Beef Stew

Ingredients
500 grams shin beef
1 medium carrot
1 small onion
1 stick celery
1/2 swede
1 cup beef stock
Dash of port
Thyme
Salt & Pepper
Corn flour

Method
Cut meat into bite size pieces. Peel and chop vegetables.  Place meat and veggies in cooker sprinkle with a little thyme and season with sal and pepper then stir to combine.

Pour over port and stock and stir again.

Cook on low for 6 hours.  About ten minutes before finished mix a little cornflour with water and stir into stew to thicken.  Finish cooking

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I have never ever been a fan of packet cake mixes however I was reading a little today online about my little slow cooker and people were extolling the benefits of the slow cooker for self saucing puddings.

A trip into Woolies and I bought a Greens brand chocolate self saucing pudding.

Basically just make it according to the packet directions and cook on high for 60 minutes.

The verdict???  I asked Maggie what she thought and she said that while it was very nice it wasn’t as good as my recipe.  I thought it was light, the texture good and the flavour was very nice as well.

What I need to do now is adapt my camp oven recipe to fit the little cooker.

However the convenience for a few bucks to carry a couple of these little boxes appeals to me.

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Cooked another tonight.  Can’t wait to be able to get some ingredients and start developing my own recipes.

Going to be fun.

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Woolies have dropped the price of the slow cooker to $16 so now have one. Much smaller than my little Aldi one as well. Robert

The cooker we ordered through Woolworths on line arrived over the weekend, Ne we just need to try it out.
Bonnie used one of our old slow cookers to cook a corn beef last night for dinner. No photos though.

Ho Derek this email arrived this morning from A.W.W cheers Robert
https://www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/slow-cooker-dessert-recipes-29751?ref_email=ZHVuYnl1QGdtYWlsLmNvbQ%3D%3D&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WWF_newsletter_08/06/21&utm_term=list_foodtolove_newsletter

Thanks Robert.  I also picked up this one yesterday.  Going to try the Mongolian Beef today.

https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/galleries/slow-cooker-recipes/w1c8hjnq

Here it is, todays efforts in the little slow cooker. Recipe courtesy of taste dot come but cut down to suit the size.

MONGOLIAN BEEF

Ingredients
500 grms blade steak
2 tablespoons corn flour
1/2 tablespoon crushed ginger
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Method
Slice the beef into strips as for stir fry then roll into the cornflour (use a plastic bag) then place in cooker.  Whisk all other ingredients together in a jug with 1/4 cup cold water then pour over the beef.

Cook on high for four hours.  Give it a good stir half way through the cooking process.

We served it with some steamed rice and steamed vegetables.

Was exceptionally nice with enough leftover for tomorrow.

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Hi Derek
Looking good. I going to try it.
regards Kev ;)

Not everything always goes according to plan.

Thought I would try a fruit cake in the little 1.5 litre slow cooker.

Did a bot of a search around the internet and the process seemed pretty straight forward so did half of my usual fruit cake recipe.

Here are the ingredients:

1/2 kg mixed fruit
300 ml coffee milk
Teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup flour

What I did was put two shots off espresso in a jug and topped that up to 300 ml then poured it over the fruit in a bowl and left in the fridge overnight. Next morning stirred through that the cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and then folded through the flour.

I greased and floured the bowl (as recommended on internet), tipped the mix in and cooked it for two hours on high.  I did put a tea towel under the lid as recommended to catch the steam. 

Well I had a peak at an hour and it had risen nicely.  At the two hour mark I lifted the lid and it had risen right up and stuck to the tea towel. It looked and smelt delicious.

Here is where it got all naughty.  I couldn’t get it out of the basin.  Ended up sliding a fine blade knife around the inside and after giving it a few bangs and a good shake it popped out.

The problem was it had burned slightly and stuck.  Not too bad and I was able to cut the dark pieces off the slices we ate without wasting too much.

The actual cake was more the texture of a pudding than a cake and we had a delicious piece with a dollop of cream for dessert.  Will be interesting in the morning when it cools completely.

What to do next time is the big question to prevent the burning.  One thought is to line the bowl with a double layer of baking paper.

Any other thoughts?

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Hi Derek
That looks very nice.
Enjoy the cake
regards Kev ;)

A friend of mine often makes this slow cooker fruit cake.  As well as greasing the bowl she uses 2 layers of baking paper AND turns the bowl occasionally to avoid any hot spots. She also recommends using rum + orange juice or 200mls chocolate milk + 100mls Baileys for a change of flavour from the coffee milk.

Looks ok to me a Derek.
Maybe a couple of less heatbeads on the bottom.  ;D ;D

That looks good Derek.

Switch from high to low for the last part of cooking maybe.
I tested the difference in power and it was only a few less watts used.

Made another fruit cake this evening.  I was told one way to prevent burning is to cook one hour on high then two on low.

This one came out pretty darned good although a little dark.  Next time I will try lining the cooker with baking paper.

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HI Derek
Looks pretty good to me. I would not knock back a piece to have with a cup of tea.
regards Kev ;)

Derek
Remember mixed fruit & chocolate milk fruit cake, I think everyone had a go at this.