Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (22 page)

Finely slice the leek and spring onions. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and soften them in it for 3–4 minutes. Add the chopped mushroom stalk and herbs. Stir to coat well and add the porridge oats. Allow them to toast for about 3–4 minutes until they smell slightly nutty.

Stir in the water about 50ml at a time. The skirlie should absorb it and become slightly swelled up, but not sticky and wet. Stop adding water if it begins to look gloopy or porridge-like. Remove from the heat. Season well with salt and pepper.

Spoon the skirlie into the mushrooms, packing it down slightly round the edges to keep it in place. Add about 100ml water to the crock and put the lid on. Don’t worry if they are slightly on top of each other rather than snugly settled in. Cook the mushrooms for 2–3 hours on high or 4 hours on low.

The skirlie will plump up further, the leeks become soft and flavoursome and the mushrooms tender and incredibly savoury because the method of cooking barely dilutes their taste, creating the ultimate mushroom. Serve with a green salad or some cabbage or kale on the side.

This is one of those dishes that’s just ripe for a bit of a revival. Done well with lots of flavour, this is a very simple and delicious meal. This was the dish when I was vegetarian that won me over to the mushroom’s humble charms. It works well in the slow cooker with its spacious crock making it much easier to cook a large number of mushrooms than any saucepan.

I’ve used a small amount of dried mushrooms to add depth here. A packet can look expensive, but I get five or six recipes from it, making them a frugal store cupboard standby.

SERVES 4 (SEE
HERE
FOR A LEFTOVERS TIP)

5g dried porcini mushrooms

60ml boiling water

250g chestnut mushrooms

250g white mushrooms, fresh or frozen

250g large flat mushrooms

1 leek, sliced

1 onion, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic, finely diced

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

75ml vermouth or white wine

10g fresh tarragon

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

100ml plain yoghurt (see home-made Yoghurt
here
) or sour cream, to serve

salt and pepper

If you are using frozen mushrooms, make sure you defrost them before using. Drain off any water they give off. Don’t worry if you only have one kind of fresh fungi. The mixture just looks nicer, but use any sort you have, along with the dried ones, and it’ll still be great.

Soak the dried mushrooms in the boiling water and allow to rehydrate for about 10 minutes while you chop the fresh mushrooms. I quartered the chestnut and white mushrooms and cut the flat ones into thick slices. Put all the vegetables in the slow-cooker crock.

Season well and add the paprika. Mix it all well and then put in the soaked porcini with their soaking liquid. Splash in the vermouth and add half the fresh tarragon. Stir in the mustard.

Put the lid on the slow-cooker crock and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours. The onions and garlic will caramelise and add lots of flavour and the mushrooms become soft and delicious, creating their own stock.

Stir through the yoghurt or sour cream before serving and sprinkle with the remaining fresh tarragon. The stroganoff is excellent on pasta, gnocchi or with steamed rice.

Note:
Any leftovers can have a little vegetable stock added and be blitzed with a hand blender to become a quick mushroom soup. Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce if you aren’t vegetarian and heat gently to prevent the yoghurt curdling. Serve with crusty bread.

Ever seen those recipes that say ‘cook the onions for 10–15 minutes until caramelised’ and been slightly disappointed when your onions are still
Twilight
-pale after that time? That’s because onions do not caramelise at speed. They need butter, time and love to achieve that sticky tangle of caramelisation. Generally this is not something you can do for a quick weeknight dinner. Except in a slow cooker.

Don’t worry, there’s method in my madness here. I’m not suggesting you get the slow cooker out after work and start from scratch. No, I’m suggesting you do a big batch of slow-cooked caramelised onions in the slow cooker at some point and then keep them in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or freeze them in portions. Defrost as needed and put slow-cooked flavours into fast meals any time.

You can also add some sausages or frankfurters in here to cook alongside them when you are out and about, like on Bonfire Night, before coming back to the ultimate hot dogs and onions.

MAKES ABOUT 600G

25g butter

1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil

1kg white onions

1 teaspoon brown sugar (optional)

salt and pepper

Warm the slow-cooker crock while you prepare the onions. Add the butter and oil so that it has time to melt.

Peel your onions and top and tail them. Cut in half from top to bottom, then cut each half onion down the centre so you have four pieces per onion. Slice each quarter to the thickness of a pound coin.

Toss the onions in the oil and butter. Add the sugar, if using. Season well, put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4–5 hours. The onions will collapse gently, giving out a rich oniony juice and becoming golden and gorgeous.

I freeze them in 100g portions in small freezer bags or make the French Onion Soup
here
. I defrost them as needed for gravies, soups, sauces or anywhere an onion improves the situation.

My life is not too short to stuff vegetables. I attribute it to my fascination with
The Good Life
when I was a nipper. I wanted the frocks and formidable attitudes of Margot Leadbetter and the stuffed vegetable meals of Barbara Good. I stuff every fruit and veg possible, but particularly love making stuffed onions. They are sweet and delicious and they look like you’ve done something very tricky. They suit the slow cooker especially well.

If you prefer, use the vegetarian version of black pud, which is a bit more expensive, but utterly lovely.

SERVES 2–4 AS EITHER A SIDE OR A MAIN

4 medium white onions

75g breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, chopped

125g black pudding

1 small apple or 50g Apple Butter (see
here
)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

25g butter, melted

squeeze of lemon juice

50ml water

salt and pepper

You’ve read the ingredients and your mouth is watering, but you’re wondering: how exactly do you stuff an onion? It’s very easy…

Chop the pointed top and about another 1cm off the onion. Peel your onion, taking off the first inner layer of the onion if it is discoloured or uneven. Leave the root intact, but trim it down if the onion doesn’t sit flat. Take a small sharp knife and cut round the inner layers of the onion, leaving at least one or two outer layers. Dig the core of the onion out with the tip of the knife and it will all come out easily, leaving the root as it is, but the centre ready to stuff. Repeat with each onion. Reserve the middles of the onions and finely chop them up. Put them in a large bowl and add the breadcrumbs and tarragon.

Peel any casing from the black pudding and crumble it into the bowl. It doesn’t matter if it’s chunky or fine as the texture will vary depending what variety of black pudding you use. Dollop the apple butter and mustard in or add the apple, which has been peeled and chopped small.

Melt the butter and add it to the bowl with the lemon juice and mix everything well to turn it into a rough, slightly crumbly stuffing. Season it and then squash it together slightly with your hands.

Pack the stuffing into the onions so that they are very well filled. It doesn’t matter if a bit pokes out the top. Put the onions directly into the slow-cooker crock, packing them in tightly so they touch the sides. Add the water, pouring it between the onions rather than directly over the top.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook them for 7 hours on low so the onions are translucent and the stuffing is golden. The sides should be getting sticky and caramelised around the edges. They are gorgeous as a main dish or served reheated with Garlic, Anchovy and Mint Lamb Shoulder (see
here
).

A Native American invention, succotash is one of those dishes that everyone has a different recipe for. I like this late summer version that is light enough to eat when there is still warmth in the evenings, but that makes the most of the abundant harvest produce.

Fresh corn makes this dish something special, but it works just as well with frozen or tinned. It is especially good finished off with some cream or you can keep it dairy-free. You can cook the black-eyed beans from dried, making this very straightforward. I freeze Parmesan rinds for use in soups and stews where they add a deep flavour. Just add a little more seasoning if you don’t have any.

SERVES 2 WITH LEFTOVERS

350g corn, fresh, frozen and thawed or tinned

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

100g dried black-eyed beans

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 whole Scotch bonnet pepper

1 Parmesan rind (optional)

500ml hot vegetable or chicken stock

200g green beans, fresh or frozen and thawed

100ml double cream, to serve

salt and pepper

Shuck the ears of corn if you are using fresh corn. Do this by running a sharp knife down each side of the cob to loosen the kernels. If you are using frozen corn, make sure it is thawed. Drain the tinned corn and rinse.

Chop all the vegetables to the same 1cm size and place in the slow-cooker crock with the dried black-eyed beans, garlic and the corn. Add the oregano and paprika and stir to coat well. Pour the tomatoes over it. Stir again. Put the whole Scotch bonnet in to allow its flavour to infuse. Also add the Parmesan rind, if using (omit the Parmesan rind or use another Italian hard cheese instead to make this dish vegetarian), and pour the stock over it all.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 5–6 hours or low for 8–9 hours. Add the topped and tailed and halved green beans an hour before the succotash is ready to eat to steam lightly.

Remove the Scotch bonnet and the Parmesan rind. Ladle into bowls and stir in the cream to serve. Don’t add it to the main crock if you want to reheat the succotash for lunch or it will curdle. Add after heating.

This is a hearty, tasty and filling dish, packed with vegetables and flavour, even if the Native Americans didn’t eat Parmesan…

I find it hard to believe that when I was a kid, you couldn’t buy a squash or a pumpkin for love nor money in the UK. They were weird orange things that you saw in American movies, usually around Hallowe’en, but no one I knew had eaten one. And then one day, the shops were full of butternut squash and Britain had taken them to their heart in no time.

Now with the advent of farmers’ markets and veg box schemes, you can buy all kinds of shapes and sizes of squashes and the seeds are available to grow your own. I always keep one in the cupboard as my emergency vegetable and you can even buy it frozen. Combined here with celeriac, parsnip and fresh herbs, I’ve put some frozen spinach in at the last minute to add lashings of colour to this simple vegetarian dish.

SERVES 2 AS A MAIN MEAL OR 4 AS A SIDE DISH

1 medium butternut squash

1 large parsnip

¼ celeriac

2 tablespoons plain flour

1 large onion, chopped

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

500ml hot vegetable stock

75ml vermouth

200g frozen spinach

salt and pepper

Peel your squash, parsnip and celeriac and cut them each into cubes of about 3–4cm. Place in the slow-cooker crock, scatter with the plain flour and toss well to coat them fairly evenly.

Add the onion and herbs and season well. Pour the hot vegetable stock and the vermouth over it all and stir so that all the vegetables are as submerged as possible. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 7–8 hours on low.

As you put the ragout on to cook, take your frozen spinach out to defrost. Place in a sieve over a bowl or the sink until needed.

After 7–8 hours, your vegetables will be soft and tender and starting to break up gently. Fish out the rosemary and the bay leaf and give the vegetables a helping hand with a potato masher. You want it chunky, but mashed.

Squeeze all the excess water from the frozen spinach, add it into the vegetables and put the lid back on the slow cooker. Give it all half an hour longer and then serve in bowls with some crusty bread on the side.

It has become much easier to get hold of edible pumpkins and most supermarkets and veg box schemes will have them around late autumn now. Here I’ve hollowed it out, filled it with sausages and white beans and then baked it in the slow cooker with its lid on like a slow cooker within a slow cooker. When it’s ready to serve, I scatter the reserved seeds over it having lightly toasted them with salt and cayenne pepper. Serve it by cutting out wedges of the pumpkin and scooping the flesh off the skin. It makes a great centrepiece to gather round on a cold night!