Top Tips to Prepare the Delicious Slow Cooker Stew
A slow cooker is an ideal appliance to make a delicious and healthy stew. Stew is the most-wanted meal, especially in winters. Slow cooker stew is very beneficial for people suffering from several diseases such as cold, diabetes, etc. A slow cooker is one of the accurate tools for delivering healthy outcomes. Preparing a stew is a very straightforward task. Anyone can make a delicious stew by utilizing a slow cooker. Within a single step, one can prepare the absolute meal with the help of this cooker.
A slow cooker guarantees hands-off cooking and one uses this time to do other tasks. This tool is not limited to a particular season. It is very useful in winters for making hot soups and stews and in summers it would not heat the kitchen temperature. Thus one can smoothly prepare the dish. People love beef stew and want to extract most of the flavors from it. Beef takes a lot of time and effort to become soft and juicy. Making the beef stew in ordinary cookware or say pressure cooker gives you nice instant results but there may lack taste, juiciness, or tenderness.
Get the Full Advantage of the Slow Cooker
Many different recipes of slow cooker stew are available on the internet. By following the step-by-step instruction of a recipe anybody can end up making a world-class stew. But some people fail to achieve the desired taste. It is because they are not utilizing the slow cooker accurately. There are some main points that everybody needs to follow.
In this blog, we are going to highlight some main tips that will prove very beneficial. Follow the tips mentioned below to get the full benefit of the slow cooker.
1. Always Brown the Meat
Usually, in slow cooker recipes, it is not mentioned to brown the meat before putting it in the slow cooker. Following this extra step in every slow cooker recipe would be more advantageous and taste is guaranteed. Searing the meat in a less amount of oil in a separate pot will allow the meat to develop the supreme taste when placed in the slow cooker. Beef should always be browned before throwing it in the slow cooker. With this step, there is no need to add extra oil to the cooker.
2. Chopping of Veggies for Slow Cooker Stew
Since slow cooker prepares the meal slowly and disperses heat slowly to each ingredient. So whenever you are operating a slow cooker, ensure that you have cut all the veggies or meat in equal size. This is because equally sized chopped veggies take equal cooking time. Thus, there is no chance of over or under cooking. It’s a healthy step to add more quantities of veggies to the stew. The slow cooker would mix all the essential nutrients in the stew and transform it into a healthy item. For slow cooker stew, it is recommended to chop the veggies in big sizes so that they don’t become mushy.
3. Don’t Sneak Peak
Removing the lid again and again just to monitor the status of cooking is not a good approach in the slow cooker. This appliance works by trapping steam inside the pot and so when you do continuous checking of the dish the steam eventually leaves the pot which increases cooking time. Remove the lid only if it is necessary. Have some patience and let the cooker cook the food freely.
Those who cannot stop themselves from sneaking peaking must grab a slow cooker with a glass lid. The transparent lid gives them the satisfaction of what is going inside the pot. Stew turns out to be tastier if it is cooked for long hours. Thus cooking stew in a slow cooker is the best.
4. Spices and Herbs
Spices and herbs are the need of almost every recipe. When one put spices in the slow cooker in the beginning the taste may become intense. It is because the slow cooker cook food for long hours and spices may get over-cooked or lose their desired flavors. It is advised to add spices and herbs in the last hours. This step is necessary as it maintains the flavor of the spices and herbs.
5. Don’t Over-Full the Pot
Always fill the slow cooker in half and leave some space for steam. Over-filling the pot would affect the taste as well as enhance the cooking-time. When you fill the ingredients in the slow cooker to the top, the heat is unable to reach each food ingredient. So It is a smart way to always leave some space in the cooker for easy heat penetration.
6. Thicken the Slow Cooker Stew
Usually, the stew doesn’t need thickening. The light-thicken gravy looks more delicious as compared to thicken one. Some people add extra cornflour into the gravy to get the thick texture. But if you are adding potatoes to your stew, don’t add extra items for thickening. This is because the starch present inside the potatoes automatically thickens the texture.
If you are one of those who want to consume thick-gravy stew then follow the most common method of thickening. For this, all you need is to submerge the beef or meat in the cornstarch before browning it. This step is ideal for thickening the slow-cooker stew.
Conclusion
Preparing the stew using the slow cooker will preserve all the essential nutrients. It is a healthy appliance to make any dish at a specific time. If you cannot bear the slow cooking of the slow cooker, you can decrease the cooking time by changing the heat function to high mode.
We hope that these tips would guide you to make the delicious slow cooker stew. If you have any confusion, feel free to ask our experts. Grab the premium model of slow cooker from Hello Kitchen store and enjoy the tasty and aromatic slow cooker stew with your family!
Read more: Learn Everything about Ninja Foodi Multi Cooker
