Bachelor Cooking With Crock Pots

a slow cooker Oval Crock Pot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My brother has flown the nest and moved into what I can only describe as a bachelor pad, so I'm helping him brush up on his cooking skills so he isn't forced to live on cereal or hang out at my place! I'm a massive supporter of crock pot food preparation. As soon as I purchased my crock pot not too long ago, it's made a huge difference in the standard of my home-cooked dinners on days when I am pressed for time. Let me quickly add up the advantages:

• Cuts down physical preparation time.
• Makes meals more delicious.
• Can't beat that, can you?

Home Cooking Without Slaving

Just imagine you're having one of those "don't want to venture to the store" days: you've got haphazard foodstuff inside the refrigerator, perhaps some frozen chicken breasts, somewhat wilted celery, a clove of garlic clove, perhaps a bag of rice. You've got dinner!

Here's another example: In the early morning you get one pound of inexpensive, low fat stew beef, slice some carrots, potatoes and also a small red onion, add a bullion powder package and include with water. Give it a stir, set the crock pot on low and go to work. When you come home after a long day at work, your house smells incredible, like you have hired a chef and they've got dinner waiting for you! Salt and pepper the stew to taste and enjoy. The remainder of the stew can be refrigerated or frozen to provide 3 or 4 more meals. Stew often tastes better the next day anyway! This dish costs about 12 bucks for the ingredients and five minutes of prep work and gives you 4 or 5 meals! Bachelor's dream? I think so!

Get the Most From Your Pantry

It gets even better: the crock pot's magical talents include things like tenderizing even the roughest meats. The least expensive cuts of beef are generally also the leanest, providing you with all the advantages of consuming red meat without having the extra fat you'll see in the expensive marbled cuts. Slow-cook a tough cut of beef for 8 hours and it will melt in your mouth.

Importantly for the bachelor, a crock pot is a great way to improve cooking skills while keeping it basic and tasty. With a few common spices like basil, paprika and rosemary you will soon figure out which taste best with different meats or vegetables. Experiment with chopping your ingredients larger and smaller. Chili, soup, even stuffed peppers turn out great in a slow-cooker.

Cooking at home is the best way to make sure you eat right, and there's no easier way of creating delicious and healthy food than with the help of a slow cooker. 

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Bring On The Braai

I've talked before about some of the food I tried in South Africa, and a few people have emailed me asking about other foods that they should give a go. If you're looking for authentic South Africa food, then experiencing a South African braai is a must. The word 'braaivleis' is Afrikaans for grilled meat. It's commonly shortened to braai which basically means grill or bbq. So essentially this dish is just traditional South African barbecue! In fact, in South Africa it's really common to have a “Bring & Braai” which is sort of like a pot luck party. Everyone converges on one person's garden and brings meat or side dishes. Meat is the star attraction. Usually it will consist of chicken, pork, lamb, steaks, boerewors sausages and sosatie kebabs. However, Ribs, Fish and Rock Lobster are also common.

One of my favourite Braai recipes is for Pan Braai Steak Flambe

Ingredients

• Matured Rump steak (100 grams pp for starters, 200 – 300 grams pp for mains)
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Klipdrift (South African Brandy – any brandy will do)
• Cream (optional)

Method

1. Pat salt and pepper into/onto both sides of the steak.
2. Place the pan over the flames. This recipe works very well as a starter as it is best prepared whilst the fire is still burning. Use an old pan, or a cast iron pan, or whatever pan you generally use on the fire.
3. Generously add some olive oil to the pan. You might even want to put the oil in the pan before putting the pan on the flames.
4. As soon as the oil is really really hot, place the steak in the pan. Take care not to splash some of the boiling hot oil on yourself. The pan can stay on the flames during this whole process.
5. Turn the meat after about 2 minutes and remove from the fire after about another 2 minutes (very thin steak shorter, very thick steak longer).
6. Add a generous dash of brandy to the pan, take the pan back to the flames and slightly tilt so that the brandy can catch fire.
7. Remove the pan from fire and let the meat rest for a few minutes.
8. Cut the steak into strips (in the pan, or on a cutting board) and return the meat to the pan, so that it can further absorb some of the sauces in the pan.
9. Serve as is, potentially grinding additional sea salt onto the meat if needed.