For busy people, a slow cooker will be a great alternative to an oven or stove. The equipment copes with cooking dishes of varying complexity, just select the desired program and download the necessary ingredients. In the multicooker, almost any dish is prepared, mainly side dishes. At startup, you can select several modes: cooking, stewing, frying. Many equipment is also equipped with a system delayed start, which allows you to set a certain delay time, for example, if you go to work and decide to take care of dinner in advance. Currently, the number of manufacturers of this electrical unit is growing rapidly. Among the offers, you can find many models of domestic and foreign assembly.
Probably many of you have tried pilaf. A dish of rice, meat and vegetables is prepared by stewing the ingredients. But what if there is no “pilaf” program among the list of available programs in the multicooker? Some models have rather limited capabilities, so in order to cook pilaf, you need to use alternative opportunities. With the help of simple manipulations, you can fully replace the missing modes that are not included in the list of available cooking programs. This will be discussed in the material below.
How to replace the "pilaf" mode if such a program is not available in the multicooker
So, you found that in your slow cooker there is no “pilaf” mode. But this does not mean that you cannot cook it on alternative programs. In this case, you will have to process each ingredient individually on the appropriate program. To do this, you need to take all the components for cooking pilaf:
- Half a pound of meat. Lamb, as well as any other meat, including chicken, will do;
- Washed peeled carrots 2 pieces;
- Optionally, add tomato paste;
- Seasoning for pilaf. If desired, you can add black pepper or bay leaf to give pilaf aroma;
- Onions in the amount of 1-2 heads;
- One teaspoon of iodized salt;
- Long grain rice about 400 grams. You can add more or less if you are cooking a meal for several people;
- 30-40 milliliters of olive oil;
- One head of garlic.
First of all, you will need to thoroughly wash the meat and, having cleaned it from the veins, load it into the slow cooker. There you will need to add onions and carrots, chopped finely. Add oil and fry. Half an hour is enough to bring the pilaf dressing in accordance with the requirements of the recipe.
Done! Now you can start cooking rice. We prepare it according to the following scheme:
- Thoroughly rinse the rice in a colander under water and remove all foreign particles
- We load rice into the food bowl and start the double boiler mode. If necessary, you can add water to the container. In total, steam treatment should be carried out within 25 minutes, after which you can proceed to the next stage
- Mix rice with all other ingredients and load into the food compartment
- We turn on the mode of extinguishing or baking, which will allow the finished mixture to be fried on all sides
Extinguishing must be carried out within one and a half hours. In this state, pilaf will be no worse.In addition, thanks to stewing and baking, you can not worry about how well all the ingredients bake and not worry about the proportions of the added ingredients. In fact, the pilaf is cooked in a slow cooker, where there is no necessary mode for this, occurs in the same order as in normal mode. When stewing rice there is a risk of significant heating of the lid and a large release of moisture. Do not forget to follow the process.
What to do if there is no “baking” mode in the multicooker
At first glance, the multicooker is complicated in the device, because its software contains the exact sequence of actions when choosing a cooking program, so there may be problems finding an alternative. In fact, crock-pots are much simpler than they seem. Using the “baking” mode, you can make bread at home, various confectionery products, as well as prepare various meat dishes. The appliance produces the highest temperature possible, so novice users may be confused. In the event that the necessary program was not found in your multicooker, but you need to prepare a portion of children's or holiday treats, it is worth using the tips of more experienced users.
What do experienced users recommend? Depending on the brand, baking can be made in several modes. For example, to make charlotte, it will be enough to choose “soup”. Depending on the model, you can bake it by choosing the “rice” or “porridge” commands. Due to the insufficient heating time for baking, you will have to constantly adjust the numbers in manual mode. Many manufacturers attach instructions and recipes, so you can see what temperature a certain mode produces and experiment with baking on alternative options. As a last resort, you can search on subject forums for alternative recipes suitable for your model.
Crock-pots in their essence are not much different from conventional ovens or microwave ovens. If desired, they can make any dish, even if such a mode is not in the list of available ones. It should be remembered that most programs have the function of heating the hopper to a high temperature, so you can always find an alternative. Subject to temperature conditions, you can cook the desired dish in any device.