I cook it real slow. (Crockpot, Slow cooking thread)

[Brill Weave]

All I have is soup for lunch today. I am jealous.

[Zetanio]

I had a hidden valley bar and a banana.

I'm going to try that buffalo chicken dip for the Super Bowl.

Brill, it says 10oz cans of chicken. Would I sub in 10oz of fresh chicken per can or is it more like 6-8oz?

[Brill Weave]

Here's the thing with the chicken. I think my wife gave me the incorrect amount to use. When she uses canned chicken she uses these:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/pr...313&navAction=

They are 13 ounce cans. Any time she's ever used fresh chicken she's used 2 - 3 boneless chicken breasts.

[Zetanio]

Here's the thing with the chicken. I think my wife gave me the incorrect amount to use. When she uses canned chicken she uses these:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/pr...313&navAction=

They are 13 ounce cans. Any time she's ever used fresh chicken she's used 2 - 3 boneless chicken breasts.

Perfect! I hope I don't have anyone steal my dip. Otherwise, it's story writing time.

[Brill Weave]

Good luck with that!!!

[Zetanio]

Today is the nicest day in weeks (55 degrees outside!) so I'm going to see if I can't cook something remotely light in the ole crock.

I put in a few pounds of turkey slices (Bear with me) some cranberry jelly, little bit of tarragon vinegar and some spices.

Gonna cook it until the turkey is falling apart then serve it in a wrap with apple slices.

[Zetanio]

Made a beef stew Sunday that came out really well.

I used:
2 cans beef broth
2 bottles cheap beer
2 cups water
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon either worcestershire, soy, teryiyaki, or oyster sauce
4 carrots
4 mid-sized potatoes
4 celery sticks
1/2 head red cabbage
1 head of garlic
4 onions
2 red bell peppers
Salt
Vegetable oil
2 lbs cubed 'stew beef' or flank steak or whatever cheap cut you like
1/2 package bacon

Day before prep:
Put the beef on a plate and coat each side with salt. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. I do this any time I cook a steak and it makes a huge difference imo. Also, don't worry about cutting the beef cubes much smaller than what the butcher gives you, when the stew is done each piece will be able to be broken up by a spoon easily.

Day of:
Pull out your crock-pot and fill it with the water, beer and broth and put it to low heat.
Chop up the bacon into pieces that'll be slightly larger than what will fit on a spoon and fry them until they start to brown. Then toss them in the pot leaving the grease in the pan. Seer each side (or at least 2 sides) of the beef cubes in the same pan and put in the pot when done. Chop up the onions and throw them in the same pan to caramelize them. Use some veg oil and salt on the onions to help them along. Alton Brown has a video on how to do this, but you don't necessarily need to take them as far along as he does. If you don't want to caramelize them, that's ok too, but the difference between regular and caramelized is fairly substantial.

Cut up the rest of the vegs, except the peppers and cabbage, into spoon sized pieces and toss them in the pot. Cut the garlic into 3 or 4 pieces as well, big garlic chunks won't be a big deal since most of the punch is going to be lost in the liquid so don't worry about mincing it. You can also keep the skins on the potatoes if that's what you like, just be sure to scrub them well. Once the onions are done, throw everything from the pan into the pot. If you get some of the bacon fat floating along the surface of the pot you can skim it off, but it really doesn't make any difference other than looking nicer.

Let it sit in the pot for about 4 hours, stirring every once in a while. When 4 hours are up, toss in the peppers and cabbage after cutting them to spoon sized pieces. You can put them in earlier if you like, but this way leaves them with some crunch in them.
Add in the vinegar and sauce and it'll really start to smell nice. After about another hour or so, to let the peppers and cabbage cook a bit, it'll be finished.

Red-peppers, Orange-carrots, Yellow-onions, Green-celery, Blue-shut up, Purple-cabbage. Looks pretty good, eh? Maybe I'll remember to take a picture next time...

Cross posted from the "other" cooking thread.

[The Stig]

Sorry to bump:

Anyone got any further additional recipes? I've brought one over Christmas and used it the first time today as I usually don't enjoy cooking.

My recipe/method were as follows:

I fancied some beef stew -- went to buy some cheap cuts of beef, some potatoes and some carrots
Prepared the beef a night before by coating it in some beef seasoning
In the morning I threw the beef in the pot. Cut the potatoes and carrots up and threw them in too
I then added approximately 1L of water (enough to cover all the food; i've been told to do this by someone at work) and mixed in 2 beef stock (hard to describe, but it's like a pot of flavouring you melt in water; it suggests 1 pot to 0.5L of water)
Mixed in 1 "pot" of gravy (box suggests 1 pot to 280ml of water) -- this is supposed to make it thick i think.... doesn't seem enough but lets see what happens later on

Gotta wait 8~ hours now to see how it turns out. In the meantime I checked the recipes in this thread and was wondering if anyone had any extras to add or have developed

Personally looking for ones where you can utitlise those tinned soups like Campbells.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

Adding in a stalk or two of celery, a garlic clove or two, a can of stewed tomatoes, and 6-8 oz of button mushrooms and you have yourself a stew that kicks serious ass. Also what seasonings did you add? Pepper, thyme, parsley, red wine, etc help add both color and subtle flavour. Really makes a difference if you're using cheaper cuts of meat.


Last night I made sweet bbq pulled pork for sammiches:

2.5 lb pork loin
1/2 cup Honey
1 cup Honey BBQ Sauce
1/2 cup water

About five minutes of prep, put on low for 8 hours and you can nearly shred the meat with a spoon. Served on kaiser rolls with salad fingers.

[The Stig]

Ah I forgot to mention the seasoning but as my family goes back and forth norway a lot, a popular thing we do when frying beef is to coat the beef in:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piffi_allkrydda

I lightly coated it and left it overnight, but not that much, only dusted over and then squeezed it altogether.

I'm still new to cooking, I usually don't like to cook at all but slow cooking seems appealing! But also, I don't have much things around the home yet.

Currently, I gotta wait 7 more hours to see how it will turn out, I'm only worried if this is going to be thick enough lol. 1 pot of the gravy (as per suggestion from people) doesn't seem like it'll make it that thick.

Your recipe made my stomach growl haha, but I can't help but wonder if that should be enough water to cover it? I'm not too familiar with how much 2.5lb of pork loin is lol

Otherwise, it sounds like you ended up with some nice thick burrito style meat but with lots of sauce!

[Crowort]

I'd go buy some corn flour (corn starch in the USA) if you don't have any. If it is too thin near the end of cooking, mix a couple spoons of that in some cold water. Add the flour and water mix to the stew and turn it up to high, it will thicken it up. I do the thickening by instinct now so the amount might be a little off. If it is too thin still then add a bit more. It takes a bit of time for a slow cooker to get it hot enough to thicken so don't add too much at a time. In a normal pan you can just bring it to the boil and see how thick it will become in a minute or two.

[Kiehl]

I hate veggies but my g/f made an awesome veggie stew. I will try to remember what we put in it.

1/2 a sweet yellow onion.
2 packages of mushrooms (pre-sliced)
3 red bell peppers
3 jalapenos (cut thinly)
8 cloves of garlic
5-6 stalks of celery
1 package of green beans cut in half (I say package but it was about half a grocery bag from the farmer's market)
12 small yellow and purple potatoes (quartered)
2 cans of condensed campbell's mushroom soup
1/2 bottle of red wine (2 buck chuck)

For seasoning she used the 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joes

Cooked on high for 6 hours. Then switched to low for another 4. Once switched to low, added 2 packages of spinach. 1/2 grocery bag of mixed beans and lentils (again from the farmer's market).

Used a sourdough bread to soak of the sauce while eating.

Came out spicy and delicious. And I hate most of the veggies she had me put in it.

[Norrissnake]

I make a KILLER Buffalo cheese dip.

2 packages of cream cheese
1 cup fresh graded cheddar cheese (done use pre shreaded cheese in a bag has a nasty coating on it)
1/2 cup Ranch Dressing
1/2 cup Blue Cheese Dressing
1/2 -1 cup hot wing sauce
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts boiled and chopped up into small cubes

Toss everything in the Crock pot on medium and enjoy

[The Stig]

I'd go buy some corn flour (corn starch in the USA) if you don't have any. If it is too thin near the end of cooking, mix a couple spoons of that in some cold water. Add the flour and water mix to the stew and turn it up to high, it will thicken it up. I do the thickening by instinct now so the amount might be a little off. If it is too thin still then add a bit more. It takes a bit of time for a slow cooker to get it hot enough to thicken so don't add too much at a time. In a normal pan you can just bring it to the boil and see how thick it will become in a minute or two.

I didn't have any at home (once I start cooking properly I'll have all sorts of odd ingredients though!)

Before ...



and after 8 hours!



Surprisingly edible, just not thick enough and a bit too much water maybe. Perhaps covering all of the food under the water was unnecessary. I used baby potatoes, wasn't as super soft as I thought it would be, but was enough.

Still super fun though (given the amount of effort actually required). The meat was soft, the soup/stew base flavoured it. All around good. I got left overs (although I wanted to I think I could finish the whole bowl) for tomorrow.

I make a KILLER Buffalo cheese dip.

2 packages of cream cheese
1 cup fresh graded cheddar cheese (done use pre shreaded cheese in a bag has a nasty coating on it)
1/2 cup Ranch Dressing
1/2 cup Blue Cheese Dressing
1/2 -1 cup hot wing sauce
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts boiled and chopped up into small cubes

Toss everything in the Crock pot on medium and enjoy

I don't understand. There's a few dip recipes in this thread. Are these dips for nachos? Or am I missing something. Or would it go well with bread for example? The confusing bit for me is the fact you're adding meat to it. Dip in my dictionary = a plain sauce with maybe remnants of vegetables (i.e. chilli)

[Norrissnake]

I didn't have any at home (once I start cooking properly I'll have all sorts of odd ingredients though!)

Before ...



and after 8 hours!



Surprisingly edible, just not thick enough and a bit too much water maybe. Perhaps covering all of the food under the water was unnecessary. I used baby potatoes, wasn't as super soft as I thought it would be, but was enough.

Still super fun though (given the amount of effort actually required). The meat was soft, the soup/stew base flavoured it. All around good. I got left overs (although I wanted to I think I could finish the whole bowl) for tomorrow.



I don't understand. There's a few dip recipes in this thread. Are these dips for nachos? Or am I missing something. Or would it go well with bread for example? The confusing bit for me is the fact you're adding meat to it. Dip in my dictionary = a plain sauce with maybe remnants of vegetables (i.e. chilli)

It is a dip you eat with tortilla chips.

[Nirokun!]

Surprisingly edible, just not thick enough and a bit too much water maybe. Perhaps covering all of the food under the water was unnecessary. I used baby potatoes, wasn't as super soft as I thought it would be, but was enough.

Thicken it by:
*reducing your amount of water (vegetables/meats release liquids)
*cutting the potatoes smaller (more surface area to leech out potato starch [thickener])
*peel the potatoes (same reason as above)
*corn start slurry (cold water/corn start like mentioned above)
*some people coat the meat in (all purpose wheat) flour and the chunks of meat in a little oil before adding anything else
*take off the lid (partially or completely) and cook at high heat to reduce the liquid
*if you're really into it (doesnt seem like it), you can make a roux by frying plain (all purpose wheat) flour in an equal part of fat (butter) and add that in

Lots of ways to do the same thing, but usually to get the gravy consistency you need to use flour in some way, corn starch (or potato starch) don't thicken as well imo~

[Coren]

Flour (and by extension a roux) thickens soups quite well, while corn starch is more for sauces that you want to be glossy.

A really really really easy recipe:

1.5 lb london broil (or other hunk o meat)
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can french onion

When you get home make yourself some mashed taters, then dump some gravy on top and shred the meat and serve.

[The Stig]

Thanks for the tips Nirokun and Coren. My potatoes weren't peeled, I didn't have a peeler haha. And I didn't like the idea of peeling it with a knife, too cold and lazy.

I was eating the leftovers of the stew for dinner just now, and it occured to me this is basically soup.

And seeing some recipes on the previous posts, and also Coren's recipe above, I can only assume tinned/canned soup makes an excellent base to slow cook in.

Can anyone teach/tell me the proportions I should follow? I keep seeing 1 can of water to each can of soup, but that seems way too much water overall and it could thin the output too much?

My next idea was. improving on this one:

More beef, leave some of the fat on
peeled non-baby potatoes
some peas
Use 2 tins of some beef and ale soup (heinz/campbells)

Any tips on how I can get more flavour into the beef? My beef was essentially tasteless (Despite the spice/herb coating the night before) and only the beef stock liquid gave it the taste.

Coren: Looked up london broil on wiki. My god it sounds delicious. I'll see if I can grab any. Otherwise, any generic meat?

I assume can of french onion = can of french onion soup?

Do I need to add any water? Or just dump all 3 in the crockpot, stir, and leave it on high for 8+ hours?

EDIT: sorry i really honestly am a cooking retard. i never really cooked before except fry, heat up, microwave or oven up food ebefore (and making sandwiches but that doesn't count-- you just slap things together lol)

[Kiehl]

I usually put too much liquid in as well. Just take the top off and let it cook on high until it simmers away. The flavor will also strengthen using this method. Less water and more of the base of what you put in.

I made chili the other day and used 2 cans of beer instead of 1. Let it simmer for 3 hours after it was done. Tastes and smells like beer. So good.

[Nirokun!]

Can anyone teach/tell me the proportions I should follow? I keep seeing 1 can of water to each can of soup, but that seems way too much water overall and it could thin the output too much?

My next idea was. improving on this one:

More beef, leave some of the fat on
peeled non-baby potatoes
some peas
Use 2 tins of some beef and ale soup (heinz/campbells)

Any tips on how I can get more flavour into the beef? My beef was essentially tasteless (Despite the spice/herb coating the night before) and only the beef stock liquid gave it the taste.

Coren: Looked up london broil on wiki. My god it sounds delicious. I'll see if I can grab any. Otherwise, any generic meat?

I assume can of french onion = can of french onion soup?

Do I need to add any water? Or just dump all 3 in the crockpot, stir, and leave it on high for 8+ hours?

Learning to cook is a lot of watching, tasting, and trying things out. There's a lot of ways to do the same thing, depending on what you have (or what's on sale! :D) There's no harm in adding water to food that is getting to thick, it just slows down the cooking process, but you want to keep it from being too salty (less water to dilute the saltiness), so reduce other sources of salt (pre seasoning the meat, adding bouillon, adding stock/broth instead of water, etc.) There is also the option of using, instead of canned soup, dried soup packets, bouillon, and dried brown gravy. You will have to taste it and adjust the saltiness to your liking.

Too wet? Thicken mid-way with these two below, and stir well, and bring up to a boil before lowering the heat again:
***roux (fry 1 part flour in 1 part butter to get rid of the uncooked taste, then loosen it with hot soup broth before adding to the pot)
***starch slurry (corn/potato starch dissolved in water and dumped in)

(If you're using brown gravy, it has thickeners in it.)
(You can, if the above steps do not work, take off the lid and cook until thickened to your liking, and check for seasoning because flavors become more concetrated.)

Too dry? Water! Be sure to taste and readjust seasoning to your liking.

An easy recipe (to me):
*Cheap cut of beef (the tough parts melt and make the mouthfeel better, extra points if it has a bone in it): pot roast (chuck)
*carrots/onions/celery/potatos (peeled or not)
*beef gravy/brown gravy (dry packet)
*salt/pepper to taste (and whatever other seasonings you want)
*water
*flour (to dust beef)
*oil

-Coat the outside of the beef in flour, and fry in a little oil over high heat until all sides browned, transfer to crock pot.
-Cut vegetables into chunks (smaller for faster cooking, larger if you're forgetting about it. Add to pot. (Add the potatoes when it's almost done, and cook until potatoes are done, or make mashed potatoes.)
-Add water, and season it lightly, cook at whatever setting you like.
-Make adjustments along the way (water/salt/pepper/seasonings/bouillon), though stronger flavors are easily attained by taking the lid off and letting it thicken up.

As far as not having flavorful beef, that has to do with long cooking times. The flavor is still there, but it is leeched out into your vegetables/liquid. You can get it back in there by breaking the beef up into smaller pieces (or shredding it) to increase surface area and have more of that liquid stick to it. Or add less of everything else (liquid/vegetables.) lol