Diana posted on October 29, 2009 17:36
Dinner time for most mums is really one of the busiest and most exhausting times of the day. Everyone is tired and hungry - and everything needs to be done right now.
If on top of that you are out all day, trying to fit in cooking supper, when there are a hundred other things calling for your attention, means that many of us end up cooking ready meals and getting takeaways.
What we all really would like is the dinner cooked and ready when we arrive home, an added plus would be the table laid and the house looking neat and tidy too.
Well the neat and tidy bit I am not going to tackle today, but I am going to help you find a way of tackling supper, which will mean that you have one less draw on your time in the evening. The added benefit will be you won’t be feeling guilty either, because you are having a ready meal or, are spending money on a really calorie ridden takeaway, which by the time you have driven to collect it, parked the car, queued to pay for it, you could have cooked something yourself anyway.
Slow Cookers.
Now if you mention these wonderful things to lots of people, they look sideways at you and then stare into middle distance. Slow cookers seem to have gone out of fashion.
Why I am not sure. But one pot suppers that you can prepare in advance are definitely the way to help free up your evenings from the daily grind of cooking supper on the hoof. And if it can be cooking while you are out - then that makes it even better.
Slow cookers or crock pots are self contained cooking pots which have their own electric element which is geared to producing the slow continuous heat needed for casseroles. They also use very little electricity. Typically on a high setting a casserole will take about 5 hours to cook and on a low setting eight hours. And the best thing is your meal won’t come to any harm if left for ten hours.
The trick is to allow 15 minutes to prepare your slow cooked, one pot supper in the morning, or the previous evening, and at least half an hour with the setting on high before you disappear off to work – at which point you turn the switch down to low. (Some slow cookers may have slightly different instructions – but that is how both of mine have worked).
Preparing your Stew
Really it is just a question of throwing all the ingredients into the slow cooker.
Although, yes in theory you should fry the onions and garlic and seer the meat before you tip everything into your slow cooker – the meat is cooking for so long, and so slowly, that it is going to be beautifully tender and tasty in any case. So you really don't need to worry about doing that.
OK so perhaps you like mashed potatoes with stew, well you can do mash if you really want, but my advice would be, forget the mash, and offer crusty wholemeal bread instead. And then everything is ready to eat when you get in from work.
So this may well feel like a good idea but perhaps you have not got a Crockpot and buying one is just another thing to go on the To Do List. Well here is where you can get one. Crockpot Saute Slow Cooker 5.7L
So here is a basic stew recipe to start you off.
2lb / 200g of shin of beef cut into 2” squares get the meat from the butcher if possible, and they will cut it into the cubes for you.
12oz / 350g of onions sliced
1 sprig of fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon of dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 big fat clove of garlic and salt and pepper to season
1 tablespoon of plain flour.
15oz of beef stock. Or hot water enriched with 2 teaspoons of mushroom ketchup and 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.
To prepare yout stew:
Toss the beef in the flour and then throw everything into the crockpot. Add the stock and any root vegetables you want to use up. Turn the slow cooker on and leave on high for at least half an hour and then turn down to low.
By adding different vegetables, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and herbs, in fact whatever you may have in the fridge, the stews will always be a little different. If the stew needs thickening, shortly before you serve it you can optionally, add a little beurre manie (1oz of flour mixed into 1 oz of butter), just a tiny bit at a time and whisk it into the stew until the stock is a little thicker.
Adding tomatoes, a red and green pepper along with paprika – about desert spoonful and then stirring 5 fl oz soured cream shortly before you serve it will create a delicious goulash.
More Tips for your Crockpot Stews
- Always taste the stew once it is cooked to check whether you need to add any seasoning.
- Add any root vegetables, mushrooms you may have lurking in the fridge e.g. carrots parnsnips.
- To create a really beefy stew, add a couple of anchovies to the casserole – they will melt into the stew during the cooking process and add lots of flavour.
- Any left over - well it can do for a second day - and as long as the meat is cooked from fresh (not frozen), you can put it in the freezer and use it in the next few weeks for an easy supper.
You can cook any meat in your trusty crockpot - and as you get into the habit you can expand the kind of meals you can serve using it ... so get cracking. Crockpots are great especially for winter dinners.
All the best
Diana