With the nights starting to draw in and colder days fast approaching, if you haven’t already, now is the time to dig out your slow cooker. There are a huge number of different dishes that you can create in your slow cooker such as casseroles, stews, curries and even whole joints of meat. This sort of food is most often consumed during the winter months and the dishes are often so easy to prepare.
Even if you have never made a stew before, you cant go wrong with a slow cooker. To make a beef stew, first fry off the diced beef. You do not need to cook it all the way through, just browning it off is enough. You can also fry off some onions at the same time which will just add extra flavour to your dish. If you want you can buy a bag of prepared veg which can just be added to the slow cooker raw and then add in your meat. You can either use a shop bought sauce to add to the cooker or gravy granules and a few herbs / spices are usually just as good. Once everything is in you can leave it to similar for hours slow cooking. The beauty of slow cooking food is even the toughest joints of meat fall apart if cooked using this method.