Slow coach, for a slow cooker! (Slow Cooking)

Member Name: katydo

Product:	Slow Cooking
Date:	13/03/09 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy, economical, and a hot meal ready when you come home from work,

Disadvantages: Could do with two, one for dinner one for pudding!

Theres nothing better than coming home to a hot cooked meal after a hard days work, and I'd like to share with all you busy people how it can be done.

We are now living in a demanding world where we are all working harder, but want to relax and play hard too. Slow cooking means that you don't have to start preparing a meal when you get in, and you don't have to resort to a microwave meal when you really just can't be bothered to cook.

What about waking up to a bowl of steaming hot porridge, or a slice of warm banana bread! Yes bread can be made in your slow cooker too!

There are a large variety of slow cookers available on the market which vary in size, shape and price, so you should be able to find a model to suit your needs.

A couple of things to look out for when buying a slow cooker is to make sure that it has a removable inner dish so that it is easier to clean, and that certain dishes can be finished off in an oven. For example, a crumble topping could be added to stewed fruit, or a pie crust added to steak and kidney. Another advantage is to buy a model with an in built timer, mine hasn't but I use one of those timer sockets that turn appliances on at a certain time.

Just in case you are worried about leaving an electric appliance on all day or night unattended, don't forget we already leave our freezers, refigerators when we go out.

Don't be fooled into thinking that a slow cooker is only used in winter, during hot weather you don't really want the oven on full blast making the kitchen unbearably hot, so the slow cooker provides a good alternative. (That's if you aren't outside having a barbecue of course)

Furthermore, the slow cooker is an economical appliance to use for cooking. It uses as little electricity as a 75-watt light bulb and substantially less energy as compared to an electric oven, so as you can see they hardly use any electric at all, and I believe that a slowcooker being on for 6-8 hours is equivalent to an electric hob ring being on for around 20 mins!

Not only is the cost of cooking this way considerably cheaper than using a conventional oven, Slow cooking tenderizes less expensive cuts of meat, such as beef brisket, stewing beef , pork shoulder roasts and chops which means that you can save money on your grocery bills. Brisket in onion gravy is a particular family favourite of ours!

If I still haven't convinced anyone to dust off their slow cooker here is my last ditch attempt with a 10 point summary:

1.Using a slow cooker uses less electricity than cooking in a standard electric oven, therefore saving you money!

2.You can use cheaper cuts of meat because the slow cooking tenderises the meat, therefore saving you money!

3.It saves you the time and energy of cooking a meal at the end of the day when you are tired after a hard day at work.

4. Requires no effort apart from preparation then it can be left happily and safely for 7 to10 hours.

5.Natural juices and flavours are retained in the dish rather than boiling away, so making a tasty meal is simple.

6.Easy to clean, serve from the pot and wash up. ( In the dishwasher preferably!)

7.No matter how long the slow cooker is on for the food doesn't dry out but is kept nice and moist

8.The low temperature and slow cooking makes your slow cooker ideal for cooking puddings like egg custard or yummy rice pudding.

9.In summer, using a slow cooker will stop your kitchen too hot!

10.Gives you the opportunity to do other things, be it work or a family day out or just sitting around doing nothing!

I will leave you with one of my favourite recipes:

Ingredients

1 Onion
4 garlic cloves
2 celery sticks
400g can chopped tomatoes
100ml Red Wine
Salt and pepper

4 lamb shanks

Mix all the ingredients together in the slow cooker dish.
Fit the shanks snugly in the dish so that they are immersed in the liquid.
Cook on low for 8-9 hours.
Serve with couscous or mash.

Yes it's that easy!

Summary: Easy, economical, and a hot meal ready when you come home from work,