I cook mine for a hell of a lot longer than 40 minutes.

My Goodness, they're so organised! I must check it out, thanks.

Rough chop an onion, a stick of celery and a clove of garlic. You can fry these off first before adding them to the slow cooker. It gives a richer final flavour but obviously adds fat.

Cut a few root vegetables into 1" chunks. You can use whatever you like I like carrot, swede, butternut squash, but parsnips and turnips when you can get them are also good and celeriac works too. Beetroot works but looks dreadful.

Add all to the pot with some stock. Add some dry cider or apple juice into which you whisk a little flour. This will help thicken the gravy.. Add in some herbs ( a bay leaf, rosemary and sage are very good in this), a tin of beans like cannellini or borlotti ( I actually buy them dry and rehydrate them) and an apple cut into slices. Season of course.

Bung it in the slow cooker and leave all day. Delicious and nutritious.

ETA Briliiant with herby dumplings added to the pit about 30 mins before eating

I am not quite so well planned but I do have a cook up on a Sunday morning while I listen to the Archer's Omnibus. I do 'ready' meals for about four days. Some end up in the freezer so over time I have a variety in there and a vegetable soup for lunches.

You can always add a cm of water, eg. when roasting a chicken in it. Or stock. Then turn it into gravy towards the end. I do that with my turkey thigh joint. Don't forget a lot of food has water in it, so it'll create a juice anyway, along with the steam.

I sought them out due to the kitchen re-fit, it gave me some great tips as I did not want to go back to frozen meals when I didn't have the oven. These days, whenever I cook rice, pasta, bolognese sauce, I always do enough to freeze at least 2 portions.

Now I rarely use the oven, ironically

ETA: My only problem is root vegetables, they just never seem to cook through when diced (as per a lot of recipes). I solve that by slicing the potatoes (or whatever) quite thinly, seeing as I only use one large one in anything anyway, to cut the carbs (and therefore sugar) down. Contrary to Diabetes UK advice, carbs are not great for diabetics

That is true. Vegetable especially making the liquid for you if you keep a lid on the pot.

All these critics of frozen jacket potatoes have no idea what they are talking about

They're not pumped full of chemicals at all .
The one I buy have a smidgen of olive oil on the skin and that's it .

The quality is guaranteed, as is a crispy skin . A normal potato has an inherent risk of horrible black bits inside .

Frozen is the future

You are Peter Andre and I claim my £5.

Blast

I wish I was a midget fanny magnet from Down Under .

As opposed to a flabby loner from South Yorkshire who eats frozen jacket potatoes

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...04819420,d.d24

Method
Prep:10min › Cook:4hr30min › Ready in:4hr40min

Prick the potatoes with a fork several times, then rub potatoes with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and wrap tightly in foil. Place the potatoes into a slow cooker, cover, and cook on High for 4 1/2 to 5 hours, or on Low for 7 1/2 to 8 hours until tender.



You can even make mashed potatoes in a slow cooker

Tesco's baking potatoes are small. The local Londis has great large ones.

Best recipe IMHO is prick the potato a couple of times, microwave on high for 20-25 minutes depending on size, then a little oil on top (I use the spray type) and into the oven. Crispy in minutes (according to taste) and nice and soft inside. Never fails.

You can even make cheesecake in the slow cooker, bread too ... pretty much anything really

Yeah I don't get this either, McCain and Bannister's frozen jackets are just normal potatoes that have been frozen, nothing else. You pay more for the convenience of them already being scored on top and that's it!

Why people think pre-frozen fresh food is bad for you, I have no idea.

That is what I do with one addition I run them through with a barbecue type skewer and cook them with the skewer in place. Helps them cook right through evenly; skewer conducts heat to the middle; and a bit quicker.

NB I am talking real raw potatoes here.

NB don't take them out with the skewer without oven gloves. You never know on here.

Yet mine sits in the cupboard unused

Have you seen the sheer amount of electricity that microwaves use?

My Sister uses all electric, with the exception of this odd gas heating system that links up the entire village, using bio gas (it's a newly built village), and uses a microwave, anyway, she pays double what we pay for both fuels, it absolutely doesn't work her out cheaper.

Not to mention how bad microwaves are for us.


I'd imagine that'd it'd help them cook slightly quicker too, in a similar way to a bone left in a joint of meat?

Very good idea, I shall be getting my bbq skewers out of the shed later! Thank you.


Because is is.

If you were to cook it from fresh ingredients, then freeze it, that's okay.

However pre made bought from the shops have unnecessary ingredients in that is not good for ones health.

A friend grows several acres of Potatoes and he can't sell real Large Ones, Supermarkets won't take them and the general public ignore them when selling at his roadside shop. the really big ones are picked out and go for Pig Feed. I get them for next to nothing from the stock feed trailer, the bigger the better for me.

The bigger the potato the longer it takes to cook

[quote=RubyNyx;79981492]Have you seen the sheer amount of electricity that microwaves use?

My Sister uses all electric, with the exception of this odd gas heating system that links up the entire village, using bio gas (it's a newly built village), and uses a microwave, anyway, she pays double what we pay for both fuels, it absolutely doesn't work her out cheaper.



Is that true? If you were to say cook a jacket potato, surely 5 minutes in an 800watt microwave would be more fuel efficient that cooking the same potato for about an hour in the oven at say 180 -200 degrees.?

I like a nice big potato. It feels much quicker and easier to peel and for most things you cut it up before cooking anyway.

Is that a typo? I can't think of anything I have microwaved for that length of time. I often cook spuds in the microwave and find an 8oz potato is cooked through in about 5 minutes (resting for a minute part way through) or so.

They must be shrivelled to nothing
At work we used to do a whole plate full for 20-25 minutes.

5-10 minutes is about right for one depending on the size.
I do 5 minutes then finish off in the oven for half an hour to get the crispiness and authentic aroma and taste.

They are a bad way of heating water (a kettle is better), but quite efficient for cooking potatoes.


Only if you sit inside a microwave oven while it's switched on.


Yes, definitely. Though if you were cooking a lot of potatoes, then there would come a point where the oven was more energy efficient. And faster.

For best culinary results (leaving aside questions of energy efficiency) I agree with the people who suggest part-cooking in the microwave (though 25 minutes is surely way too long for even the most feeble microwave!), and then finishing in the oven. Or having a microwave oven like mine, which has top and bottom grills and a program for baked potatoes that uses them in combination with microwaves, giving me a crisp jacket potato in around 12 minutes (including rest time).