Browsing: slow cooker

Just to be clear the SAD* I’m talking about here is Seasonal Appetite Desires.

I don’t know about you, but as the temperature drops and daylight hours shorten I find myself craving different foods to those I cherish in summertime.  In July, ‘crispy organic lettuce drizzled with vinaigrette dressing’, is a phrase guaranteed to provoke an almost Pavlovian response within me, but come November my palate seems to change as radically as the weather.  It’s goodbye to ‘fresh’ and ‘light’ and hello to ‘hearty’ and ‘rich’! Whilst I’m not quite ready to start my menu planning for Christmas dinner just yet, comfort food has established itself firmly at the top of my menu wish list.
We all have our own favourite comfort food, that dish which we adore, not only for its pleasing taste but also for the sense of contentment that it delivers. For me it has to be Rice Pudding, and here’s my absolute favourite recipe for it. It’s inexpensive, uncomplicated, and easy to prepare, especially with the slow cooker.  I just can’t recommend it enough ,except, did I mention that it’s organic and suitable for vegans too?
Ingredients:
1L Provamel organic Vanilla flavoured Soya Milk
115g Suma organic Arborio Rice (uncooked)
95g Equal Exchange Fairtrade & Organic Raw Cane sugar
20g Suma Organic Desiccated Coconut
1 tsp Steenbergs Vanilla Extract Fairtrade 100ml
0.5 tsp Suma Organic ground Cinnamon
a dash of salt
1.5 tbsp vegan margarine

Preparation:
This is so easy.  Just combine all ingredients in a slow cooker.

(I used the Morphy Richards Ecolectric Slow Cooker)
Cook on high for 5 hours. Stir once every hour, until the desired consistency is reached.
Cooking time may vary, depending on your slow cooker and the consistency which you like your rice pudding.
Grate some of your favourite dark chocolate on top before serving, (I used Organic Seed & Bean Company Dark Fairtrade Chocolate Bar, 60g)

Serves: 4  hearty portions.
Looks gorgeous presented (as photographed) in our stylish, red, 100% recycled martini glass too.

*Sorry if you came across this page whilst searching for some relief from Seasonal Affective Disorder, you may want to check out some of light therapy products, click here.

Happy Slow Cookers

The meals have been eaten and well-digested, the dishes have been washed, the recipes have been passed around and the all-important votes have been counted and verified (by me), and I can confirm that the Ethical Superstore Slow Cooker Challenge 2009 Winners are;

[Cue a horrendously long pause and close-up camera angles on all the participants . . .]

“Taste” category winner(s): Elaine, Analisa, Twanna
“Ethical Credentials” category winner(s): John, Elaine, Twanna
“Value For Money” winner(s): Elaine, Twanna

Slow Cooker Challenge Positions:
1st – Elaine, Twanna
3rd – Analisa
4th – John

The Chef’s Choice, Overall Winner: Elaine

So, congratulations to Elaine and well done to all the participants. Once again it has shown us all the joy of some home cooked lunch, the pleasure of sharing it with friends, and the money-saving and health benefits of simple, good food.

Morphy Richards Ecolectric Slow Cooker

Check back through the chef’s blogs to read up on their recipes; we kicked the week off with John and his Lazy 3 Bean Chilli, then had Elaine serve up her Slow Cooker Moroccan Lamb, followed by Analisa’s take on Nigella’s Ham in Cola, finished off by Twanna and her Steak and Ale dish.

Head over to the Slow Cooker Challenge Collection on Flickr for all the snaps from last week. And please do try out some of our recipes for yourself and let us know how you get on; why not buy the Morphy Richards Ecolectric Slow Cooker to save energy and time while your food cooks away!

If you have any slow cooker favourites of your own leave us a comment below . . .

It was with some sadness that I realised that after having feasted on a variety of incredible slow cooked lunches, today I’d be returning to sandwiches.

The week had been a real voyage of discovery for me. I’ll be forever grateful to Elaine for introducing me to harrissa relish and appreciate both Analisa and Twanna who have opened my eyes to cooking in drinks rather than stock.

However it was probably Analisa’s demonstration that the slow cooker is worthy of kitchen worktop space in the summer as well as the winter, that got me thinking most. I’d mentally pigeon holed the slow cooker as simply a hot comfort food provider on cold, dark winter evenings, but now I know better!

A slow cooker isn’t just for dinner; it can kick start the day too – as a hot comfort food provider on cold, dark winter mornings! With the unwelcome return of icy weather I decided to experiment. I left  the slow cooker on its low setting (the versatile Ecolectric slow cooker has a choice of three heat settings)  over night to see if what I’d heard was true – that – slow cooked porridge is amazing.

Last week we welcomed Rude Health Organic Foods to the shelves of Ethical Superstore. With a ‘Rude’ brand name it may not surprise you to learn that some of their product names sound a little cheeky too,

Read the rest of Rude Awakening! »

The slow cooker has fast become a valuable member of my family; my mum bought me one as a gift last year when my oven died and she promised me it would be save me time and deliver an easy nutritious tasty meal. Boy, was she right!

I use my slow cooker mainly for joints, curries, and chilli’s. Following on from a conversation with friends I was amazed when they told me their slow cookers are usually packed away during the spring/summer months as it’s associated with comfort winter food! Not in our household!

I decided to try a recipe that is one of our family favourites – Nigella’s Ham in Cola . In the winter its fab with mashed potato and roasted vegetables – in the summer it’s delicious with salads, jacket potatoes and warm breads  – for anyone who hasn’t tried it please don’t be put off by the title – soooo delicious and moreish!

Read the rest of Day 3 of the Ethical Superstore Slow Cooking Challenge »

For my slow cooker challenge I’ve tried to do the easiest cheapest and most flavoursome slow cooked recipe which requires minimal effort.

So here goes with Easy Slow cooked Moroccan lamb.

The ingredients

Lamb neck fillet chopped into bite size pieces you don’t need loads about 300g
1 massive sweet potato or the equivalent of about 400g
1 Tin of tomatoes chopped
Fresh tomato’s if you have any
1 Jar of Biona Harrissa relish
1 medium red onion
1tblspn plain flour/1tsp cinnamon/1tspn ground cumin (used for coating the lamb)

The Method

To start with I chopped the onion and then fried it off / softened it with a little olive oil and added it to the bottom of the slow cooker.

I then took a bowl added a tablespoon of flour a tsp of cinnamon and some ground cumin and

Read the rest of Slow Cooked with Relish »

Lunchtimes in our office have seemed a little tame recently.  Following the success of the recent Ethical SOUPerstore challenge, when a number of us demonstrated it was possible to beat the credit crunch by sharing a tasty and ethical lunch, we’ve been developing a culinary itch we just had to scratch.  But how?
Enter the Morphy Richards Ecolectric Slow Cooker.

Slow cooking has much to recommend it
•    Convenient – fits a busy lifestyle, put all you ingredients in that morning and come home to a delicious meal in the evening.
•    Flavoursome – Slow cooked food is cooked in its own juices fully absorbing all flavours.
•    Economical – Low levels of energy are used to power a slow cooker.
•    Versatile – Cook everything from curry, soup, chowder, casserole and even desserts.

Environmentally, slow cooking has advantages too – slow cookers use low levels of energy, making them economical to run (rather than heating a large conventional oven). Better still the Morphy Richards claim that this Ecolectric Slow Cooker uses up to 44% less energy than other slow cookers on the market.

So four of us have got together to give it a thorough trial. . .

Read the rest of Ethical Cookerstore? »