Did you notice that cool new button? I got that one from Caite at a lovely shore breeze. Her niece made it and I love it.

As you all probably know by now I am the new owner of a slow cooker and am pretty enthusiastic about it. The other day my mom gave me cooking apples from a relative’s garden and I was looking around for ideas what to do with them. I found this recipe for apple butter in the crock pot. USA-kulinarisch, by the way, is a great site for people in Germany, who are looking for information about US food. It gives you tips on where to order it online, how to convert measurements, how you can substitute products that you can’t find, offers recipes etc.

I am sure you all know apple butter, but I didn’t. I had never heard of it and only a search on the net revealed that it actually IS known in Germany under the name “Apfelkraut” (ugly name, that!). It seems to be more popular, however, in the Netherlands and Belgium.

From the pictures I found on the net apple butter is normally smooth, but mine turned out quite chunky. I suppose I could have used a blender afterwards, but I like chunky, so I left it that way.

Apple butter in the crock pot

Ingredients:

• 1.5kg apples, peeled, cores removed and cut into slices
• 400g sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 pinch of salt
• 200ml apple juice or cider

Fill the crock pot with apples. Mix spices with sugar, add to the apples and mix thoroughly, add apple juice. Cook on “low” for about ten hours. If the apple butter is a bit too liquid , cook a little longer on “high”.

Enjoy!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Image from flickr user stetted, frame N Rowe Janitz 

A few weeks ago I asked about what crock pot to buy since I am a total newbie when it comes to slow cookers. After taking to heart everything you told me and after carefully balancing expenditure and required features I went for a British make, Morphy Richards. I ordered it in the UK since the price there was, even with postage, much better than in Germany.

It is large, oval, has three settings and a removable pot. The only thing I didn’t get was the digital thingy, but it just was not worth the added expense in my eyes.

This is my new baby:

And this is it in real life (and bigger):

First experiences:

• Inaugural dish was Beans Bourguignon (spelled wrongly, but that didn’t matter).  It was quite nice, but I think I need to know more about the amount of liquid in a dish. Somehow it was a tiny bit too much for my taste.
• The next day it was Vegetarian Crockpot Layered Dinner. Can you tell I am excited about my new baby? The family ate it and liked it but I was not at all pleased with the soy sauce taste. Somehow it didn’t work for me. Next time the soy sauce has to go.
• Then I felt I needed a timer to try out the oatmeal. Not that we couldn’t make porridge really quick after getting up, but I wanted to see what it’s like in the slow cooker. And, of course, I didn’t want to get up at 5 am to turn the thing on. As it turned out, the timer worked fine (cheapest thing in the shop, cost me €4,00) and the porridge was OK, but gooey and somewhat rubbery. Porridge made fresh at 8am on the stove is definitely better.
• Now my favourite so far…Slow cooker vegetable curry from BHG. I had to adjust the recipe quite a bit because, believe it or not, I had no curry powder, but I had kurkuma, garam masala and what not, so I just tossed a few of those Indian spices in there. The second time I added some ginger and cardamom, also fine. The tapioca I left out, this is no pantry staple over here, so it goes without saying I didn’t have it. I didn’t have green beans, so I took zucchini instead, and I didn’t use tomatoes, but tomato puree. So, in fact, this is a completely different recipe. But it worked out well.

Since I liked the curry best I went and bought The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla. That book is going to be the topic for another weekend cooking post though.

My verdict

All in all I am more than pleased with the slow cooker concept. It is time saving and practical; you can do other things all day, smell your dinner getting ready and then sit down and eat without slaving over the stove. Perfect! Thanks everybody for your advice!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads

This week I have no ideas or recipe to share, but rather have some questions. In the last months I have read quite a few posts about crock pots or slow cookers.

I must admit that I had never heard of slow cookers before and nobody else I know has one. They are not too popular or common in Germany (or maybe I just know the wrong people).

It seems a very convenient way to cook, so I decided to get one for myself. The first (and only) source – apart from some dubious sellers – is amazon. I looked around and found a rather small selection.

There are only two brands, it seems, that are worthwhile looking at, Morphy Richards and Crock Pot. Never heard of any before. Do you know them? Which brand do you have? Which do you prefer? Are there any differences at all (except maybe the price)?

Then there is the size. There are 3.5l (3.7 quarts) and 6.5l (6.87 quarts) pots available. 3.5l sounds small to me, is that big enough for a family of four? If I want to cook to freeze some on top of what is being eaten right away, do I need a 6.5l one?

I am clueless as to what to buy! Can anyone help me out and give me a few tips?

Your advice is much appreciated.

Weekend cooking is hosted by Beth Fish reads.