Slow Cooker Experiment #1 – Carbonnade

This is not a food blog, ever, there are many better people at cooking than me – but because my forays into the kitchen are quite rare, I must mention this one. We invested in a relatively cheap slow-cooker (Morphy Richards), mainly because I love stews and the like in the winter. I got to try it for the first time yesterday, with a recipe for one of my favourite meals – the flemish/french Carbonnade.

Prep was pretty easy (done in the morning) – beef (browned), onions (softened and mixed with garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and some sugar and flour), some bacon or pork belly (chopped and crisped) – all into the pot with 500ml of beer – it advised a hoppy beer so we went for Stella – although on reflection the carbonnade may have been darker and stickier if we had gone for a dark/brown beer.

10 hours later the house smelt amazing and we cooked up some french fries (that’s the traditional way of eating it – I am advised), and devoured it with crusty white bread and a heavyweight Medoc (which I can feel just behind my eyes this morning).

One point for the slow cooker – it was awesome! I’m having a go at curry today – eek!