If you are tired of standing near the stove for hours, then you can facilitate the process of cooking by choosing an excellent slow cooker. It is very easy to learn how to cook in this device. We will tell our readers about how to do this.
4 secrets for beginners
Many housewives after buying and testing this device begin to make mistakes, spoiling the ingredients and dishes. To prevent such errors, it is worth remembering the following recommendations:
- The heat source in the device is located at the bottom, so it is on the bottom of the bowl that the longest cooking products are laid out. For example, first put the meat, and then the vegetables.
- Meat in this device is cooked just fine, but if you want to make it juicier, then roll the pieces in flour and quickly fry them in a frying pan or at the bottom of the bowl.
- Try not to load more ingredients into the multicooker than the recipe requires. Otherwise, the device may become unusable.
- If you are cooking vegetable saute, and vegetables give too much juice, then open the lid of the device so that the water evaporates and the dish is cooked faster.
We now turn to the direct cooking.
Preparation of ordinary and milk porridge
Kashi is one of the main functions in the multicooker, with which the device copes perfectly. If you want to get a healthy meal, then you will like recipes with whole-grain cereals, which you have to cook on a regular stove for at least several hours.
To start cooking porridge for the family, follow these instructions:
- Wash the croup.
- Put it in a slow cooker, add water or milk (the bowl should be no more than 2/3 full).
- Now select the desired mode. Devices from different manufacturers are equipped with the functions “Porridge”, “Multipovar”, “Milk porridge”, etc. For accuracy, you can look at the instructions.
- In the cereal, you can add dried apricots, raisins, and other additional ingredients.
- The principle of cooking is the same as on the stove: bring to a boil, remove the foam, set the average temperature and bring to readiness.
How to cook vegetables?
You can also cook in slow cooker tender vegetables with and without a crust. To get an appetizing crust, the vegetables should be chopped, and then roasted in a bowl for 20 minutes, turning on the “Baking” (“Frying”) mode. Do not forget to stir the contents of the bowl, and before laying the vegetables, add a few spoons of vegetable oil.
You can add any meat to vegetables. In this case, after roasting, it is necessary to cook the dish for 1.5 hours, starting the “Stewing” mode, in order to get a delicious stew at the finish. If stewing only vegetables, the cooking time will take 40-45 minutes.
Rules for making soup from vegetables, meat and cereals
If you need to cook a delicious soup, then again refer to your assistant slow cooker. Soups are most often cooked in the Multipovar mode at a temperature of 160 C. But before cooking, you can fry vegetables, meat or bacon in butter, add smoked ribs or cereals to the dish.
The average cooking time for baby soup with a noodles-gossamer on milk is 25-30 minutes. Soup with meat will be ready in 1-1.5 hours, as well as when cooking on a conventional gas stove.
Desserts and breakfasts
If you want to cook delicious desserts, then try to conjure over the slow cooker. It is possible to cook a delicious casserole or charlotte using these recommendations:
- Put thick slices of apples on the bottom of the bowl to prevent baking.
- Pour 200 ml of kefir into ½ of a cup of semolina; let the croup take the liquid.
- In the resulting mixture, add 4-5 yolks, whisk the whites and also send in the dough.
- Then add 700-900 g of cottage cheese, a glass of sugar and vanilla sugar. You can add 500 grams of cottage cheese, but the casserole will turn out less air.
- Mix everything and put the baking powder into the mixture.
- Smear the bowl with butter or vegetable oil, then place and smooth the curd mixture.
- And now the most crucial moment: turn on the Baking mode, bake the future dessert for 40 minutes.
- Defeat your curiosity, trying not to open the lid before the signal indicating the end of the cooking process. Otherwise, your tender casserole can settle, turning into an unappetizing biscuit.
What cannot cook in a slow cooker?
The bowl and the device are one, so cooking fabulous multi-component dishes will not work. Of course, you can fry the vegetables and prepare the gravy on a conventional gas stove, adding them to the slow cooker, but you cannot achieve the original taste.
We studied the reviews and learned that the following dishes in the slow cooker are almost impossible to cook:
- Pilaf, which is a slow cooker turns into ordinary rice porridge with meat.
- If your device does not have a built-in bread machine, then you will receive pale pastries without an appetizing crust.
- It is difficult to prepare food, the main component of which is a whole chicken carcass, pig and so on. They simply do not fit into the bowl.
It is worth remembering that the slow cooker is not capable of replacing the oven or the usual gas stove. But it certainly makes life easier for the hostess when it comes to preparing simple daily meals. And now you know exactly how to cook in a slow cooker to make it tasty.