There are many things that really truly are essential in a kitchen. Pots, pans, knives, a wooden spoon come to mind. And then there are what I like to call pseudo-essentials.
Pseudo-essentials are those items that some people say you can’t live without but, if you don’t have it you are actually managing. Think about the old hand held beaters for example, or a colander and even a casserole dish.
Better examples though come in the electronic range. I am astounded with the number of electronic gadgets now available for our kitchens. Pie makers, omelette makers, milkshake makers, and the other day I even saw a cupcake maker which cooks 6 cupcakes at a time. So, I think that we’re kind of getting a little crazy with these things. Addmittedly I own a few myself. Someone once called me the appliance queen. I must protest though as I don’t own any of the above items and really, aren’t they taking it a bit too far, even if you own one, think about it…do you really need a small electronic device that will bake cupcakes for you when you have…an oven???
But seriously, I don’t truly mean to dis the ingenuity of the people behind these devices, it’s definitely a marketing strategy to keep a brand looking fresh and innovative and perhaps on that regard it works. But why does our culture require that to be so for a brand to be seen as successful? Why can’t a brand just do what it does, what it’s good at and stick to it?
Anyway, all that aside, I truly believe that a crockpot or a slow cooker is a marvellous invention. Especially if you’re time poor, feeding a few people and need/want to use a cheap cut of meat or a bucket of leftover vegies. And even feeding two isn’t prohibitive to these ceramic wonders as they now come in a variety of sizes, with some small enough to be perfect for 2 or 1 with leftovers.
One of the tricks to good slow cooking is definitely using the cheap cut of meat. The cheaper cuts of meat tend to be the parts of the animal that do the most work which makes them supple. And with slow cooking, all the connective tissue changes form, from collagen to gelatin, giving it the melt in the mouth consistency when cooked slowly. Shanks, shoulders, rump and round. If using poultry smaller muscle groups work better than the breast, but a whole bird is fine (if it’ll fit of course) as are boned pieces. You can even do a roast. And you place an upturned plate on the bottom of the pot and put the roast on it you’ll have yourself some very lean meat indeed as it will cook out of it’s juicer, just like in the oven.
Slow cookers are not hard to use. You can pretty much through anything in and it will work out nicely. But for an easy base try this:
Your choice of meat
onion
garlic
carrot
celery
potato
tinned tomatoes
tomato paste
water
wine if you like
bay leaf
seasoning
And from there you can add whatever else you like, rice, gravy powder, chili, substitute tomatoes with curry paste and coconut milk. Put it all in let it sit for hours, Put it on in the morning and at tea time it’s ready. Just like that.
So so so simple. Try something basic and then change it a little each time. You really can’t go wrong.
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