Buy A Crock Pot

[ultrazapp]

Okay so as part of the “New Meâ€

[KellyB]

We have one and it is fab it makes cooking so much easier plus you can use cuts of meat that aren't the best cause it cooks slow the meat falls apart. Also you can put meat in frozen great if you have a memory like mine and forget to take it out the night before I wouldn't be without mine!

[Milims]

I love mine so much that I've been known to take in on holiday with me! I make baked beans in mine - Yummy!

[shae]

I'm a crock pot convert as well! I use mine 2-3 times a week and find it such a time saver. I also never do roasts in the oven anymore, they just come out of the crock pot soooo tender and moist.

[mrsflibble]

Mine is wonderful. it was a wedding gift tomy mum from her parents and as such it's 16 years old. it's been meded at least once by my mother and was passed on to me when I was about halfway through uni and started evening lectures. It cooks just enough for me, James and Soph and I do lamb curry in it more often than anything else.

[possum]

I have two, a small one and a large one that I bought from a car boot sale for the grand total of 1.50 GBP
I use both on a regular basis. often I have both going at the same time when having a curry evening

[MrsD'ville]

I've just got one on Freecycle! I was expecting it to be more of a winter soup/stew type thing than a summer one as we tend to eat a lot of cold stuff in the summer. Hennyway, would dearly love the baked beans recipe (I've only had partial success making my own before) and any other crock pot recipes people feel like posting! Thank you

[mrsflibble]

lamb chop curry
can be made with either the expensive chops (a treat for us) or cheaper chops like neck ones.

allow at least 2 chops per person, depending on size of chop and/or person
chops
onions
1 tin tomatoes
curry powder/paste of your choice
tom paste OR reduced passata, whichever you have
garlic
ginger(optional)
oil for frying, just enough to coat bottom of pan.

brown off the chops in a heavy bottom pan. place into the crockpot for safekeeping and less washing up.
fry off chopped onion until caramelised.
reduce heat and add curry paste/powder, garlic and ginger followed by tomatoes once you can smell the spices heating.
stir well, add chops to pan then stir again.
pour into crockpot and cook for at least 6 hours, stir halfway through if you can be bothered.

I normally add a small can of chickpeas to this too, and remove the meat from the bone at about the 5 hour point. my mum leaves the bones on. I also sprinkle with fresh corriander and sometimes some finely chopped onion right before serving.
mmmmm it's good.

[possum]

They are perfect for cooking all pulses, put the peas/beans in, add cold water and switch on. I usually cook them overnight.
Pease pudding (North East England thing) is really easy, put yellow split peas in, add a stock cube and pepper, add water turn on.
Yummy served hot on toast or in sandwiches.

[Milims]

Hennyway, would dearly love the baked beans recipe (I've only had partial success making my own before) and any other crock pot recipes people feel like posting! Thank you

Baked beans are Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy easy!
Fry some onions til brown - bung 'em in the pot. Add beans - either tinned or dried and pre-soaked, anykind you like. Warm tinned tomatoes in the pan you just did the onions in - chuck 'em in too. Add some herbs - I usually use oregano or italian mixed. And now for the secret ingredient - promise not to tell? A teaspoon or so of black treacle! Let them cook on the lowest setting all day and hey presto - beans for tea! Lovely with some crusty bread - or if you are feeling very expotic you can add some pre-cooked sausage to the mix later in the day.

[AXJ]

They are perfect for cooking all pulses, put the peas/beans in, add cold water and switch on. I usually cook them overnight.
Pease pudding (North East England thing) is really easy, put yellow split peas in, add a stock cube and pepper, add water turn on.
Yummy served hot on toast or in sandwiches.

Watch out, in the late 1970's I was a slow cooker enthusiast, bean stews were my fabulous speciality, however I kept having illness which I could not explain, until it was revealed some time later on a BBC programme that Red Kidney Beans have to be boiled for half an hour (or something like that) to destroy the natural toxins. Not the only legumes that require this treatment. Slow cookers by definition do not reach the required temperature.

You'll have to do your own research, but it is worth checking out, otherwise your crock pot could be a croak pot.

Can't look at a slow cooker these days with out feeling like taking the day off sick!!

[hamster]

I think boiling dried pulses vigorously for 10-15 minutes (after soaking) to kill toxins before putting in the slow cooker is the accepted wisdom.

ETA: Just checked and the slow cooker cookbook agrees.

[AXJ]

I think boiling dried pulses vigorously for 10-15 minutes (after soaking) to kill toxins before putting in the slow cooker is the accepted wisdom.

Good wisdom... (be assured this wisdom did not exist in 1979), I couldn't be bothered to look it up, as I still can't look a slow cooker in the face, once you've boiled them for 10-15 minutes, might as well finish making the meal and be done with it LoL

[possum]

They are perfect for cooking all pulses, put the peas/beans in, add cold water and switch on. I usually cook them overnight.
Pease pudding (North East England thing) is really easy, put yellow split peas in, add a stock cube and pepper, add water turn on.
Yummy served hot on toast or in sandwiches.

Watch out, in the late 1970's I was a slow cooker enthusiast, bean stews were my fabulous speciality, however I kept having illness which I could not explain, until it was revealed some time later on a BBC programme that Red Kidney Beans have to be boiled for half an hour (or something like that) to destroy the natural toxins. Not the only legumes that require this treatment. Slow cookers by definition do not reach the required temperature.

It depends on the slow cooker, one of mine has different heat settings, you start it off on slow and finish on high, it will actually boil the liquid. The little one that I have, as long as you cook the pulses long enough will eventually boil the contents, that is why I recommend doing them overnight, I have done kidney beans with no ill effect this way .

Doing a quick search it seems the problem with kidney bean is that people do not cook them long enough, meaning the temperature throughout the pot is not hot enough, cooking them longer so that the temperature in the centre of the pot is at its hottest is enough to kill any pathogens

[AXJ]

It depends on the slow cooker, one of mine has different heat settings

Yes indeed, I am talking almost pre-history of slow cookers... good to know that things have moved on... I could be tempted yet!