Oh Cath that’s a shame. It’s really a case of experimenting I suppose. But I do like the sounds of that pork being so tender… so maybe it’s a case of finding the right sauce?
This mornihg I’ve put new potatoes, carrots & stewing steak in… with a Homepride red wine sauce. Also an experiment as I’ve no idea how the sauce will taste… wasn’t too keen on the look of it but I’m sure will be very different after hours in cooker.
I’m going to put some mushrooms in later… read on internet to add them later or they go mushy.
I’ll let you go how it goes… btw I didn’t do any pre-cooking at all so will see how it turns out.
Sounds good Pat. Please let us know how it turns out. Neither of the shanks were pre cooked but had marinated in the sauce for ages, I wonder if that’s the secret to getting it so tender. Who knows, as you say it’s experimentation.
It’s sunny but cold in the Lakes, having a quiet day.
It just popped into my head as lts of people don’t like too many ingredients!
I love Passatta and it’s dead easy to make sauces with it in the slow coker (or on the hob etc.) and it’s a good consistency to start with. Most meats with work quite well with it in the slow cooker and it’s pretty thick already so can cope with a glug on wine or olive oil. I get the italian seasoning rather than mixed herbs sometimes and then you really don’t need much else.
Tinned italian toms are obviously cheaper but passata is cheaper than a ready made sauce. It can be refridgerated for a few days too.
Hi Sonia, that is so interesting as I’ve seen it for sale in my local Turkish shop… just googled it and I see it is an uncooked liquid tomato puree. I’ll definitely give it a try.
My stewed steak turned out really lovely. Meat was tender and veg was well cooked but not mushy. Mushrooms were soft but not mushy with only an hour in cooker.
I did use the Homepride red wine sauce and it was very tasty (though a whole tin was too much for the 1.5 ltr slow cooker)… the only downside is I see in ingredients that it contains sulphites… which is a preservative that is quite controversial. Can cause alergic reactions and asthma attacks.
Well it tasted good but I think I’d prefer to stick to stuff without preservatives…
Yes, I’ve gotten a bit more picky now. I’m largely Gluten Free now but worry less about gluten in a sauce but still don’t have bread, pastry and regular cakes/biscuits etc. Sulphites was of the more difficult things to dodge when completely GF as there were sometimes so few choices!
They do passata in most of the supermarkets now and it’s good stuff, the consistency is good and there’s no pips
Hi, just a quick note about heating up slow-cooker left-overs for next day.
Following instructions on internet… I kept the left-overs in pot & put in fridge overnight. Removed it next morning and let it sit in kitchen for a couple of hours to get up towards room temp (if you put the pot straight from fridge to slow cooker there’s a danger it will crack)… then put it in slow cooker again, on low, for a couple of hours.
Pat, yes, we will eat the leftovers quite happily, it’s often nicer on the 2nd day as the potatoes squish into the sauce a bit more
Cath, I was lucky that I had my first cullen skink in Edinburgh and it is yummy, kind of leek and potato soup with fish in it, I had it in a bistro and they put a cheese crouton on top… out of a can it works very well with cheese on toast (well, me and my step-daughter loved it!) but Baxters seemed to stop doing it for ages, or maybe just our local tesco did as I spotted it in waitrose a few weeks ago
My tea today ladies… tub of Sainsbury’s lentil, tomato & red pepper soup. 2 sea bass filltets roughly chopped. 4 cloves of garlic roughly chopped.
Put it in cooker on low for about 3 hours (as nothing much to cook but the fish).
Served with warm bread out of the bread machine.
OMG… was like a French rustic stew…
Btw… I put earlier that you can’t take the pot out of fridge and put straight in cooker. Wrong. Read the leaflet for my cooker (dah!) and it says you can do that providing the cooker is set on low.
I manage to get 10 portions out of my lobby (stew) These days it has extra garlic, kelp & oxo. I even take a batch of multi vitamins before each bowl. The ping takes 5 minuets before heaven is here. Dunk a few whole grain seeded baps & I’m done. Now I’ve mentioned it, it’s got to be made.
