Category: Slow Cooker Sunday

Slow Cooker Sunday: Mixed Fish and Vegetable Soup

Fish Soup

We’re very good at eating at least one portion of fish a week.  However, there are many benefits for having it twice a week.  This week we’ve had Fish soup at the beginning of the week and have a Fish Pie penciled in for Friday.

Slow Cooker Sunday: Mixed Fish and Vegetable Soup

Recipe Type: Main
Cuisine: Fish
Author: Mediocre Mum
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 3 hours
Total time: 3 hours 20 mins
Serves: 4
Three Fish and Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
  • 1 TBSP of vegetable oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 stick of celery, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 6 florets of broccoli, but into bite sized pieces
  • 3oog of
  • mixed white fish
  • cut into small pieces (we used hake, haddock and cod)
  • 1.3 litres of fish stock
  • 1 tsp of dried parsley
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 100g of frozen peas
  • 50g of fresh beans cut into 2cm pieces
  • 175 ml of dry white wine
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan.   Sauté the onions, celery, carrots and broccoli for 15-20 min.  Transfer to the slow cooker.
  2. Add the fish, stock and parsley.  Season with a bit of salt and pepper.
  3. Cover and cook on high for2.5-3 hours.  Add the peas, beans and wine halfway through the cooking time.
  4. Ladle into large soups bowls and serve with crusty bread
3.1.09

 

Disclosure:  Our Fish was compliments of DelishFish

 Now it’s over to you to share what you’ve had bubbling away in your slow cooker.  For a full list of recipes shared over the week pop over to our Pinterest Board.  Thanks for joining in.



Slow Cooker Sunday: Special Edition – Food Styling with Ren Behan

I find it very difficult to make brown gloop look appetizing!  The lovely Ren Behan, a friend and local food blogger, kindly invited me around her house for a session on Food Styling.  I had no idea there was actually such a thing.  Apparently, there are people who do this for a living!  They travel around to different food shoots with a van full of props.  I’ve still got a long way to go but I learned a few things.

Tips for Food Bloggers

  1. Get a decent camera!  Everyone had digital SLRs and there was me with my iPhone.  I got a bit lost when they started talking decimal points and aperture.  However, after the session I came home and found a couple of apps that can help make your photos look like they were taken with an SLR camera.  The first which I’ve been using for awhile is Camera Plus and the new one I down loaded is called Afterfocus.  It allows you to choose the area you would like to focus on then blur the background also known as Bokeh.
  2. Natural light is a must.  This is difficult as we often eat late and it being winter in the UK there isn’t a lot of natural light.  The trick is to set aside a portion and take a photo in the morning.
  3. When presenting food, apparently, less is more.  I’ve had a bad habit of taking photos of it in the slow cooker, which didn’t result in appetizing photos.
  4. Props!  Don’t go out and buy 6 full dinner sets but buy the odd plate, bowls, and cutlery.  Charity shops and places like Matalan are brilliant for this.  Also, start collecting pieces of fabric that you can use to add interest/colour to your photos.
  5. Get a collection of wooden boards.  Look for offcuts at your local DIY store.
  6. When presenting food use odd numbers.  (E.g.  1, 3, 5, 7)

I’ve only been applying these tricks for a week but I’ve already seen a big improvement in the quality of my photos.

Thanks Ren

Now it’s your turn to share your Slow Cooker recipes using the Linky below.  We’re also on Pinterest if you want to see the recipes from past weeks.  The hashtag for Instagram and Twitter is #scsunday



Slow Cooker Sunday: Banana Bread (2 Dec 12)

I was inspired by an entry on Slow Cooker Sunday last week to have a go at making Banana Bread in the Slow Cooker.  As a family we don’t tend to eat a lot of pudding and I don’t often bake, unless it’s a rainy day and struggling to find something to entertain my daughter.

Aly from plus2point4 is always doing fantastic puds in her slow cooker and I’ve been meaning to have a go for a while.  I was stunned, it worked brilliantly.  You may be wondering what the advantages to doing it in the slow cooker are as it takes longer.  I found it was much more moist than when I have made the same recipe in the over, plus, we could go out and do something else while it was cooking.  I wouldn’t leave a cooker unattended but I don’t worry when it’s the slow cooker.

I believe the recipe is originally American so the measurements are in volume rather than weight.  However, I do think any Banana Bread Recipe would work.

 

Slow Cooker Banana Bread

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Slow Cooking
Author: Mediocre Mum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 435 ml plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • 82 ml butter or margarine
  • 165 ml sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed
Instructions
  1. Grease and flour the slow cooker.
  2. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda into bowl.
  3. Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl, and then mix in the eggs and banana.
  4. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients.  Don’t over mix.
  5. Pour into the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on high for 1.5-2 hours.  Mine took closer to 2.  To check if it’s ready insert a tooth pick and if it comes out clean then it should be ready.
  6. Let cool then invert onto a plate and ice if you want.

Now it’s your turn to inspire!

Don’t forget a more extensive list of recipes featured over the weeks can be found on Pinterest – Slow Cooker Sunday.



Slow Cooker Sunday: Lentil and Sausage Casserole 25 Nov 2012

Slow Cooker Sausage CasseroleHere is my offering for Slow Cooker Sunday, where we come together to share our favourite recipes.

This recipe came from one of my new Recipe Books, ‘The Slow Cook Book’ by Heather Whinney.  I really like it because each recipe has instructions for using in a slow cooker but if you don’t have one it also has the traditional method listed.

The original recipe called for Toulouse sausages but I just used regular Cumberland Sausages, I think.  It doesn’t look appealing but I can assure you it was very tasty.  We served it with crusty bread and a dollop of Sour Cream.  Perfect winter food.

Serves 4-6

Temp:  Low

Time: 6-8 hours

Ingredients

  • 2 TBSP of Olive Oil
  • 6 Cumberland Sausages, roughly chopped
  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 140g Chorizo Sausage, diced
  • Pinch of dried Rosemary
  • Pinch of Thyme
  • 200g Puy Lentils, rinsed
  • 175ml red wine
  • 500ml Pork Stock you can use Chicken if you don’t have any
  • 1 Red Chilli left whole

 Method:

  1. Heat 1 TBSP of oil in frying pan, fry the sausages for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
  2. Heat another TBSP of oil, add the onion and carrot and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add the garlic, chorizo and herbs give it a stir.  Return the sausages to the pan and stir in the lentils.  Add the wine, bring to a boil and cook for a minute.
  3. Transfer everything to the Slow Cooker and add the stock and chilli.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
  4. Prior to serving remove the Chilli.  If you prefer your dish with a bit of kick you could chop the chilli and add it.

Now it’s your turn.  Add your recipes by simply using the Linky below.

Don’t forget we’re also on instagram #scsunday and all of the recipes can be found on our Pinterest Board



Slow Cooker Sunday: Chinese Style Pork and Noodle (18/11/12)

Slow Cooker PorkI have a small confession to make.  This was originally supposed to be Chinese Style ‘Beef’ and Noodles but for some strange reason I bought pork.  However, I had a quick look at the ingredients Spring Onion, Ginger and 5-spice and thought it might work with Pork and it did.  The picture really doesn’t do it justice.   The only changes I made were the Pork of course and I substituted Pork stock instead of Beef Stock.

This recipe originally came from SOUPS FOR YOUR SLOW COOKER by Diana Peacock

Ingredients:

  • 1TBSP of vegetable oil
  • 5 spring onions, chopped
  • 3 cm piece ginger, grated
  • 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • ½ tsp of 5-spice powder
  • ½ tsp chilli flakes
  • 2 TBSP rice wine
  • 2TBSP dark soy sauce
  • 1 TBSP hoisin sauce
  • 1 litre of pork stock
  • 1 TBSP of vegetable oil mixed with 1 TBSP sesame oil
  • 400g pork cut into bite sized pieces
  • 200g egg or rice noodles

 

Method

  1. Heat the oil in the slow cooker on High.  Then add all of the ingredients from the Vegetable Oil to the Hoisin Sauce.  Mix well.
  2. Add the stock and stir.
  3. Heat the second portion of oils in a frying pan, add the pork and cook until sealed.  You could season with salt and pepper but I wasn’t sure how salty it would be with the stock and soy sauce so I didn’t. Transfer to the slow cooker, cover and cook on LOW for 5-7 hours.
  4. An hour before finishing, add the noodles to the cooker.  We served it in large soup bowls accompanied by store bought Prawn Toast.

Join in

So, what have you been up to with your slow cooker this week?  Please leave your links below a moment to check out the other recipes.  If you don’t blog you can always leave your recipes in the comment section.

We’re also on instagram #scsunday and featured recipes can be found on our Pinterest board.