The electric slow cooker is one of the best time saving appliances in the kitchen. It is ideal for inexperienced cooks because all you have to do is, prepare the ingredients fill it and turn it on. Hours later, you come home to a house filled with wonderful aromas and a meal ready for the table. Slow cooking offers many advantages; as it improves the flavour of the food and does not burn or boil over. The slow cooking time allows the flavours to develop and blend resulting in wonderful tasting, wholesome and nutritious food.
The electric slow cooker is versatile, excellent for making soups, stews and casseroles. It even allows you to cook fish and delicate fruit and vegetables which remain whole even after long periods of cooking. Whole chickens and joints of meat remain succulent, retaining their juices without shrinking. Its use as a water bath allows the preparation of pate, pudding and even sponges. Hot punches and Mulled wines can be served straight from the slow cooker, ideal for any winter festivities.
During the slow cooking process very little steam escapes which benefits the flavour of the food. This process also aids to tenderised cheap cuts of meat, such as shin of beef and neck of lamb, all which can be used to create great dishes. You do not need to brown meat before cooking it in a slow cooker, but there are advantages to searing meat first. If you coat meat with flour and seasonings and sear it with a little oil in a hot skillet for a few minutes, it can develop a more complex flavour and appealing colour than it will in the slow cooker alone.
Slow cooking is one of the few cooking methods that allow you to cut the cooking time by turning up the temperature and still get great results. The food will not burn in the slow cooker because it retains moisture so well, and because the heat is so evenly and gently distributed around the sides as well as the bottom of the pot. If something takes 10 hours on the "low" setting, you can safely cook it for 5 hours on the "high" setting with very similar results. Happy cooking.
Glyn Jones
http://www.the-recipe-book.com
Source: www.articlecity.com