Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (33 page)

Put the hot pickle into sterilised jars and seal as quickly as possible. The pickle will store unopened for up to 6 months in a dark place. Keep it in the fridge once opened.

Not only is it excellent with poppadoms or curries, it perks a cheese sandwich right up!

Few things make a sandwich or a cold cut better than a dollop of this sweet-and-sour onion relish with its hints of mustard. All the flavours combine together in the slow cooker and it keeps for up to 3 months in the fridge, making sure any tears from slicing the onions will be dried in next to no time.

MAKES 4 × 200ML JARS

8 medium red onions

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard

1 tablespoon black treacle

1 teaspoon soy sauce

160ml balsamic vinegar

This is very simple to make. Peel your onions and cut them in half. Cut each half in half again so you have quarters and then cut these into slices just slightly thinner than a pound coin.

Put the sliced onions in the slow-cooker crock and stir the olive oil through. Add the sugar, mustard, treacle and soy sauce into the crock as well and stir so they coat the onions evenly.

Pour the balsamic vinegar over them all and put the lid on the slow cooker. Cook the onions on low for 8–9 hours until the onions are a soft, sticky tangle of tangy sweetness. They will have given off just enough liquid to keep everything moist and easy to scoop up with a spoon.

Spoon the hot relish into sterilised jars and seal immediately. Store in the fridge until needed.

Nothing sets a nice bit of cheese off better than a good relish on the side and this fig and pomegranate molasses version is one of the best I’ve tasted. I had barely given my first batch away when people started requesting more. It made excellent Christmas gifts and was a favourite with the Christmas night cheeseboard. It’s especially good with a soft goat’s cheese and, best of all, it’s incredibly easy to make.

MAKES 4 × 250ML JARS

800g dried figs

75ml pomegranate molasses

2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard

2 tablespoons red wine or balsamic vinegar

75g brown sugar

1 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme

500ml boiling water

200ml cold water

Remove any stalks still on your figs. You can use any dried figs for this, even those very hard ones sometimes sold in blocks in health food shops, because the slow cooking will make them so soft and tender it’s unbelievable.

Cut the figs in half and place them in the slow-cooker crock. Drizzle the pomegranate molasses, mustard and vinegar over them. Scatter the sugar and thyme evenly over it all. Pour the boiling water ino the slow cooker and put the lid on. Cook the figs for 7–8 hours on low. They will have plumped up hugely and started to collapse around the edges.

Carefully lift the hot crock out of the slow cooker and place it on a chopping board.

Blitz the figs using a hand blender, adding in the cold water as you go. You should end up with a lovely soft relish that is easy to pour from a spoon. Add more water, 50ml at a time, if it’s still a little stiff.

Pour the still-hot relish into sterilised jars and seal immediately. Allow the jars to cool. The relish will keep for up to 6 months in a dark place, unopened. I’m not entirely sure how long it will keep when opened because a jar has never lasted more than 2 weeks in my fridge…

What could be more luscious than a meltingly ripe fig where the purple skin splits at the merest touch to reveal the succulent flesh inside? You’ll be surprised when I say slow-cooked green figs, won’t you? But trust me, you can turn those green figs from the tree in the garden you didn’t even plant into something truly mouthwatering.

Cooking the figs in a beautiful sticky syrup will add the warmth to them that the sun hasn’t and turn them into a wonderful preserve that can be kept in the fridge for months. Richly spiced, they work equally well on the Granola from
here
or baked in the Spiced Chicken
here
.

FILLS A 1-LITRE KILNER JAR

750g green figs

500g sugar

2–3cm piece of fresh ginger, sliced

peel of 1 lemon

2 whole cloves

1 star anise

3 allspice berries

750ml boiling water

1 lime, juiced

50ml dark rum (optional)

The figs take a little bit of preparation before they are ready to cook. Pick your figs, checking them for any holes or insects. Remove the stalks and poke a hole in the base of each one with a chopstick. This allows the sap to drain out more easily, which prevents the figs from being bitter. (They exude a milky white sap, which is a form of latex. You should wear gloves when handling them even if you aren’t allergic as it makes your fingers sticky and itchy.)

Put the figs in the slow-cooker crock, cover with cold water and soak them for about an hour. Drain, rinse and soak again, this time overnight. The water will turn white with sap.

Drain the figs again and rinse both them and the crock well to remove any traces of the sap. Place the figs back into the crock. I set them on their bases so they pack in tightly. Scatter the sugar over them evenly.

Add the fresh ginger, lemon peel and spices and then pour the boiling water over them. They should be pretty much submerged with only the very tops poking out. Add about 100ml water and 50g more of sugar if they need a top up. Squeeze the lime juice over them then cover with the lid.

Cook for figs on low for 10 hours. This will give them time to soften in the syrup and infuse with the flavours and preserve in the sugar. Don’t be tempted to reduce the sugar beyond the amount given or they will not preserve, but instead boil into a pulp.

The figs will keep their shape as they cook, but the colour will darken to a deep purple. They will be softened, but still firm. Don’t be tempted to keep cooking them.

Allow the figs to cool for about 10 minutes and then spoon them into a large sterilised jar. Pour the still-warm syrup over the figs to cover them. Add the dark rum for an extra kick of flavour, if liked. Store in the fridge.

I know lots of people are a bit scared of pickled beetroot after having it on every salad as kids, doused in malt vinegar and served with one lettuce leaf and half a hard-boiled egg. I never minded this delicacy as I associate it with my grandpa Bert, who loved its pink pickled charms. He even sneaked it into a cheese sarnie to give it some edge.

This version uses a smoother-tasting vinegar and a scattering of sugar and spices to create a slightly candied flavour that everyone loves when they sample it. I heap it on the side of everything I can, especially a cheese sandwich.

MAKES 3 × 300ML JARS

650g beetroot

2 cloves of garlic

2 sprigs of fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried

2 allspice berries

½ teaspoon caraway seeds

200g sugar

300ml cider vinegar

300ml water

salt and pepper

Peel your beetroot and cube into 2.5cm pieces. You may prefer to wear gloves when doing this to protect your hands from being stained. Put the beetroot into the slow-cooker crock along with the garlic, thyme, allspice and caraway. Season it well.

Put the sugar in a small saucepan on the hob and add the vinegar and water. Bring to the boil and stir the sugar until it dissolves.

Pour the hot vinegar over the beetroot, making sure that the cubes are submerged. Add a little more vinegar and water if needed. Put the lid on the slow cooker and simmer the beetroot on low for 7–8 hours or high for 4–5 hours.

When the beetroot is tender, spoon it into sterilised jars and cover with the hot vinegar. Leave the flavourings behind. Seal immediately and store for up to 3 months. Once opened, it should go in the fridge.

Single salad leaf and half a hard-boiled egg, optional.

I will probably find myself not invited for Christmas back home when I tell you this story, but my main memory of cranberry sauce is my mum burning it. I don’t know if it only happened once and because it was so unlike her, we laughed and made it legendary in the process. But I’ve never made it for fear of repeating the mistake. But you can’t really burn stuff in the slow cooker, so I just had to try it.

MAKES 200G

200g fresh or frozen and thawed cranberries

1 grapefruit, juiced

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons water

salt

Pour the cranberries into the slow cooker. Roll your grapefruit along the worktop to loosen it up – it won’t juice well otherwise. Cut in half and then squeeze the grapefruit juice over the cranberries.

Sprinkle in the sugar and the salt. Add the water if your grapefruit wasn’t very juicy.

Cook the cranberry sauce on low for 6 hours. It will darken and the berries will crack and pop, but still look whole. I gave mine a little squish with a potato masher to turn it into a more sauce-like consistency and then served it with everything I ate for the next week because it was amazing.

Lovely and jammy, it is tart and tasty and I can’t wait to make it for my mum…

When I was a kid I remember eating home-made lemon curd out of a jar with a spoon when no one was looking, but my ardour for it was dampened by the commercial stuff, which was teeth-itchingly sweet in a way that subdues the lemon. I didn’t bother for years and then a few summers ago I bought a mountain of lemons to make limoncello and got sidetracked into trying curd again. It tasted sensational, but I found it nerve wracking to get the texture right. Turns out it’s foolproof in the slow cooker. Even I, the person who scrambled microwave custard once, make perfect lemon curd every time in the slow cooker.

MAKES 4 × 300ML JARS

125g butter

400g sugar

4 lemons

4 eggs, beaten

Start by melting the butter and sugar together in a small saucepan on the hob. Zest 2 of the lemons and add the juice of all 4. Stir it all together well as the butter and sugar melts. This will take about 3–4 minutes.

Pour the melted butter mixture into a 1.2-litre plastic pudding basin with a lid. You could use any bowl that fits inside your slow cooker that can be covered with foil or a lid.

Allow the butter mixture to cool for about 10–15 minutes, then whisk the beaten eggs through it. Leaving it to cool down prevents the dreaded scramble.

Put the lid on your basin and pop it into the slow-cooker crock. Pour boiling water into the crock until it comes about halfway up the side of the basin and put the lid on the slow cooker. Cook the curd on low for 4 hours.

When you take the lid off the basin, the curd will have thickened, but look a little separated at this stage with a layer of melted butter on the top of it. Don’t panic, just give it a good whisk and it will come together beautifully. Your curd will be thick and glossy and ready to bottle.

Pour it while it’s still hot into sterilised jars and seal as soon as possible. Allow to cool before storing. It will keep for up to 6 weeks in the fridge unopened. It will last about 30 seconds when opened after you’ve dolloped it on porridge, slathered it onto toast, drizzled it into ice cream, used it on a cheesecake or, yes, just eaten it off the spoon…

Note:
You can also make a great rhubarb version of this using 100g stewed and puréed rhubarb to replace the juice of 2 lemons. Or try a blood orange curd with 3 oranges standing in for the lemons.

I associate this dish with
Little House on the Prairie
or
Little Women
. I have no idea if that’s accurate since I’ve never actually read either of them, but the idea of slow-cooking apples into a soft, spreadable apple ‘butter’ full of cinnamon and spice to preserve it for a long, cold winter makes me think of American pioneers. Not quite the same as the cider-based black butter from Jersey, it is, however, delicious and very easy to make in the slow cooker. It is excellent on porridge or toast or used with meats such as pork or dolloped in yoghurt as a dessert. I have also used it to coat granola (see
here
) instead of oil and honey.

I’ve used cooking apples such as Bramleys because I like their tart taste, but you could use anything flavoursome. Avoid things like Golden Delicious that are watery, but a mix of Granny Smiths and Cox’s Orange Pippins would work well if you are buying apples rather than using home grown. It can be stored in the fridge in sterilised jars or frozen until needed and it is a great way to give new life to those that look a bit wrinkly.

MAKES 4 × 300ML JARS

1kg apples, preferably Bramleys

50g brown sugar

1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick

1 heaped teaspoon ground allspice

1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon sea salt

250ml water or apple juice

4 cloves

2 star anise

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (optional)

Peel, core and slice the apples. The thinner the slices, the better, but don’t worry too much if a few are thicker. Put about half the slices into a large bowl and the rest of them into the slow-cooker crock. Toss the ones in the crock with half the sugar and the ground spices and salt. Do the same with the ones in the bowl and then add them to the crock. (This is the easiest way to mix the sugar and spices without making a mess.)

Add the liquid to the apples. Put the cloves and the star anise into the crock too. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 10 hours on low. The apples will collapse, bubble furiously and turn a deep amber colour while infusing your whole house with a wonderful spiced fragrance.

If your apples still seem a bit watery rather than becoming a thick butter, simply cook for up to another 4 hours. Stir once an hour and when it is all thickened from the apples breaking down with very little liquid on the surface, it is cooked.

Allow it all to cool slightly. Fish out the cinnamon stick, if using, and the star anise. Blend the butter using a hand blender until it is smooth and thickened. Add the vanilla extract, if using. It will be a beautiful deep orangey colour. Ladle into sterilised jars and store in a darkened place for up to 6 months. Keep in the fridge when opened.