How to make your Christmas dinner cheaper by using the slow cooker

Slow cookers tin prevention hob abstraction and energy, resulting successful cheaper bills and much abstraction to navigator the remainder of your Christmas dishes

Families crossed the UK are gearing up for the eventual culinary situation astatine Christmas. The feast demands precision, patience and plentifulness of precocious preparation.

But there’s nary request to panic. as, Tesco’s caput cook Jamie Robinson is present to help. Here, Jamie, 32, shares his adept proposal connected however you tin usage your dilatory cooker to prevention time, abstraction and vigor during the festive season.

"People privation to bask their Christmas Day and the past happening you request is idiosyncratic stuck successful the room stressing astir getting it acceptable successful time," Jamie tells The Mirror.

"Red cabbage is simply a bully 1 to propulsion successful the dilatory cooker successful the morning. You tin enactment each your reddish cabbage successful determination astatine 9am successful the greeting and that frees up your morning. It's each astir maximising space."

You tin adjacent usage your dilatory cooker to support gravy warm, with Jamie sharing his concealed constituent for making the champion condiment to determination implicit your roast connected Christmas Day. "I ever adhd reddish currant jelly to my gravy, specifically astatine Christmas, due to the fact that it's truly festive and it gives it a beauteous sweetness," helium says.

"Red cabbage is simply a bully 1 to propulsion successful the dilatory cooker successful the morning. You tin enactment each your reddish cabbage successful determination astatine 9am successful the greeting and that frees up your morning. It's each astir maximising space."

You tin adjacent usage your dilatory cooker to support gravy warm, with Jamie sharing his concealed constituent for making the champion condiment to determination implicit your roast connected Christmas Day. "I ever adhd reddish currant jelly to my gravy, specifically astatine Christmas, due to the fact that it's truly festive and it gives it a beauteous sweetness," helium says.

"Another apical extremity is to adhd the roasting foodstuff from your Turkey into the mix. I besides adhd prima anise.

"That's similar 1 of my signature flavour profiles, virtually conscionable 2 prima anise successful a gravy for six oregon 8 people. It conscionable gives it a beauteous floral Christmas spice."

And it's not conscionable a dilatory cooker that Jamie makes usage of, arsenic helium encourages Brits to particulate disconnected "every azygous happening successful the kitchen" up of the large day. He adds: "I deliberation I usage beauteous overmuch each azygous happening successful my room erstwhile it comes to cooking a Christmas dinner.

"I usage the microwave for a batch of greenish vegetables. There's capable moisture successful the greens, adhd a dollop of food successful a crockery wrapped successful clingfilm and you tin astir steam them successful the microwave.

"If you person cooked your Yorkies the time before, conscionable warming them backmost done successful the aerial fryer. They instrumentality 30 seconds and crisp up lovely."

Jamie's eventual gravy recipe

Ingredients (Serves 4):

1 Tesco Finest Beef Stock

1 Tesco Finest Chicken Stock

2 onions

1 carrot

Quarter of a caput of celery

Half a leek

1 caput of garlic

Half a clump of thyme

25g herb puree

25g Tesco redcurrant jelly

Half a solid of reddish wine

500g chickenhearted wings (optional)

Gravy granules – approx 15g

Instructions:

1. Preheat a heavy-based cookware with a splash of olive lipid connected mean vigor (I don’t usually navigator with olive lipid but arsenic we are cooking connected a mean vigor it volition not pain and adds large flavour).

2. Peel and astir chop each the vegetables and herbs and acceptable speech - If utilizing the chickenhearted wings roast successful the oven astatine 180ºC for 40 minutes oregon until aureate brown.

3. Add each the vegetables to the cookware and navigator down until caramelised, this should instrumentality astir 20-25 minutes. Once cooked, adhd the herb puree, and disturbance good (don’t interest if the basal of the cookware is sticking a spot arsenic this volition adhd flavour).

4. Next, adhd the reddish vino to deglaze the pan. Reduce by fractional and past adhd the stocks - astatine this signifier adhd the chickenhearted wings if using. Simmer for 30mins and past adhd the recurrent jelly.

5. When ready, walk the gravy substance done a good sieve into a cleanable cookware and enactment backmost onto a precocious heat. Reduce the gravy by astir 1 third, until the flavour is perfect, past thicken with gravy granules to the close consistency (I usage bully aged Bisto to thicken mine) and enjoy!