I ordered a couple of cookbooks as well. I'm looking forward to experimenting.
The only issue is the fact that it's a 5-qt. I need that size if I want to cook a whole chicken, but if I make soups or stews...I need to get a small deep freezer. I've been saying that for a couple of months, but I really have to.
We've been slow roasting this year. If you look up "Splendid Table" on Google, you'll find it under PBS. They have lots of recipes for close roasting or slow roasting that ought to work really nicely in a crock pot.
My latest effort was a chuck roast which got slow roasted with garlic and chili powder, then shredded and tossed into burritos. It came out fabulously.
I love my freezer. I cook chickens about once a week, and we eat it down to the bones. But all the bones go back into the soup pot with onion, carrot and celery, and then simmered overnight. The end result is "free" soup stock that gets used in everything from beans to soups to gravies.
There are 5 and 7 cu ft freezers which should be big enough, and which I can wrestle down into the basement myself. That should be big enough, one hopes.
Method (as done by me, with notes on adaptations to the recipe)
Brown inch-cubes of meat in a frying pan, add sliced spring onion/scallion, ginger, garlic and chilli and stirfry for about five minutes.
NB if I don't have spring onion/scallion to hand, ordinary onion works fine. Also, leeks as an alternative is good.
For oven cooking, transfer this to a large casserole/pot. Add braising sauce ingredients and bring to the boil, then cook on a low heat for 1.5 hours. Add peeled radish, raise heat slightly and cook for a further half hour. Then put on a high heat to reduce sauce as required.
NB, I throw all the braising sauce ingredients into to the frying pan I've just fried the beef in and bring them to the boil there, thus deglazing the pan - easier washing up and no tastiness wasted.
Oh and if I don't have chicken stock to hand, I've just used water with no complaints from the family.
I cook in my crockpot as per the basic beef stew recipe in the instruction book. And put whatever root vegetables I happen to be using in from the start.
We don't feel any need to thicken the sauce at the end, but doing so would be simple enough, ladling some off and sticking it in a pan for however long suits.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 02:52 am (UTC)The only issue is the fact that it's a 5-qt. I need that size if I want to cook a whole chicken, but if I make soups or stews...I need to get a small deep freezer. I've been saying that for a couple of months, but I really have to.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 05:29 am (UTC)My latest effort was a chuck roast which got slow roasted with garlic and chili powder, then shredded and tossed into burritos. It came out fabulously.
I love my freezer. I cook chickens about once a week, and we eat it down to the bones. But all the bones go back into the soup pot with onion, carrot and celery, and then simmered overnight. The end result is "free" soup stock that gets used in everything from beans to soups to gravies.
Adrianne
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 12:53 pm (UTC)The crockpot was a wedding present back in 1989!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 10:58 am (UTC)The recipe as given reads:
12 oz/350g stewing beef, such as brisket or shin
1 spring onion/scallion
2 tsp oil pref. groundnut
1 slice ginger
1 clove garlic, lightly crushed
1 dried chilli (optional)
4oz 110g chinese white radish (mooli)
Braising stock
10 floz chicken stock
2 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp light soy sauce
1 tblspoon dark soy sauce
2 tsp dry sherry/rice wine
2 tsp five spice powder
2 tblspoon hoisin sauce
2 tsp yellow bean sauce
Method (as done by me, with notes on adaptations to the recipe)
Brown inch-cubes of meat in a frying pan, add sliced spring onion/scallion, ginger, garlic and chilli and stirfry for about five minutes.
NB if I don't have spring onion/scallion to hand, ordinary onion works fine. Also, leeks as an alternative is good.
For oven cooking, transfer this to a large casserole/pot. Add braising sauce ingredients and bring to the boil, then cook on a low heat for 1.5 hours. Add peeled radish, raise heat slightly and cook for a further half hour. Then put on a high heat to reduce sauce as required.
NB, I throw all the braising sauce ingredients into to the frying pan I've just fried the beef in and bring them to the boil there, thus deglazing the pan - easier washing up and no tastiness wasted.
Oh and if I don't have chicken stock to hand, I've just used water with no complaints from the family.
I cook in my crockpot as per the basic beef stew recipe in the instruction book. And put whatever root vegetables I happen to be using in from the start.
We don't feel any need to thicken the sauce at the end, but doing so would be simple enough, ladling some off and sticking it in a pan for however long suits.
Enjoy!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 06:18 pm (UTC)