Slow Cooking Thursday - Yummy Chicken

I was going to make Creamy Chicken and Noodles today, but I didn't have the soups or noodles, and I've been trying to cut back a little on the spending. But I had a tin of condensed Tomato soup, so I thought I'd wing it. (no pun intended!)
I put the soup and 1 cup of homemade chicken stock (see here) in the bottom of my slow cooker, and mixed them together. I placed 5 chicken thighs (500g) on top, and liberally sprinkled them with Lemon Myrtle. I turned the cooker onto LOW, and then went and fed my four month old his breakfast. When I came back about half an hour later, I chopped 6 medium potatoes into eighths, and a medium onion into small wedges. I threw these in the slow cooker and gave it a stir to coat. And sprinkled in more Lemon Myrtle. Then I let it sit for another 7 hours. About 5 or 10 minutes before serving, I threw in a few handfuls each of frozen corn, peas, and green beans. They cooked perfectly without having to defrost, and they didn't go mushy or grey. Master Four emptied his plate in ten minutes. I think this is one for the remake list!
Sandra over at Diary of a Stay At Home Mom hosts Slow Cooking Thursdays, so go have a look for more slow cooked deliciousness!

Slow Cooking Thursday - Ham and Scalloped Potatoes

This evening's recipe came from tastycrockpotrecipes.net and it was great. The simplest recipe, yet it tasted 'just like a bought one'. My only problem was that I sliced the potatoes too thickly, so some of them didn't cook. But it's ok, because I served this with broccoli and garlic bread, so there was plenty to eat, and I'm sure I can think of something to do with semi-cooked potatoes in awesomely cheesy, creamy sauce. Or you can. Can't you?

Sandra over at Diary of a Stay At Home Mom hosts Slow Cooking Thursdays, so go have a look for more slow cooked deliciousness!

Slow Cooking Thursday - Roast Beef with Pumpkin

There really wasn't much to this. I fried the (seasoned) roast to seal it, placed 4 big chunks of pumpkin in the slow cooker, and rested the meat on top. Then I deglazed my frypan with 1 cup of water that had been mixed with a packet of french onion soup, and tipped the resulting gravy over the roast. I cooked that on low for 8 hours. The pumpkin didn't go mushy, but the parts that were under water (juices) was so good, I ate the piece the kids left behind. The pumpkin was awesome I wawnt to make this again, just for the pumpkin. I lurve french onion flavouring. Just not in soup.

Sandra over at Diary of a Stay At Home Mom hosts Slow Cooking Thursdays, so go have a look for more slow cooked deliciousness!

Slow Cooking Thursday - Tasty Chicken

Tasty Chicken
4 Chicken thighs
1 can of tomatoes
3 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp tomato paste
small can of tiny taters
1 carrot, sliced
capsicum, chopped
Mushrooms, chopped

Throw it all in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. You might want to thicken it up with some more tomato paste right before serving. Despite many protests from Master Four that he didn't like it, and he needed to "go to a doctor because [he] ate a lot of things" when I came back to the table after Feeding Master Three-Month-Old, all that was left were the potatoes. Which is fair enough, because they didn't taste like normal potatoes. I liked them though. So I ate his as well.

Sorry, no photo, these r/l issues are making me scatterbrained.

Finally linked this up to Slow Cooking Thursday over at Diary of a SAHM

Slow Cooking Thursday - Beef Olives

When I was growing up, we always got to choose what Mum cooked for dinner on our birthday. I always choose Beef Olives, with the special deep fried mashed potatoes Mum made. She'd use a piping bag to make little spirals, then dunk them in the deep fryer - not healthy, but terribly tasty!

It's not my birthday today, but it is Slow Cooking Thursday over at Diary of a SAHM, and I thought since Steak and Onions cooked so well in the slow cooker, perhaps I should give beef olives a go. I made the rolls up last night, and put them in the fridge, so all I had to do this morning was brown them, and place in the slow cooker.

Last night

Beef Olives
Thin steak (I used round steak)
onion
bacon pieces
sweet/sour cucumber
salt & pepper
toothpicks

Cut onion, bacon pieces and cucumber very very fine. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto the beef, then put the onions, bacon and cucumber onto the beef slices. Roll them up and secure them with toothpicks. Lightly brown them in a frypan with a little oil or butter. Fry any left over stuffing bits you have too, it'll be nice in the gravy. Place in the slow cooker, along with the fried stuffing bits, and add a little water.

Ready for a loooong simmer

Cook until well cooked, about 6-8 hours on LOW. This might be different for you. Everything I cook in my slow cooker cooks from about 11am till 6pm on LOW, it seems to work for me. You can thicken the juices with a bit of gravy powder. You could try that in the slow cooker, by taking out the meat rolls, and turning up to HIGH, stirring constantly, or you could just tip the juices and bits into a saucepan. That's what I do, as I can never get any sauces to thicken in my slow cooker, but then, perhaps I just don't give it enough time.

Slow Cooking Thursday - Chicken Mole with Quinoa

1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 tsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
30g dark chocolate, very finely chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 chicken thighs
3/4 cup sultanas

Fry the first 4 ingredients in a pan over medium heat until onion is golden and soft. Put into a food processor with everything else except the chicken thighs and sultanas. Blend to a smooth paste. If your paste is more like a sauce, add 2 corn tortillas torn up. I didn't have any of those, which is why I didn't write them in. But I also didn't drain my tomatoes. So I added three slices of wholemeal bread to the blender. It helped a little. Make sure that your chocolate is in very small pieces or that your food processor can handle hard chunks. Mine didn't like it much, and combined with the excessive amounts of liquid, had a hissy fit and spat all over my bench. it was only a little bit, but considering the colour, it still didn't look pretty.
Place in the slow cooker with the chicken pieces and stir to coat. Add your sultanas. Cook on low for 6-8 hours - NO STIRRING!

I wasn't terribly impressed with this. I've never eaten or cooked a mole before, but pictures on the internet led me to expect something more dark brown, and less... well, technicolour yawn pink is the only way to describe it. But it smelled good, and tasted nice raw. I took all the chilies out of the recipe I used, because we really don't eat anything even mildly spicy. I was going to buy some chili flakes and add in a 1/2 tsp of that, but I forgot to buy them. If the chicken turns out to need a touch of spice I'll add it in next time. Next time when I make the sauce the night before. And perhaps melt the chocolate. And drain the tomatoes. Perhaps I'll use my hand blender and a jug to process the sauce next time... it's a lot less dishes than my food processor. Hey, maybe I'll make a double batch of sauce and store some - this would be super easy if the sauce was in a jar in the fridge. Then all I'd have to do was throw chicken and sauce and sultanas in the slow cooker - now that's my idea of slow cooking!

Mmmm, look how fluffy this is!

Quinoa is really easy to cook, and this made a nice side to the mole, just something a little special.

Rinse 1 cup quinoa in a small strainer or sieve. Place in a medium saucepan with 1 cup water and 1 cup stock (of course you can use 2 cups water, but if you have stock on hand its worth using it for the extra flavour). Bring a boil, add 1-2 cups of frozen corn kernels, bring back to the boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Quinoa is cooked when the germ ring is visible - ie, the grains look like little condoms. Yeah, I know. I'm sure you didn't need that image in your head when you are about to eat this. But I read that online somewhere years ago, and it's stuck with me. I think of it every time I eat quinoa... and now you will too. Aren't I generous? The kids loved this. Mostly just saying the word, but Master Four ate all of his, pinched some of Miss Two's and mooched some off DP. Miss Two ate most of hers, but I think I served up far too much for everyone - even DP couldn't eat all of his. So this much quinoa would probably feed 8 people as a side dish.

I liked the cooked Mole too. It did need the chili, it came out sort of bland, but still nice without it. A recipe to tweak, but definitely try again. At least the colour changed to a darker, more brownish pink.

Slow Cooking Thursday - Beef & Guinness Stew.

Looking better than it tastes, instead of the other way around for a change. :(

Today's offering is a combination of two recipes from different sources - therefore making it technically my own. lol. This recipe on Taste.Com.Au and another from a free slow cooking recipe book I got from the McCormick site. So here is how I made mine.

Beef & Guinness Stew with Dumplings
800g chuck steak, cubed
2 onions, diced
2 carrots, sliced
1 stick celery, sliced
200g button mushrooms, quarted
375ml Guinness
sachet McCormick Slow Cookers Tomato & Onion Sausages

50g butter, softened,
1 cup SR flour
1/2 cup tasty cheese, grated
1 tbsp dried tarragon
1 tbsp dried basil
2-3 tbsp milk

Brown the beef and onions in a frypan. Put in a slow cooker with all the other vegies. Mix the flavour sachet with the Guinness, and use to deglaze the frypan. Pour on top of everything in the slow cooker, and use a small amount (I used 200ml, but use less if you have a smaller frypan - use as little as possible) of water to deglaze the pan again, because the guinness will leave behind a lovely thick gravy on the edges of the pan. Cook on LOW for 8 hours.

Rub the butter into the flour until crumbly. Add the cheese and herbs and mix through the mix to make a dough. Drop golf ball sized dumplings into the top of the stew 20 minutes before serving.
(photos to follow after dinner time!)
***
Well, here we are. The first real failure of a meal since I started this food blog. No one ate it. The dumplings were doughy and raw still after 20 minutes, and the stew itself was just... slightly wrong. DP couldn't put his finger on it, but something just didn't gel with the rest of the ingredients. I thought it was too spicy. The kids just didn't want to eat it. I think it was the tomato and onion sausages mix. The idea to add that came from the freebie slow cookers cookbook - in which every recipe had a packet of one of the flavours of the new slow cookers sachets. Obviously they are trying to sell more product, and I don't fault them that, but this was not a winner. I may try using the Taste recipe, to see if this is any better with tomato paste instead of a shortcut. Otherwise, this will be a meal that goes in the never make again basket. If anyone out there is willing to take a chance on it, please let me know how it worked out for you!

Slow Cooking Thursday - Chicken & Mushrooms

Chicken with Mushrooms
2 tablespoons of oil
1kg chicken thigh fillets, diced
250g button mushrooms, sliced
2 small leeks
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock
2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of plain flour
3/4 cup of cream
3/4 cup sour cream

1. Heat oil in non-stick pan. Add chicken in batches and cook over a medium heat until lightly browned. Place chicken in the removable crockpot.
2. Top chicken with mushrooms, leeks, wine, stock, pepper, and salt. Cover with lid and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high 4-5 hours.
3. Stir in blended flour, cream and sour cream 1 hour before end of cooking. Replace lid and continue cooking.

I served this with rice, and it was so good, I threw roughly a cup of rice into the slow cooker with the leftovers, and cooked on slow for another 4 hours, resulted in a lovely risotto. I stirred it once or twice, I should have stirred it a little more often than that, as some of the rice didn't get under the liquid often enough to cook as well as I'd like. I'm looking forward to the leftovers!

Master Four tucking in


Miss Two not sure it will taste better than it looked (she finished the whole plateful though!)

Slow Cooking Thursday!

Now, I know, I hardly need another regular blog event, let alone another weekly one, since I continue to struggle with posting daily, but this is different. I mean, I was cooking a slow cooker meal on Thursdays anyway, to give me plenty of time in the afternoon to cook with the kids and not worry about having the dishes cleared in time to feed Master 9-week-old before cooking dinner. So when I saw that Sandra over at Diary of a Stay At Home Mom was hosting Slow Cooking Thursdays I just had to join in.

Not exactly the fanciest looking thing I've ever cooked

Tonight's dinner was adapted from an oven recipe for Beef and Red Wine Casserole over at Taste.Com.Au. Adapted in that I did the frying and the liquid boiling in a frypan, and tipped it into my slow cooker, then just left it to cook all day. I wasn't sure of the time I should have cooked it for, but as everything in my slow cooker just gets left until dinner time, I figured it really didn't matter. After all, isn't that the point? To be able to leave it all day? This was great anyway.
I saw a bottle of alcohol free shiraz in the supermarket, and used that for this dish. I only ever use wine for cooking anyway, so I prefer not to give the kids alcohol if I can help it. This made so much, I've got enough for a full meal in the freezer (that will possibly have leftovers) and I didn't even serve it with bread. I think when we have the frozen meal, I'll serve it with some barely steamed broccoli, and crusty homemade bread rolls.

This dish is officially approved by Miss Two

Oh, and come back tomorrow for a special treat: a slow cooker dessert called Chocolate Mess!