A few weeks ago, I glued the dial assembly of our slow cooker back on as somehow one of the little plastic clips holding it on had broken. Unfortunately it has now come unstuck again - most annoying! I am faced with whether to try to glue again, put up with it, or buy a new slow cooker. I wonder if there is a market for old slow cooker bowls? It's not a lot of use for anything else without a lid that can go in an oven.
As usual, it's activating my "Don't throw it out until it's truly beyond redemption" gene.
I did check my cookery books but other than my Ken Hom books, there wasn't much else, and Riverford did give you most of the ideas: stir fries, soups and other recipes.
I've taken a fancy to try and cook a whole (small) chicken in the slow-cooker. I consulted Mr. Google (as you do), and all the recipes seemed to suggest finishing it off under the grill if you wanted it to be a nice colour.
Whenever I cook other meats (usually either lamb shanks or pieces of beef for casseroles) I'd brown them in a little oil in a frying-pan before putting them in the slow-cooker, which seems like less overall faff.
Is there any reason why browning the chicken first wouldn't work? I should add that I'm not hugely bothered about crispy skin - I'm thinking more of the appearance of the thing. One recipe suggested sprinkling the skin with salt and leaving it open in the fridge overnight, but I don't know if that would help the colour.
Grill? Surely that would just give you a bit of scorched breast? Why not a blast in a hot oven? I admit to being a fan of crispy skin, so my method is to tent the chicken in tinfoil until cooked, then uncover it, pour off the juices for gravy, skim off the fat and use it to baste the bird and then up the oven temperature for the last half hour.
I'm pretty sure browning it by frying first would work. I've done it with legs and thighs, anyway - a whole chicken is just a bit more of an awkward shape.
I've seen suggestions of brushing the breast with something like soy sauce, or a spice paste before cooking to give a better colour, but I don't see why browning in a frying pan shouldn't work.
You just need a big enough frying pan, a sturdy pair of tongs and strong enough arm muscles to hold the bird so that each side of the breast (and the thighs if you so wish) get the right degree of colour. I've seen chefs do that on TV programmes before casseroling a chicken.
Alternatively blast it with a blow torch afterwards.
Some years ago, a then well-known columnist wrote of using a blowtorch to brown a chicken. The next day, shops all over Double Bay and Rose Bay were besieged by housewives in their furs and diamonds seeking to buy blowtorches.
Browning before the slow cooker would seal the surface and perhaps keep the meat moister. You'd also get the favour of the browned meat.
I'm not sure however that I'd want to brown a chicken & leave it overnight in the slow cooker to turn on the next day, as you've described doing previously with a lamb shank. I'd be too concerned about part-cooked chicken standing.....
I would certainly want to refrigerate it over night.
I normally brown the ingredients for the slow cooker in the morning and switch on straight away, but appreciate that doing that before leaving for work is not an attractive option.
If I were in that position I would prepare, but not brown, all the ingredients the night before, refrigerate them overnight and cook them the next day, directly from raw in the slow cooker.
You can get away with that for most dishes, using a well coloured sauce, but I think I'd want to do something post-cooking to give the breast of a whole chicken a more appetising appearance.
I think in fairness it would be a weekend project; IIRC the cooking times ranged from about three to seven hours (depending on the setting you use), and as I'm out from 7 in the morning until about 6 in the evening on a work day that wouldn't really be feasible. And, as you say, faffing about with it before work just wouldn't be an option.
As requested, cooking fish with boiling water. I have only used this with smoked fish, ie kippers and smoked haddock. I have used it with fish that is still frozen, as well as not frozen at all.
Find a container which will hold the fish. It should hold enough water to cover the fish and stay hot during the process, but not be too much bigger - a fish kettle for one kipper is too big - and it should withstand the boiling water. China, metal, some plastics work. My mother used a jug for kippers, holding them in vertically, and this may have been a wartime method. I usually lay them flat.
I have a Tupperware Multiserver which I use for this. https://tupperwarequeen.co.uk/collections/tupperware-best-sellers/products/tupperware-multi-server * I have also used a metal roaster base.
Put the fish in the container, and boil a full kettle. Pour the water carefully over the fish, and cover if a cover is available. Wander off and do something else. Check the fish after about five minutes. Separate a few flakes to see if they are properly opaque. If not, and if the fish was frozen, it won't be, boil another kettle, drain the used water off carefully** and add the newly boiled water.
When the fish is cooked through, lift it out carefully and serve.
*This cooker can also be used for pasta, rice, and like a haybox for previously boiled veggies.
**This is easier in the device above, as the fish is held on a holed insert. Also easier in a jug.
Jugged kippers are traditional, and sometimes you can cook the bought kippers in the bag they come in, as above. I tend to cook kippers like this in a jug, but poach smoked haddock fillets in milk with a bayleaf (and use that milk in cooking, to make the mash if I'm making fish cakes with some of the fillet) in a pan on the stove.
I think it's the size of fillets that means I use different methods. Kippers tend to be thin, smoked haddock fillets thicker.
I poach unsmoked cod in milk for fishcakes, though in the microwave now - I've not done smoked haddock for that. Also poached plaice, which reminds me to get some in for Friday. In that case the milk goes for the parsley sauce.
Mostly I make kedgeree if I buy smoked haddock, but the packs that I can get my hands on are huge, two enormous portions, and usually bearing yellow stickers. So half gets used as kedgeree and half as something else. Last time I made four fish cakes from the second fillet, ate two and froze two for another day.
I used to use smoked mackerel for kedgeree as a delicious cheaper more sustainable replacement, years before it was suggested in cookery books and programmes, but my daughter's system has ta'en agin something in the easily available smoked mackerel, so that's off the menu.
I do smoked haddock in kedgeree, cooked in the tupperware, while I cheat by cooking with special fried rice in the microwave, and then mixing them in the outer bowl of the tupperware with curry powder, butter and parsley. But it is for two of us.
I stole an idea for smoked mackerel from Waitrose without bothering with the recipe: mixed with horseradish sauce, mashed potato and parsley for fishcakes. Except last time I cooked it in a dish as I couldn't be bothered with the separate cakes.
I stole an idea for smoked mackerel from Waitrose without bothering with the recipe: mixed with horseradish sauce, mashed potato and parsley for fishcakes. Except last time I cooked it in a dish as I couldn't be bothered with the separate cakes.
I use Waitrose smoked mackerel for a very easy smoked mackerel pate: equal quantities of mackerel and Boursin soft cheese with garlic and herbs, mash together, add a couple of dessertspoons of horseradish sauce, juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Takes hardly any time at all.
It sounds a bit too salty for me. My version is simpler - smoked mackerel, Philadelphia style soft cheese and lemon juice. Nice on toast, or on baked potatoes with a large salad.
Mmm, those all sound good! I'll have to add smoked mackerel to the shopping list next week. Usually we just have it mixed in with some fried rice and veg.
The Knotweed is currently rustling up a veg jalfrezi with parsley instead of coriander as someone who shall remain Sandemaniac nameless mistook flat-leaf parsley for the aforementioned greenery. I expect it'll be edible, I'll eat most things.
I have old recipe books* from the days before fresh coriander was available in the shops here suggesting using parsley and dried coriander as a substitute.
* An early edition of Madhur Jaffrey's Invitation to Indian Cookery
Get a tin of peas* and empty them into a pan, water and all. Add a lump of soft goat's cheese and a few sprigs of mint. Heat until it's hot. Blend. Eat. Congratulate yourself on how lazy you've been and how nice it tastes.
*All sing along now: Peas, perfect peas, are the gift of Christ our Lord
After a year unrelieved by restaurants or dinner parties, I am all cooked out. I feel I'm at the point of shoogling the fridge and cooking what falls out.
Even basic stuff is getting away from me. Tonight was meant to be tuna pasta bake except I found I had no tinned tuna. Tinned salmon does not really work.
Yesterday, having listened to today's weather forecast I pulled a bottle of homemade roasted red pepper, tomato and canned haricot beans out of the freezer to thaw out overnight That was today's lunch, with big chunks of cheese and marmite bread, followed by a warmed & buttered Hot Cross Bun. There's soup left over for tomorrow.
Dinner was chicken thighs with carrots, parsnips and sweetheart cabbage - also from the freezer - with baby potatoes. Then an HCB-and-Butter Pudding
A few weeks ago, I glued the dial assembly of our slow cooker back on as somehow one of the little plastic clips holding it on had broken. Unfortunately it has now come unstuck again - most annoying! I am faced with whether to try to glue again, put up with it, or buy a new slow cooker. I wonder if there is a market for old slow cooker bowls? It's not a lot of use for anything else without a lid that can go in an oven.
So you have a pot, with a lid, and you have a functional electric heating element, but the dial that controls target temperature and cook time is broken?
Sounds like an excuse to build your own more flexible controller
A few weeks ago, I glued the dial assembly of our slow cooker back on as somehow one of the little plastic clips holding it on had broken. Unfortunately it has now come unstuck again - most annoying! I am faced with whether to try to glue again, put up with it, or buy a new slow cooker. I wonder if there is a market for old slow cooker bowls? It's not a lot of use for anything else without a lid that can go in an oven.
So you have a pot, with a lid, and you have a functional electric heating element, but the dial that controls target temperature and cook time is broken?
Sounds like an excuse to build your own more flexible controller
Not sure if I'm imagining the problem accurately, but when we had a slow cooker whose plastic dial turny-thing would not stay attached to the metal bit that stuck out of the pot, we just kept a pair of pliers handy to turn the metal bit.
Get a tin of peas* and empty them into a pan, water and all. Add a lump of soft goat's cheese and a few sprigs of mint. Heat until it's hot. Blend. Eat. Congratulate yourself on how lazy you've been and how nice it tastes.
*All sing along now: Peas, perfect peas, are the gift of Christ our Lord
Darllenwr has become an expert at making bread and butter pudding. There is a tub of dried fruit marinading in rum in the fridge, pudding for the use of!
Hot cross buns make a gorgeous pud, as does pannetone when it’s available. The buns with chocolate make a very nice variation. We want to try using croissants spread with marmalade and with chunks of chocolate, which was one recipe I found.
When we go to Cornwall this year, I’m going to stock up on saffron buns, as I saw a saffron bun b&b pudding advertised on the menu of a favourite Cornish restaurant.
Get a tin of peas* and empty them into a pan, water and all. Add a lump of soft goat's cheese and a few sprigs of mint. Heat until it's hot. Blend. Eat. Congratulate yourself on how lazy you've been and how nice it tastes.
*All sing along now: Peas, perfect peas, are the gift of Christ our Lord
Sauvignon Blanc?
No wine last night. We do stop drinking occasionally .
I did a Dry January, and was well behaved over Lent, so now SB for me. (Fortunately, my birthday fell between the droughts.) I am going to try your quick-and-dirty pea soup (I assume green peas, like the sweet, spring kind). Do you use any broth, or just the water from the tin? Perhaps it'll be Friday lunch with a slice of boule (made by own hands!). And a glass of SB.
It sounds a bit too salty for me. My version is simpler - smoked mackerel, Philadelphia style soft cheese and lemon juice. Nice on toast, or on baked potatoes with a large salad.
I just had this on toast for lunch. Very tasty - thanks @Aravis .
Comments
As usual, it's activating my "Don't throw it out until it's truly beyond redemption" gene.
Whenever I cook other meats (usually either lamb shanks or pieces of beef for casseroles) I'd brown them in a little oil in a frying-pan before putting them in the slow-cooker, which seems like less overall faff.
Is there any reason why browning the chicken first wouldn't work? I should add that I'm not hugely bothered about crispy skin - I'm thinking more of the appearance of the thing. One recipe suggested sprinkling the skin with salt and leaving it open in the fridge overnight, but I don't know if that would help the colour.
You just need a big enough frying pan, a sturdy pair of tongs and strong enough arm muscles to hold the bird so that each side of the breast (and the thighs if you so wish) get the right degree of colour. I've seen chefs do that on TV programmes before casseroling a chicken.
Alternatively blast it with a blow torch afterwards.
Browning before the slow cooker would seal the surface and perhaps keep the meat moister. You'd also get the favour of the browned meat.
I normally brown the ingredients for the slow cooker in the morning and switch on straight away, but appreciate that doing that before leaving for work is not an attractive option.
If I were in that position I would prepare, but not brown, all the ingredients the night before, refrigerate them overnight and cook them the next day, directly from raw in the slow cooker.
You can get away with that for most dishes, using a well coloured sauce, but I think I'd want to do something post-cooking to give the breast of a whole chicken a more appetising appearance.
Find a container which will hold the fish. It should hold enough water to cover the fish and stay hot during the process, but not be too much bigger - a fish kettle for one kipper is too big - and it should withstand the boiling water. China, metal, some plastics work. My mother used a jug for kippers, holding them in vertically, and this may have been a wartime method. I usually lay them flat.
I have a Tupperware Multiserver which I use for this. https://tupperwarequeen.co.uk/collections/tupperware-best-sellers/products/tupperware-multi-server * I have also used a metal roaster base.
Put the fish in the container, and boil a full kettle. Pour the water carefully over the fish, and cover if a cover is available. Wander off and do something else. Check the fish after about five minutes. Separate a few flakes to see if they are properly opaque. If not, and if the fish was frozen, it won't be, boil another kettle, drain the used water off carefully** and add the newly boiled water.
When the fish is cooked through, lift it out carefully and serve.
*This cooker can also be used for pasta, rice, and like a haybox for previously boiled veggies.
**This is easier in the device above, as the fish is held on a holed insert. Also easier in a jug.
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I think it's the size of fillets that means I use different methods. Kippers tend to be thin, smoked haddock fillets thicker.
I used to use smoked mackerel for kedgeree as a delicious cheaper more sustainable replacement, years before it was suggested in cookery books and programmes, but my daughter's system has ta'en agin something in the easily available smoked mackerel, so that's off the menu.
I stole an idea for smoked mackerel from Waitrose without bothering with the recipe: mixed with horseradish sauce, mashed potato and parsley for fishcakes. Except last time I cooked it in a dish as I couldn't be bothered with the separate cakes.
My brain read that as “I poach unsmoked cod for milkshakes”, which certainly would be an unusual flavour!
I use Waitrose smoked mackerel for a very easy smoked mackerel pate: equal quantities of mackerel and Boursin soft cheese with garlic and herbs, mash together, add a couple of dessertspoons of horseradish sauce, juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Takes hardly any time at all.
* An early edition of Madhur Jaffrey's Invitation to Indian Cookery
Get a tin of peas* and empty them into a pan, water and all. Add a lump of soft goat's cheese and a few sprigs of mint. Heat until it's hot. Blend. Eat. Congratulate yourself on how lazy you've been and how nice it tastes.
*All sing along now: Peas, perfect peas, are the gift of Christ our Lord
Even basic stuff is getting away from me. Tonight was meant to be tuna pasta bake except I found I had no tinned tuna. Tinned salmon does not really work.
I'm bored.
Dinner was chicken thighs with carrots, parsnips and sweetheart cabbage - also from the freezer - with baby potatoes. Then an HCB-and-Butter Pudding
So you have a pot, with a lid, and you have a functional electric heating element, but the dial that controls target temperature and cook time is broken?
Sounds like an excuse to build your own more flexible controller
Not sure if I'm imagining the problem accurately, but when we had a slow cooker whose plastic dial turny-thing would not stay attached to the metal bit that stuck out of the pot, we just kept a pair of pliers handy to turn the metal bit.
Sauvignon Blanc?
Hot cross buns make a gorgeous pud, as does pannetone when it’s available. The buns with chocolate make a very nice variation. We want to try using croissants spread with marmalade and with chunks of chocolate, which was one recipe I found.
When we go to Cornwall this year, I’m going to stock up on saffron buns, as I saw a saffron bun b&b pudding advertised on the menu of a favourite Cornish restaurant.
No wine last night. We do stop drinking occasionally
I just had this on toast for lunch. Very tasty - thanks @Aravis .