How to get creative with your slow cooker in winter 2021 – plus the best recipes to try Wine News

Tips for using your slow cooker this winter

You can reduce humidity build-up a bit by placing a triple layer of paper towel on top of the pan (overhanging the edges) and wedging the lid on top. The paper towels will absorb some of the steam and keep water from raining on the top of your dessert. But while you can make something that is akin to pizza, it will be pale and mushy compared to the baked version.

The same goes for roast chicken. The internet has hundreds of recipes for roasting a whole chicken in a slow cooker, but you will never get the golden, crispy skin that is a prerequisite for a good roast dinner. I tried all the ways, including browning the chicken in a skillet first (the end result was an uneven brown bird, but not crisp), as well as baking it upside down and brushing it with butter ( result, a pale and flaccid mandrel) – none of this is working properly.

But if you are looking for really tender and juicy chicken meat, for a salad maybe, or a poached chicken dish, rub the bird with the seasoning, herbs and butter, put it in the stove ( no need to add liquid) and cook on it. high for four hours. In fact, you gently steam it in its own juice, which will have accumulated at the bottom of the dish and which you can eat with the poultry or use as a concentrated broth.

Speaking of broth, this is one of the best uses for a slow cooker. Right after a meal is the best time to simmer a pot of broth, but I draw the line by leaving a pot on the stove overnight, and the next morning I lost the will to cope with a bowl of frozen bones.

Instead, at the end of a long Sunday evening or lunch, I just put the bones in the slow cooker and cover them with water. Half an onion, carrot, celery stick and bay leaf come in if I have any, but it’s not a disaster if I don’t, or just can’t be bothered. The slow cooker is turned on, and the next morning a perfectly clear broth is ready to be strained, chilled and refrigerated. If I’m in a rush, I’ve been known to just turn the slow cooker off (without lifting the lid) and let it cool for the day, before straining at night.

And it is in this transformation of cheap cuts and leftovers into cooking gold that slow cookers excel. According to Zoe McClean, senior home economist at Crock-Pot, the brand that claims to sell one every two minutes in the UK only, basement butcher’s specialties like beef shin and lamb butt, also release excess fluid. More liquid released means you don’t need to add as much and you get a more concentrated flavor.

Like those bouncy cuts of meat, more robust grains do better than white rice and pasta, and so do vegetables, so kale’s tendency to roughness becomes a positive advantage in the slow cooker realm. . All with a minimum of intervention on my part, the chef masterfully inactive.