Slow Cooking

It’s a bit of an understatement—simple assembly. That’s the beauty of slow cookers. Pop some ingredients into the pot and away you go. Let time do the work unattended. How perfect is that? When you come home, your house smells like you’ve been at it all day—which you have, but not at the kitchen counter.

Simple and satisfying

Slow cooking makes food taste so sumptuous. There’s something about a combination of ingredients simmering together in all their melding juices that is so satisfying, especially when winter grips the climate. The simple fact is—slow cooking cuts your fussing at the stove. And there’s little to clean up in the process.

In the early 1970s when the trend entered kitchens, slow cooking was all the rage, particularly for growing families. The original slow cooker was a standard size and could encase a full meal for four to six people.

But over the years, slow cookers changed. The standard “one size fits all” was met with competition and a variety of sizes soon ensued. From round to oval, 1 litre to 6 litres, the versatility of sizes grew helpful when feeding a small family of one or two rather than a family of six.

Customizing for your slow cooker

With so many different cookers now on the market, it’s difficult to give one set of instructions when providing new recipes. That’s why in our selection of recipes, we suggest a variety of cooking times depending on your cooker. Some larger cookers have a low setting that operates at a higher heat, which will affect the times listed in a recipe. We urge you to adjust the cooking times accordingly to avoid over- or undercooking.

If you’ve been using a slow cooker for some time, you may already have a sense of whether your cooker is faster or slower than some recipes suggest. Once ready, food can be kept warm in your appliance for up to two hours. For leftovers, remove from the stoneware and transfer to other containers to cool and refrigerate. And as a final word of caution, do not use your cooker to reheat food, given that it reheats very slowly.

Recipes

• Tomato and Swiss Chard Soup
• Classic Ratatouille
• Vegetarian Chili with Jewel Yams
• Thai Chicken and Red Pepper Curry
• Mushroom Barley Bake with Prawns and Asparagus
• Coconut Rice Pudding with Caramelized Peaches