friederike's Reviews
5 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 5Sort by: Title 
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Slow Cooker Cookbook: Over 220 No-fuss Delicious One-pot Recipes for Relaxed Preparation
By Catherine Atkinson
Lorenz Books - 2008
Braised Beef with Horseradish : page 156
Very, very delicious.
After all the doomed braising experiences with my clay pot (see both the Tarragon Chicken with Cider and the Provencal Beef Stew from this cookbook. as well as the Zinfandel Pot Roast with Glazed Carrots and Fresh Sage from All About Braising), I decided to play it save this time and to use my wok (simply because it's the largest pan at hand at the moment and has a glass cover, good for checking the temperature without lifting the lid) on the stove, to be able to control temperature and steam escape. And guess what - it worked! For 'High' on a slow cooker, think 150°C/300°F, or about level 4 on an electric stove, for 'low', let it simmer very gently, which is about 93°C/200°F, or level 1 on an electric stove.
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I substituted the yellow mustard seeds with coriander seeds, and used only two tomatoes instead of five, and less juice than instructed (half a lime instead of two).
It was very delicious, although it wasn't quite what was described. It had a tendency to burn, and I had to stir it every 10-15 minutes to prevent it from going wrong, and I had to add extra liquid. It didn't really need 2 1/2 hrs. for cooking, so we ate it after 1 1/2 hours (read the cooking instructions on the lentil packaging), and although we served it with a warm naan bread p.p., it was rather a light meal instead of the 'filling supper' that was promised.
Nevertheless, it was very delicious, and I´ll surely make it again, either as a light vegetarian meal, or as side dish for Indian food. The coriander seeds were a good substitute, although I would crush them first before adding.
Crosspost. Exactly the same recipe also appears in Complete Vegetarian, only that the title differs slightly, it's Tomato and Lentil Dhal with Toasted Almonds.
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Drunken Chicken : page 133
Hmm... it had quite a strong alcoholic flavour (I even guess the alcohol hasn't evaporated completely), and while I'm all for cooking with any kind of alcohol, this wasn't entirely pleasant. I guess the problem is a combination of three factors: 1. The alcohol should evaporate - you only want to get the flavour, not the alcohol as such - it's the chicken that supposed to end up 'drunk', not you; 2. It probably would have been less of a problem with wine or beer, but with Tequila (or Vodka in our case), the strong alcohol flavour is no big fun; 3. It completely lacked other flavours. The fun of cooking with alcohol is that it gives depth to the other flavours in the dish. However, if there are none (and seriously, none, no herbs or spices simmered together with the chicken, a big mistake in the first place), then there's little good the alcohol can achieve.
The only thing I keep wondering is how it was possible that the alcohol didn't evaporate, even though we kept the dish simmering for several hours (we actually don't own a slow cooker, we just let it simmer in a clay pot - any large pot would do the job). My suspicion is that because it was covered the whole time, the alcohol just went back into the dish.
Last, we had to add a lot of water to make sure everything is covered, which made for a very liquid sauce; it was a bit silly to turn the chicken in flour before frying, if you then proceed to braise it (all the crispness you get from the flour is gone once you submerge it in liquid), and the instructions were quite complicated given how simple the whole process actually was.
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Provencal Beef Stew : page 152
Theoretically, this dish was very delicious. Practically, I have no idea why the meat (brisket, I think?) didn't become tender although I stewed it at 90°C for a total of nine hours. It didn't help that the recipe instructions were silent on the specifics of stewing…
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Tarragon Chicken with Cider : page 130
MAJOR fail. My cooking, that is, not the recipe. I made this with my brand new Colombian black clay pot slow cooker. Apparently, this clay pot allows quite some steam to escape, and unluckily it only appeared to me to check the amount of liquid after, uhm, six hours or so, shortly before dinner time. By then, the chicken was completely dry and distinctly dark brown, while the bed of onions was only covered halfway with cider. And it didn’t help that I was busy playing a game while cooking the potatoes, and only found out about the ‘pause’-button afterwards. Oops.
On the other hand, I’ve rarely laughed so much during dinner, and do you know what? In spite of everything, this was really delicious! Good enough to earn a 4 star rating. I’m definitely going to do it again, albeit in a different pot/pan (or with more liquid), slightly shorter cooking time (four to five hours, as recommended), and perhaps a slightly lower temperature (100°C in the oven, or on the stove).
I served this with Bavarian Cabbage (white cabbage with caraway, from Ich helf Dir kochen), and it went along really well.
Edited 5 November 2018:
I thought I'd give this another try, now that I have a proper slow cooker. Terrible! The chicken was dry, the sauce runny and sour - no wonder, it contains cider and sour cream , and it won't thicken if you add the sour cream immediately after taking out the chicken, and before you have the chance to reduce the sauce; also, cooking 30 min on high in slow cooker modus doesn't help, at least not in my Instant Pot.
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