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

P's Pheasant Stew

We were offered a pheasant by some pals... so were looking for a slow cooker recipe for a stew.  Surfing the internet brought us to this Jamie Oliver recipe which is for Pheasant Stew with Chestnut Dumplings.  Having carried out a fridge audit to see what ingredients Jamie lists as being required and, as is the norm in this kitchen, we figured we could make some suitable substitutions so the recipe was a go.
We used -
• One pheasant - portioned, on the bone
• Plain flour (we used Dove's Farm gluten free), for coating pheasant joints
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 small carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp butter
• 140g pancetta cubes
• 3 dried bay leaves
• 300ml stock (we used vegetable)
• dash of sherry

The veg and pheasant were prepared.  It was going to be a rustic stew which meant leaving ingredients in large pieces.





We started by coating the pheasant in gluten free plain flour (in a bowl) before frying off until browned.  Then the pancetta cubes were added to the skillet, the lid was placed on and the heat was reduced to low to allow the fat to render down a little.

Whilst the meat and veg was being combined, the stock was made up using a Knorr Stock pot.

Adding the stock to the pan, we then brought the stew to the boil, covered and reduced the heat so that the pan simmered.   After half an hour, the stew was looking (and smelling) good.  For ease of eating (and to convince Sous Chef J to try it) the bones were taken out and the stew heated for a further five minutes before being served with sauteed potatoes, peas and sweetcorn.

Next time we make this, we will follow the same method as above to the point where the stock is added - the stew will then be added to our (heated) slow cooker and it will be cooked on low for a few hours.

DUMPLINGS

If we'd have had some suet and chestnut flour, we'd have used Jamie's recipe for Chestnut Dumplings which requires 50g plain flour, 50g chestnut flour, 50g suet, pinch baking powder, 25g ready-cooked chestnuts.  Then, to make the chestnut dumplings, mix the ingredients in a bowl, crumbling in the chestnuts. Mix with your fingertips until the the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then add a pinch of salt and pepper, and just enough cold water to bind everything. Dust your hands with flour and roll into about 25 brussels sprout-sized balls.  Add these to the stew once the stock is in the pan... and leave to cook.

Slow cooker stew

Having been out for a quick food shop one morning, Sous Chef J asked what we would be having for tea.  So, looking at the contents of the fridge, we decided on a stew... "of some sort".  As we were going to be out for the afternoon, it was agreed that a slow cooker meal would be a good idea.










We gathered the ingredients together and decided on using stewing steak, one onion, tomato puree and vegetable stock.  The onion was chopped roughly and sweated for a few minutes in a pan with a dash of sunflower oil.  At this point a generous squeeze of the tomato puree was added and cooked on a low heat for about 5 minutes.  During this time, we peeled and chopped the carrots and cut the beef into smaller chunks.   We also turned the slow cooker on to heat through at this point.

Next, the beef was added to the onion and tomato in the pan and browned lightly.

Once it was all browned, we added it to the slow cooker together with the stock and carrots.  The lid was placed on the pot and we left the cooker on HIGH for the first hour.  Before we headed out for the afternoon we turned the slow cooker down to LOW.

On our return home at the end of the day, we were greeted with the lovely aroma of our simple stew.  It didn't take long to steam some Brussels sprouts and add some potato wedges... serving up the stew in a pasta bowl and our meal was ready.