Slow Cooked Choc Chip Scone

We have been trying to manage all our cooking requirements using just a single gas burner and the slow cooker recently.  Many chats around 'surely it must be possible to bake in the slow cooker' were entered into and some research on the internet (mostly US sites where they use crock pots) showed that many people do use slow cookers for baking. 

Using a simple, one bowl recipe for scone mix, we assembled

225g gluten free self raising flour (we used Dove's Farm)
30g caster sugar
55g unsalted butter, broken up
100ml natural yogurt and 50ml water
40g chocolate chips

Having measured the flour, sugar and butter into a bowl it was rubbed together until it resembled breadcrumbs.

Then the yogurt/water was added and mixed until a dough was formed.

The chocolate chips were added and worked into the dough.

The dough was shaped to fit our slow cooker bowl (we have an oval, 3.5l cooker) and had lined it with a parchment cake liner.

Adding the shaped dough to the slow cooker, it was set to high and a tea towel was placed over the bowl before the lid was replaced 
(this was to absorb any condensation from cooking)

After about an hour and a half, the scone was checked to see if it was cooked... we decided to take the lid off at this point and switch off the cooker, leaving the scone inside for a further 15 minutes. 

The scone was then removed (carefully, it's hot!) and allowed to cool before being sliced and eaten with cream.

Definitely a successful bake added to our repertoire.. and it's best eaten on the day it's made.

Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs

 

Needing a warming and simple meal we decided to try making a beef short rib dish.  The ingredients we used were 800g short ribs

and, for the marinade - 
Salt and Pepper
Squirt of rice syrup
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
25ml Worcestershire sauce (we use Biona gluten free)


The marinade ingredients were mixed together



and the ribs were coated in the marinade before being placed in the fridge overnight.





Next day, the other ingredients  - 2 carrots, a leek, 2 sticks of celery (all diced), a Knorr beef stock pot and some red wine were gathered and prepared.

Placing the prepared vegetables in the slow cooker, the ribs were laid on top before adding the wine and stock.

Setting the slow cooker to high for one hour on the and then reducing to the low setting for the remainder of the cooking time.







We left ours on low for about 5 hours - giving a total cooking time of about 6 hours.

Once we were ready to eat, the ribs were served  with a mixed root veg mash (made of potatoes, sweet potatoes and swede).

1.8kg/4lb beef short ribs (Jacob's Ladder), cut in half widthways or oxtail pieces

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

50g/2oz dark brown sugar

6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

10ml/2tsp mustard powder

5ml/1tsp smoked paprika

45ml/3tbsp Worcestershire sauce

30ml/2tbsp rapeseed or olive oil

2 medium leeks, sliced and rinsed

2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped

2 bay leaves

850ml/1½pints good, hot beef stock

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes with herbs

- See more at: http://www.simplybeefandlamb.co.uk/recipes/slow-cooked-beef-short-ribs-slow-cooker-version#sthash.P8K5lHq2.dpuf

1.8kg/4lb beef short ribs (Jacob's Ladder), cut in half widthways or oxtail pieces

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

50g/2oz dark brown sugar

6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

10ml/2tsp mustard powder

5ml/1tsp smoked paprika

45ml/3tbsp Worcestershire sauce

30ml/2tbsp rapeseed or olive oil

2 medium leeks, sliced and rinsed

2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped

2 bay leaves

850ml/1½pints good, hot beef stock

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes with herbs

- See more at: http://www.simplybeefandlamb.co.uk/recipes/slow-cooked-beef-short-ribs-slow-cooker-version#sthash.P8K5lHq2.dpuf

1.8kg/4lb beef short ribs (Jacob's Ladder), cut in half widthways or oxtail pieces

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

50g/2oz dark brown sugar

6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

10ml/2tsp mustard powder

5ml/1tsp smoked paprika

45ml/3tbsp Worcestershire sauce

30ml/2tbsp rapeseed or olive oil

2 medium leeks, sliced and rinsed

2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped

2 bay leaves

850ml/1½pints good, hot beef stock

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes with herbs

- See more at: http://www.simplybeefandlamb.co.uk/recipes/slow-cooked-beef-short-ribs-slow-cooker-version#sthash.P8K5lHq2.dpuf

Slow Cooker Meat

We use our slow cooker throughout the year but, in preparation for cooler weather, this post is a summary of a number of cuts of meat that we've cooked with it.

Our slow cooker has been used for whole joints of meat, chicken pieces and many stew-type meals... here are a few meat joints that we have slow-cooker-cooked.

This was a beef silverside joint, cooked with small potatoes in their skins.

Gammon in slow cooker, heat on low, ready to be cooked

Gammon resting, under foil, prior to carving

Gammon mid-carving

The method we use is the same, whatever the meat... the slow cooker's 'warmed up' on the high setting whilst the meat is prepared.  For a cooking a joint, the preparation is drying the meat, seasoning it generously, and then placing the joint of meat in to the slow cooker pot.  It's that simple!!  The lid is placed on the pot and the heat is turned down to low.  That's it; it's left alone for about 6 hours (depending on size of meat being cooked) until mealtime.  No water/gravy is added to the pot.  The meat cooks in its own juices (although sometimes we put roughly chopped vegs placed in the bottom of the pot.) 

Liquid from the cooked gammon - nothing extra has been added to the slow cooker

Poultry, whole or pieces, and other meat joints are cooked in this way (we blogged about cooking a duck in the slow cooker here).  If you want crispy fat/crackling, then take the fat off the joint once it's cooked and being rested and add it to a hot frying pan.  It'll soon render down and leave you with lovely crisp crackling.

Gammon fat being removed from cooked joint

Gammon fat - now crackling!

Here are a few pics of duck legs being slow cooker cooked -

Duck legs prepared for cooking - skin pierced and seasoned...

...cooked duck legs some hours later.

The duck meat comes away from the bone easily.

Skin being crisped up in frying pan.

As we said at the start of this post, this is just a few of the meats we've cooked in the slow cooker - we use it for all sorts and have blogged other recipes like meatloaf, stew, devilled chicken, chilli and minced beef surprise.  The slow cooker is a great tool for loads of versatile and easy to make meals.  We love ours even though it's nothing fancy - was from Argos, is a 3.5l capacity and was on offer at under £10... what a bargain!

Apricot Lamb Stew

Sous Chef J knows the sort of gifts I like and sought out a Slow Cooking recipe book as a present for me.  It's a 'old style' with lots of scrumptious ideas for meals for us to try out...

Although we didn't use the slow cooker for this recipe, it's something that will be putting the slow cooker to good use over the coming months.

The first recipe we decided to try, Lamb with Apricots, was picked by Sous Chef J as part of the Knorr Gluten-Free Challenge. We've used Knorr stock pots quite a lot in our recipes - like this Spiced Apple and Squash Soup and this one for Slow Cooker Potato Layers both are great for the cooler days and longer nights.

The ingredients we needed were -

550g braising lamb
2 Tbsp Plain flour, seasoned (we used Gluten Free Plain)
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
600ml chicken stock (made using a Knorr Chicken Stockpot)
1 Orange (grated zest and juice)
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 tsp Clear Honey
175g Dried Apricots
3 Tbsp Fresh Mint, chopped
30g Ground Almonds
30g Flaked Almonds, toasted lightly


The ingredients were weighed out, prepared and ready for use.

Dicing the lamb and coating it in some seasoned plain flour, we made sure it was well covered.

A large pan had the oil added to it and it was heated for a couple of minutes before the lamb was added.  Cooking the lamb, until browned, took about 4 minutes and it was removed from the pan.  (At this point add the meat to the slow cooker if you are using one)

Adding the onion and garlic to the pan, they were cooked gently on a low/medium heat for about 5 minutes until they started to soften.  We then added the lamb back into the pan and added all the other ingredients apart from the ground and flaked almonds.  (If you are using a slow cooker add same ingredients to the pot and turn the heat to high - cook for one hour, then turn to low and cook for 6-8 hours)

We put the lid on the pan and brought it up to the boil when the heat was reduced and the pan was left to simmer for an hour.

Once the meat had cooked through and the ingredients had become a lovely deep amber colour, the ground almonds were stirred through.

Sprinkling some flaked almonds over the top, we served the lamb stew with boiled baby pearl potatoes and steamed broccoli.



Disclosure - this blog post was written as part of Knorr's Gluten-Free Challenge. We were sent a hamper of ingredients but were not paid for this post. #glutenfreeknorr

Slow Cooker Peach Jam

In the supermarket the other day there was an offer on punnets of peaches... we bought 2 for £3 and decided to give slow cooker jam making a go using them.
Ingredients we used were -

2 punnets of peaches, peeled, stoned and chopped
Juice of half a lemon (about 30ml)
1kg jam sugar (this has pectin already in it and should allow setting)

First, we took the peaches in turn and scored a cross, carefully, on the 'opposite end to the stalk'... actually, this was Sous Chef J's chore.  He did very well and managed to complete the scoring of all 14 of the peaches despite his initial dislike of their hairiness!

Whilst Sous Chef J was hard at work battling his sensory demons and scoring the peaches, I filled a large saucepan with water and brought it to the boil.  We then dropped half the scored peaches into the water and allowed them to bubble for a minute or so before carefully removing them with a slotted spoon. 

Whilst the first batch were cooling, we added the remaining peaches to the pan and repeated the boiling, removing and cooling.  Then, we carefully peeled the (now smooth) skin from the peaches.

Next, I was assigned the task of stone removal and Sous Chef J was 'chopper-upper'.  The halved and stoned peaches were placed in a pyrex dish and Sous Chef J carefully chopped the fruit into smaller pieces.

Having prepared the peaches, Sous Chef J busied himself with getting the juice out of half a lemon.  This came to about 30ml juice and was added to and mixed through the peaches. We put a sideplate in the fridge at this point, to chill for use later...

The peach and juice mix was placed in the slow cooker pot and the sugar was added before being stirred through.  Putting the cooker on low, we placed on the lid and left it for an hour.  After an hour, we stirred the mix and left it for a further hour.

After two hours on low, the sugar had dissolved and, as there was a rather uneven 'peach bit' size noted... so we got out the trusty potato masher and gave the pot a bit of a light bashing.  Probably not in the Mary Berry book of how to make jam but appears to have worked for us!

The slow cooker was then put to the high setting and the jam was left to bubble away with the lid ajar, filling the house with a lovely aroma, for another hour.  Stirring thoroughly and returning the lid to its jaunty angle, we left it again - for an hour.

Now was the time for the 'wrinkle test' to see if it was ready to set... so we retrieved the chilled plate from the fridge, dropped a little of the jam on, left it for the count of 30 and tried to push a finger through it... not a hint of a wrinkle.  So, the mix was stirred, the timer set, and we left it for a further 30 minutes.  Sous Chef J 'tested' the non-wrinkling jam and declared it "delish".

We sterilised some jam jars and their lids by running them through the dishwasher and then putting them in the washing up bowl and filling with boiling water just before we were ready to bottle up the jam.

Finally, after 2 hours on high, the jam wrinkled (very slightly) so was declared ready for bottling... we drained the jam jars (making sure not to touch the insides) and used a non-stick wide funnel to share the jam between the jars.

 We bought the peaches for £3 and the jam was £1.99.  The Kilner jars we used for the jam we were giving away were 75p each (250ml).  The ingredients yielded three 250ml Kilner jars, two 340g jars and one 454g jar plus a small left over "cook's reward" amount of about 100ml.  Approximately 2kg of jam for £5 of ingredients which is £2.50 a kilo (excluding electricity) - whereas the peach jams I found online were

about £5.90 a kilo. 

This made a 'soft set' jam (a bit like the consistency of mango chutney) and it was taste tested on a slice of gluten free seeded toast.  YUMMY!