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• Avoid meat which has a high proportion of fat, or trim the excess fat.
Poultry
• Wash and dry the poultry and season inside and out.
• Brown the skin in its own fat or a little cooking oil, in a large frying pan.
Fish
• To retain flavour and texture, fish shouldn’t be cooked for long periods.
• Grease the base of the cookpot with butter or margarine.
• Clean, trim and wash the fish. Dry and place in the cookpot.
• Season, sprinkle with lemon juice, then add hot stock, water or wine.
• Dot butter over the fish, and cook on low (1) for 2-3 hours.
Vegetables
• Quickly cooked vegetables, like frozen peas and sweetcorn, must be thawed, then added half an
hour before the end of cooking.
• Root vegetables, tubers, and bulbs (carrots, potatoes, onions) take much longer to cook than meat,
so cut them to about 5mm thick slices, sticks or dice, and sauté them gently for 2-3 minutes before
adding to the cookpot.
Pulses (beans, peas and lentils)
• You must boil dried beans (e.g. red kidney beans) for at least 10 minutes before adding them to the
slow cooker. They’re poisonous if eaten raw or under-cooked.
• Soak dried peas and beans for 8 hours (or overnight) before cooking, to soften them.
• You don’t need to soak lentils overnight.
• When cooking with rice, use at least 150ml of cooking liquid for each 100g of rice. We’ve found that
“easy-cook” rice gives the best results.
• Pasta gets too soft for slow cooking. If your recipe requires pasta, stir it in 30-40 minutes before the
end of the cooking.
Soup
• Tasty, home-made soup can be left simmering all day or overnight.
• Brown the meat and vegetables in a pan.
• If thickening is required, stir in flour or cornflour, then gradually add stock.
• Bring to the boil, season to taste, and transfer to the cookpot.
• Don’t add milk till the final half hour of cooking. Cream or egg yolk may be added just before serving.
Puddings
• Use a heatproof pudding basin, which fits the cookpot without touching the sides.
• Fill the cookpot with enough water to come half-way up the basin.
Pâté
• Prepare the pâté as in the recipe and simply use the cookpot as a water bath to provide the gentle
even temperature necessary for cooking this dish.
PREPARATION
1. Decide when you want to eat and when you want to start cooking.
2. If you want to eat at 6 p.m., and you need to start cooking at 8 a.m., find a recipe that takes about 10
hours.
3. Sit the appliance on a stable, level, heat-resistant surface.
4. Set the temperature control to 0.
5. For recipes without searing put the cookpot in the slow cooker, fit the lid.
6. Put the plug into the power socket.
7. Set the temperature control to 2, and let the appliance preheat for 20 minutes.
8. The light will come on.
