, I would listen with envy to the other mums chatting about the delicious dinner that awaited them at home – all thanks to the slow cooker.
My colleague Sinead continued the conversation, telling me tales of rich Bolognese sauces (the Marcella Hazan Bolognese recipe is particularly good); rice pudding; and melt-in-the-mouth shoulder of pork.
It wasn’t long before I asked Sinead to bring in the blessed thing so I could have a go, and so the affair began.
There are many brands and varieties of slow cookers, ranging in price from €20-€70 on average. Some can double up as a rice cooker, others have a tiered system to cook vegetables separately. Personally, I would opt for a basic enough model, with the two cooking times (5-6 hours or 8-10hours) with a keep-warm function. Keep an eye out in supermarkets as slow cookers often are on offer at this time of the year.
The temperature the slow cooker operates at depends on the cooking time chosen. I must admit that I was a little nervous the first time I left the house for the day, leaving the slow cooker on, but my fears were unfounded. The slow cooker worked away in silence, the only giveaway was the welcome aroma as I came in the door.
I tend to find that I am a more generous cook in the evenings than in the morning, adding lots of herbs, wine and spices. I am always too pushed for time in the morning for such additions when I am in the midst of the hectic pre-school chaos.
I assemble the dishes the night before in the insert of the slow cooker, which I then pop in the fridge. In the morning, I turn on the slow cooker as I run out the door.
I frequently leave the slow cooker on overnight (it took a little training to stop my husband and sons turning the switch off en-route to bed), especially if I am making meat sauces such as chilli beef, or a beef ragu for Bolognese or lasagne – the texture of which is fine and crumbly and the flavour super. I usually cook about a kilo of meat and freeze half for the night I don’t feel like cooking.
Casseroles, curries, stocks and tagines work equally well when cooked for five or eight hours.
It isn’t essential to brown meat before you add it to the slow cooker, although I generally do, dredging it first in a little seasoned flour. This tends to give a rich flavour and colour to the finished dish and will help to thicken up the sauce.
It is important to note that a slow cooker has a tightly sealed lid trapping steam generated from cooking, so unlike other methods of cooking, the sauces don’t reduce. I would strongly advise not being as generous with stock, wine, tinned tomatoes and other liquids as you would normally be; the liquid should just barely cover the meat and vegetables.
The question of potatoes and the slow cooker comes up a lot. I find that adding potatoes in the beginning for stews that I am cooking for five hours works well but the eight hour cook tends to leave them over-cooked. There is a little trial and error involved when you first start to experiment with using a slow cooker. I imagine that they all vary slightly.
