Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (7 page)

Slightly unsure of what to write about when we started blogging, I decided to start trying offal again because even if I didn’t like it, it would be something to write about. My tastes, and a lot of cooking in Britain, have come on in the last 20 years and much of the offal I tried was delicious.

Mister North has never been afraid of offal and helped encourage me by telling me all kinds of things were black pudding and now I’m obsessed. Sadly, offal is often too delicate for the slow cooker, but Mister North created this dish, which works perfectly and reintroduced me to tongue.

I am lucky to have a farmers’ market near me on a Sunday and in amongst the stalls, there are a couple of butchers that stock an unusual selection of meats that are perfect for experimenting. I’ve ordered both pork and veal tongues there for a few pounds. A whole ox tongue is too big here. If you can’t get either tongue or cheeks, then simply use the same amounts of steak and kidney instead.

SERVES 6

2 pigs’ tongues

4 pigs’ cheeks

100ml red wine

200g black pudding

1 heaped teaspoon paprika

1 onion, finely chopped

400ml hot chicken stock

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

1 heaped teaspoon cornflour (optional, for thickening)

100g suet

200g self-raising flour

75–150ml cold water

salt and pepper

Wipe the tongues down and brown them on each side in a frying pan over a medium heat. I usually do them one at a time. Set them into the slow cooker. Seal the pigs’ cheeks in the same pan and add to the slow cooker. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and pour over the tongue and cheeks.

Slice open the skin of the black pudding and crumble the contents over the meat. Add the paprika and onion and season well. Pour in the chicken stock so that the tongues are nearly submerged. Add the Worcestershire sauce and the bay leaves.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the meat on low for 8–9 hours. I usually do mine overnight so that I awake to a lovely smell in the morning. Lift the meat out of the gravy that has formed and set aside to cool.

The black pudding should have melted into the stock to create a thick gravy, but if it seems too liquid, mix the cornflour with a tiny amount of water, mix it into the sauce and cook for another hour in the slow cooker or simmer over a medium heat in a large saucepan for about 10 minutes.

Turn your attention to the cooled meats. Pull the cheeks apart with two forks into strands of tender pork. Peel the skin off the tongues gently and slice or shred the meat inside. This is much easier when the tongue is cooked rather than before cooking. Mix the meats together. Taste and see if the mixture needs any more seasoning. Keep the meat separate from the gravy and set both aside.

Prepare your pudding basin by greasing and flouring it well so it is ready for the pastry. I use a 1.2-litre lidded plastic basin as it saves getting creative with tin foil. Make the suet pastry by mixing the suet and the flour together in a large bowl. Season well. I sometimes add a pinch of mustard powder too. Add up to 150ml of the water as you bring the pastry together. It should be firm, but slightly sticky. If it is too dry, add the remaining water. Keep the pastry rough with lumps of suet visible.

Don’t knead the dough, but roll out two-thirds of it on a floured surface until it is 5mm thick. Lift this carefully over the pudding basin and allow it to flop into it. Don’t push it down, but leave about 2cm hanging over the edge of the basin. Patch any holes or cracks carefully. Roll the remaining pastry out in a circle and leave aside.

Start filling the pudding by adding a layer of the meat about 5cm deep, then a layer of the gravy about 2cm deep. Repeat until the basin is almost full and then pour any of the remaining gravy over the top.

Wet the edges of the suet pastry with a little water and put the lid on top, crimping the edges together with your finger and thumb to seal it. Trim off the excess and place the lid on the bowl well. There should be enough of a gap in the basin to allow the pudding room to expand.

Set the basin into the slow cooker and pour boiling water into the crock until it comes about half way up the sides. Put the lid on the slow cooker and steam the pudding on high for 4 hours.

Carefully lift the pudding out and turn it out on a serving plate. It will slide out easily and sit up proudly for about 30 seconds before the suet pastry slumps down and cracks open, exposing a river of rich gravy. This is the sign of a seriously successful steamed pudding.

Serve with heaps of steamed Savoy cabbage on the side.

Closely related to those clootie and apple dumplings (see
here
) we used to eat for Halloween, this is the Lancastrian version, made with meat instead of fruit. Brought into my life by my brother Mister North’s connection with the county he lived in for most of a decade, it’s a brilliant way to make the leftovers of the Perfect Mince
here
go a long way. Rolled into a long shape, this dish is what happens when you combine a sausage roll with a suet dumpling and put it in its Sunday best.

This is a simple recipe to make, but it’s a good idea to prepare the slow cooker and cloth in advance as suet pastry is quite fragile and needs to handled carefully.

SERVES 4 GENEROUSLY

100g suet

100g self-raising flour

75ml cold water

150g cooked beef mince (see
here
)

salt and pepper

Put a small dish or ramekins in the slow-cooker crock. I used three of the sort you get from posh ready-made desserts. Soak a cloth in warm water, then wring out the excess. Lay it out flat. Liberally flour the whole cloth, which will prevent the pudding from sticking. Then flour it again to be sure.

Put the suet, flour and salt and pepper in a large bowl, and add the water. Bring it all together with your hands and combine. It will feel slightly rough, but do not knead the dough.

Turn it out onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangle until about 5mm thick. Put the mince in the middle, making sure you leave a little space at the ends. Roll up the pastry as tightly as you can to make a suet sausage and set onto the floured cloth.

Roll the cloth up tightly to hold the shape, tie two lengths of string round the body of it and secure each end with string. It will look like a big Christmas cracker. Fold the ends of the cloth over the top and place the whole pudding parcel on top of your ramekins. It’s fine if the pudding bends a bit at the ends to get it in there. Pour boiling water into the slow cooker without getting the cloth wet. It should come no more than two-thirds up the way of the ramekins.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and steam the pudding on high for 6–7 hours. Some people boil their rag puddings directly in water, but I found that it made the dough heavy and wet. Steaming in the slow cooker, however, created a melt-in-the-mouth pudding.

Lift the pudding out using the string and unwrap it. Serve it sliced with Mushy Peas (see
here
) and lashings of Easy Tomato Ketchup (see
here
).

You might know this as the humble Bolognese sauce, but I think it’s much more versatile than simply dolloping it onto spaghetti. Few dishes have their authenticity examined as much as this one, but the one thing it really needs is slow cooking.

I have adapted my recipe via famed Italian cook Marcella Hazan’s rules and my dad’s influence to make this rich, tasty version. There is no garlic in mine as it dominates, but lots of parsley stalks. Marcella’s suggestion of using milk to neutralise the acidity of the tomatoes is fabulous. Because my dad never used it, there’s no pancetta in my ragu.

It is a dish that needs slow cooking and would always have it in Italy, so while the ingredients aren’t that different to the ones used to make the quick midweek version, they are so much more than the sum of their parts. I make a big batch and use the leftovers in cannelloni, lasagne or with creamy slow-cooked polenta instead of pasta. I never tire of this ragu.

SERVES 2–4 WITH LEFTOVERS

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 stalks of celery, finely diced

2 carrots, peeled and finely diced

1 large onion, finely diced

½ bunch of fresh parsley stalks, finely chopped

500g beef mince (or 250g pork and 250g beef mince)

50ml milk

¼ teaspoon fresh nutmeg or ground mace

2 × 400g tins chopped tomatoes

1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée

75ml wine (red or white)

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

Start the dish by warming the olive oil in the crock for about 10 minutes. Add the celery, carrot, onion and parsley stalks, which should all be diced and chopped to the same size for ease of cooking. The parsley stalks are more robust than the leaves so better for slow cooking, but impart the same flavour.

Coat the vegetables well in the oil and then add the mince. If you can, use the mixture of the meats. It makes a wonderfully light yet rich ragu that’s hard to beat, but if you only use beef on its own it will stilll be delicious.

Stir the mince well and combine with the vegetables. It won’t brown in the slow cooker, which gives a softer quality to the ragu than you might be used to if you brown the meat in a pan. Add the milk and stir well. It will start to absorb into the meat almost immediately and it lends a creaminess to the meat and stops the tomatoes from being slightly acidic.

Season the mixture well with salt and black pepper. Add the nutmeg or mace. You want enough of it to flavour the ragu, but not too much that it defines the taste of the whole dish.

Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée and the wine. Stir well to make sure everything is evenly distributed and add the bay leaf. Put the lid on and cook the ragu on low for 8–9 hours at least. It won’t harm it to have an hour or two more if you have the chance. In fact, for even slower cooking, the ragu is best allowed to cool, left overnight in the fridge and eaten the next day when the flavours have intensified. However, it’s still the best ragu you’ve ever had when served straight away.

These cannelloni use the Meat Ragu
here
. I add some red chilli flakes then top the pasta tubes with a creamy white sauce (velouté) to keep the whole dish moist. The pasta cooks comparatively quickly for the slow cooker, making this a meal I can avail myself of any time. I succumb to the cannelloni temptation quite often, not just because it’s delicious, but because it allows me to have fun with a piping bag to fill the tubes.

SERVES 2–4 DEPENDING ON GREED

50g butter

50g plain flour

250ml milk

500ml hot chicken stock

50g Parmesan, grated (optional)

250g Meat Ragu (see
here
)

½ teaspoon red chilli flakes or chilli powder

125g cannelloni tubes or lasagne sheets

salt and pepper

I begin by making the white sauce so the roux that thickens it has time to cook down on the stove and make the sauce smooth and creamy. (I often use stock because it’s cheaper than milk and less likely to overcook in the slow cooker.)

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. When it bubbles, add the plain flour and stir well. It will come together into a paste. Lower the heat and cook for about 3–4 minutes. Stir frequently and don’t let it colour too much.

Add half the milk, whisking constantly. It might look lumpy, but keep whisking and you’ll see the milk vanishing into the roux. Repeat with the rest of the milk, then start adding the stock. Keep whisking until it all comes together and then allow the white sauce to simmer for 8–10 minutes. It will thicken nicely. Add the Parmesan and stir well.

Prepare the meat ragu by adding the red chilli flakes and seasoning again if needed. If you aren’t using pre-bought cannelloni tubes, but lasagne sheets instead, you’ll need to blanch them in boiling water now in order to be able to roll them. Cook them for 2 minutes, two at a time, and lift them out with tongs. Lay on a clean tea towel until needed.

Filling the pasta becomes ridiculously good fun with the use of a piping bag. If you have a reusable one, that’s great, or you can use the disposable ones or a good strong freezer bag with the corner cut off diagonally. All the ragu should fit in the bag at once and it’s easier to pipe if the bag is nice and plump. Twist the top tight and you’re ready.

Simply fill each cannelloni tube until about 5mm remains at each end, placing them into the slow cooker as you go. If you are making your own with the lasagne sheets, fold them round so the join is at the bottom and overlaps to make a seam. Fill and stack the same way as the tubes. Don’t tuck extra cannelloni in at the sides of the crock or they will burn, but you can stack them up to three layers deep.

Pour the white sauce over the cannelloni, making sure they are evenly coated then cook on low for 3 hours. The sauce will soak into the pasta slightly. Serve with extra Parmesan.

No matter what I do, I never have the right dish for a lasagne. It’s like Goldilocks, but with pasta instead of porridge. The dish is too big or too small or too deep or not deep enough. The result being that I rarely make lasagne, which is a real shame because a good lasagne is a truly marvellous thing. I like mine the Northern Irish way with chips on the side, but I’m going to be grown-up here and say serve this with a green salad.

I usually make this lasagne when I’ve done a big batch of either of the meat ragu recipes in this chapter. Slow cooking them twice makes them melt-in-the-mouth tender and the lasagne very simple to make. If you don’t have any, simply fry 400g beef mince until brown along with an onion. Add ½ teaspoon dried oregano and 400g chopped tomatoes, simmer for 20 minutes and use in place of the ragu here.

SERVES 4–6 DEPENDING ON YOUR CHOICE OF SIDE DISH

9 dried or fresh lasagne sheets

50g butter

50g plain flour

500ml milk

50g Parmesan, grated