The longer I have my slow cooker the more adventurous I'm getting in what I cook in it. This week's special was beef adobo. Now, if you are like me, you may well not even know what adobo is. Let me enlighten you:
: a Philippine dish of fish or meat usually marinated in a sauce containing vinegar and garlic, browned in fat, and simmered in the marinade(according to Merriam Webster)
In terms of cooking difficulty this scores very, very low. After browning the beef in a frying pan you simply cook the onion and garlic and then mix in flour, soy sauce, beef stock, sugar, bay leaves and salt and pepper and bring it all to the boil. Everything then goes straight into the slow cooker and you're very nearly done.
At the end of the cooking you stir in some lemon juice (which gives the dish a very fresh zing) and then serve with rice and topped with carrot sticks, shredded spring onions and coriander leaves.
As we head into summer this is a lovely alternative to a traditional slow cooker beef stew and the carrot and spring onions on top provide a slightly crispy texture that gives the whole dish a lighter feel. The beef is incredibly rich and having been cooked for so long it falls apart in much the way that you would expect it to do in a stew.
Mr C wasn't too keen on this dish, but couldn't quite put his finger on why. I loved it though and thought the lime juice in particular added an extra special twist. The simplicity level was fantastic and I also liked the fact that most of the sauce contents were things that we already had in the kitchen cupboard.
We didn't have our slow cooker last summer and I have always tended to think of them as mainly for winter cooking. I'm told that there are loads of fantastic summer recipes out there so I'm determined to find them (in the hope that we actually have a summer this year) as there is no doubt that using the slow cooker makes cooking an evening meal so much easier when you also have children in the house. If you have any summery slow cooker recipes then I'd certainly like to hear about them.
I have written this post as part of Mediocre Mum's Slow Cooker Sunday and the Beef Adobo recipe originally came from Hamlyn All Colour Cookbooks 200 Slow Cooker Recipes
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