Ok. So I'm not sure if you've heard this rumour, but they reckon everything tastes amazing out of a slow cooker. It's fail-safe! Cooking for fools!
Well, I for one, have proved that wrong so many times I have bouts of PTSD every time I LOOK at my slow cooker. I actually gave it to my Mum because it held so many memories of disastrous creative little numbers that stunk my house out for days and had me dialing for pizza when I had planned a healthy, hearty, slow-cooked dinner. Defeat.
I still have trouble using thyme after I used in in about 4 dishes in one week in 2010, 3 of which were inedible. #bleurch
Anyway, so there are a few things that are nearly unstuffable in a slow cooker. Chicken soup. A leg of lamb, red wine, passata, garlic, olives, rosemary etc. Actually that lamb thing is probably my favourite dish OF ALL TIME. Plus creamy polenta and a heavy red = a winter's night blissout.
So today, I was making this sexily-named Silky Gingered Soup from this blog 'The Clothes Make The Girl. I've made it before and it's delicious. The recipe is a bit odd in the way it's written, the lovely lass seems overly concerned with the dangers of rolling zucchini wheels. But besides that, I just got lost in the 'about' section of her blog and I think I'm a bit in love with her. We might be the same person except she still does 'Paleo' (um, champagne and toast, please, quick!) and is all totally clean-living. But besides that I totally feel her.
Oh right, soup. So this soup is totally wonderful, and even my mate Belle who hates zucchini likes it. It's also a good belly filler when you wanna be healthy but not so much hungry. So the version I made on the weekend was ok, but I had a bunch of zucchini left and I thought to myself 'I'm going to follow the recipe!' SAY WHAT!?! Crazy talk.
So I followed the recipe, realised I didn't use enough spice or zucchini on Saturday and was totally pumped about how awesome this soup was gonna be for dinner tonight. Peppery, vegetably, awesome.
But I didn't have time to do the part where you simmer the zucchini in the stock for 40-60 minutes because I had to go to work.
So I put it in the slow cooker.
Stupidly I did not stop to think that a little zucchini in water would not need 7+ hours to get to optimum softness, even on the 'low' setting.
I got home at 5ish and it was revolting.
You know that overcooked, rotting vegetable swampy smell? Yah. My house smells like that now.
I let it cool and tasted it again, only to announce that not only did it need to be disposed of, but it needed to be disposed of offsite, and perhaps the food processor in which in was blended should also be discarded.
We got in Thai.
From Krua Thai, actually. Go there, get takeaway, or eat in. It's very BYO. I reckon you could take your own lemonade and they wouldn't be upset. Coconut prawns aren't as good as the Thai Orchid, but their Spicy Fried Rice is amazing. We ate it so fast I couldn't take any photos for you. They do some killer stir fries and the people are nice. Fantastic for Rochedale! Fantastic for anywhere. Cheap, too.
Me and the D-man are going to Koh Samui in 19 days!!! Get ready for an onslaught of THAI FOOD SPAM!
Over and out,
AB.