Slow cooker Q & A with Elizabeth Baird

Get accessible for the winter chill! Canadian Living's Executive Food Editor Elizabeth Baird shares her best apathetic affable advice.

CL: Do you accept admonition for addition who's new to apathetic cookers?

EB: Apathetic cookers are one of the easiest accessories to use: There's aloof the lid, the ceramics admit and the housing. A apathetic cooker abandoned uses as abundant electricity as a 100 watt bulb, which is why it's such a aces thing. You can put it on, go out to a cine and appear aback to a hot meal.

For addition that's new to them, there's no big inititation aeon – you can bound appropriate in. There are no appropriate techniques all-important to get going.

CL: Can any compound assignment in a apathetic cooker?

EB: If you're alteration a favourite compound to a apathetic cooker version, you will charge to cut the aqueous bottomward by about half, because there's actual little dehydration in apathetic cooking.

This agency you don’t necessarily get the aforementioned flavour concentrations that you ability accept from added affable techniques, so you ability appetite to assignment with juices or stocks – article that's got a little added flavour than water. A little wine, a bit of cider, or a little bit of beer – that will accord you a nice flavour.

CL: I accept a huge apathetic cooker, but I alive alone. What recipes do you acclaim that benumb well?

EB: A lot of apathetic cookers are advancing in a beyond size; some authority as abundant as 7 or 8 quarts. The kinds of things that assignment able-bodied for the freezer are stews, curries, and pulled pork recipes. There are admirable beef Abbreviate Ribs with Mushrooms and Red Wine Sauce that benumb actual well.

A clairvoyant told me she had fabricated the pulled pork and that fabricated one banquet for her family, one banquet for the freezer and again a brace of lunches for her boyish sons. That's absolutely the affectionate of affair you appetite to use your apathetic cooker for.

CL: What's one of the simplest apathetic cooker recipes for addition who never remembers to adapt 12 hours in advance?

EB: Most of the apathetic cooker recipes now baker in a lot beneath time than 12 hours. Generally speaking, craven takes about four hours, so it's a acceptable best for a being who is abbreviate on time. Both Saucy Mushroom Craven and Craven with 40 Cloves of Garlic booty 4 hours.

Beef recipes booty longer; added acceptable about 5 to 6 hours. If you don't accept a lot of time, there are soups that booty beneath time and some of them are absolutely hearty.

The added affair that's absolutely fast is fish. Salmon, or any added white fish, takes about an hour and a bisected to cook. We accept one apricot compound in my latest cookbook - Canadian Living: The New Apathetic Cooker Collection (Transcontinental Books, 2009), and it's a great, fuss-free compound that's actual nice if you're entertaining.