Slow Cooker Crock Pot

The best way to prepare food in a slow cooker is to cook a large quantity so that all that time waiting for it to get done won’t be wasted. One of the perennial favorites when it comes to slow cooking is stew. Here are some tips on getting creative with your big batch of slow cooker stew.

Stew is a versatile dish and can be used in a variety of ways. What’s more, it can very easily be chucked in the freezer and just reheated in batches for each meal. But doing this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be stuck with one dish for a few days’ meal.

One useful tip is to purchase a prepared pie shell from your local supermarket that you can just pop in the oven. Your slow cooked stew can serve as a pot-pie filling for this crust, just fill the shell and cover with a crust. After baking the pie for forty minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, you already have a hearty dish that’s best served with a siding of potatoes and vegetables.

You basic slow cooker stew could start out with just a few ingredients: beef, carrots, potatoes. However as you cook by batch, you can add more and more vegetables like peas, onions, leeks, young corn, broccoli or any other healthy veggies, you can go crazy! Carrots and potatoes are ko to be cooked in a slow cooker because they can hold their form, however it is best to add more delicate vegetables post slow cooking so they can stay as fresh as possible.

Reheating your stew sometimes causes the sauce to run thin, but there are a few tricks to give your leftover slow cooker stew an extra richness in texture. Cornstarch is always a reliable friend in thickening soups and sauces, all you have to do is mix a few teaspoons with a small amount of water. For extra taste though, mashed potato flakes can be used in lieu of the cornstarch.

To give an extra kick to your slow cooker stew for the meals to come, a number of other spices or condiments can be added to give it a spin. For a smoky taste, you may add a couple of spoonfuls of barbecue or hickory smoked steak sauce. To make the taste a little more exotic, curry can be added instead turmeric. For those who would like their slow cooked stew to have an extra bite, chili and ground black pepper can be added.

Wine can also be added to your stew to give it that edge of sophistication. A few swigs of wine can be added to the stew but be careful not to overdo it so as not to overpower the flavor of your original dish. One eighth of a cup should be enough to give it that full-bodied flavor. Another alternative is beer, but the same goes with it, do not add too much, just enough to give it an extra tang.

A single batch of stew cooker in a slow cooker can indeed go a very long way if you know how to get creative with it.

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