Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (11 page)

SERVES 6 WITH PHENOMENAL LEFTOVERS

200g Caramelised Onions (see
here
)

4 cloves of garlic

4 tablespoons tomato purée

2 tablespoons water

1.5kg pork shoulder

½ bunch of fresh parsley, chopped

1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 star anise

salt and pepper

If you don’t have any caramelised onions, simply substitute them for 2 sliced raw onions. Either way, put the onions and the garlic cloves on the base of the slow-cooker crock to impart flavour to the meat.

Mix the tomato purée with the water to form a thick paste. Rub this over the pork. Season well. Place in the slow cooker on top of the onions and garlic. Scatter with chopped parsley and add the chopped tomatoes. Pop in the star anise.

Cook on low for 8–10 hours with the lid on. The meat will be falling apart with tenderness so when you lift it out of the crock, you’ll have to be very gentle. Set on a plate until needed. You’ll have a lot of sauce left behind as the juices from the meat will have combined with the tomatoes.

Pour this into a saucepan and reduce over a medium heat until it is about half the volume it was. Taste and season again if needed. Remove the star anise.

Shred the pork with two forks until you have soft tendrils of tender meat. Combine with the tomato-rich sauce and you are ready to serve. The only issue is what serving choice to make as it’s one of the most versatile dishes I know!

I’ve served this over linguine for a hearty pasta dish, on mini soda-bread pizza bases with a scattering of mozzarella and some chilli flakes, or added to small wraps with shredded cabbage and fresh coriander to make tacos.

I’ve also made quesadillas by putting some grated cheese on top of my taco, adding a second wrap to make a sandwich and then dry-frying for about 2 minutes each side in a pan. I’ve combined the pork with leftover rice to make a stuffing for tomatoes and added it to the creamy Cuban-Style Black Beans
here
. I’ve even eaten it straight from the fridge as I was passing.

When she lived in London, my friend Sara told me about proper Kansas City-barbecue style, the great perk of growing up between St Louis and Kansas City. We hunted for something similar in London but failed to find the authentic mix of molasses and tomato. Sara moved home soon after, although I’m not sure the two things were connected.

I’ve attempted making proper barbecue pork outside over wood smoke a couple of times, but it’s just so time consuming I’ve given up on that and turned my attention to using the slow cooker instead and I’m very pleased with the results. I think I can probably lure Sara back when she sees this recipe.

SERVES 6 WITH LEFTOVERS

2 tablespoons black treacle or pomegranate molasses

1 tablespoon tomato purée

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon clear honey

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground mace

¼ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

1.5kg piece of pork shoulder or leg

3 onions, sliced into quite thick half moons

250ml Dr Pepper
^®
(not diet)

2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

This is so simple to make. Make a marinade by combining the treacle, tomato purée, mustard, honey and the ground spices, salt and pepper together and rub it all over the pork.

Make a carpet of the onion over the base of the slow-cooker crock. Set the pork on top of it and then pour the Dr Pepper into the crock without washing the rub off the pork.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the pork on low for 9–10 hours. Carefully lift the pork out and set on a plate. Allow to cool slightly while you make the sauce.

Purée the onions into the sauce with a hand blender and add the ketchup (for homemade ketchup, see
here
), stirring it all through so it is smooth and thick. Taste it to see if it needs more seasoning. Add it as needed. You will have about 600ml sauce.

Using two forks, pull sections of the pork away from the main piece of meat and then use the forks to fluff up the meat so it becomes small strands of pork. This is a way to show how tender the meat is and to make the meat go further as it makes a small portion look huge.

Add enough sauce to the pulled pork to keep it moist and tasty. Serve in rolls with some crunchy coleslaw for a traditional Midwest feel. The pork will keep well in the fridge for up to 5 days and is endlessly versatile.

I love lamb. It was a favourite of my dad’s when we were kids and as a result we often had it at special family meals, so I associate it with good times. You’re probably thinking it can be quite an expensive meat on a budget, but this is where lamb breast comes in. It’s very good value, but can be greasy if not cooked carefully.

The slow cooker is perfect for doing it well, allowing it to stay tender, but not to cook in its own fat. Served as a rolled joint, it makes a lovely Sunday lunch. Don’t forget to make your own good times!

SERVES 4

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground mace

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 rolled lamb breast joint, approximately 750g-1kg

2 onions, quartered

1 carrot, cut in batons

½ swede, cut in chunks

150ml water

Mix all the spices together along with the salt and pepper and combine with the oil to form a loose paste. Rub this all over the lamb breast joint. Marinate in the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to cook, place the lamb, skin side down, in a cold frying pan and set over a medium heat. This renders off any excess fat. Seal the lamb on each side for about one and a half minutes, or until browned. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Make a carpet of the vegetables on the base of the slow-cooker crock as you are going to use them as a vegetable trivet that you set the meat on. This will allow the meat to steam and roast without it being too fatty. Place the sealed lamb on the vegetables.

Add the water to the vegetables and put the lid on the slow cooker. Cook the lamb on low for 7–8 hours. The lamb will shrink slightly as the fat renders out into the vegetables and a lot of liquid will gather in the slow-cooker crock.

When the lamb is cooked, it will look soft and tender. Take it out of the crock and set aside to rest for 5–10 minutes. Using a hand blender, purée the vegetables in the slow-cooker crock into a thick glossy sauce.

Serve this sweet, spiced onion sauce with the sliced lamb. It makes a lovely variation on a roast dinner.

This is probably the first ever dish I associated with a slow cooker. Years ago when I had not long moved to London, my boss at the time used to make it when we worked on a Sunday. She would rub the lamb with mint sauce, adding garlic and anchovy and popping it all in her slow cooker. I was rewarded for a day’s work with commission and an invite to pop round the corner to her house to join her family for dinner.

The vinegar in the mint sauce marinates the meat as it slow cooks, making this the most tender lamb you’ll ever try. The only difficult bit for you is getting it out of the crock as it tends to just fall apart as you lift it. The tricky bit for me was watching her eat the leftovers in a roll on a Monday lunchtime and trying not to go green with envy.

A 1kg piece of lamb shoulder will fit nicely into a 3.5-litre slow cooker and will probably be sold in a supermarket as a half shoulder. A larger whole shoulder will fit snugly into a 6.5-litre slow cooker and will, of course, serve more people. Simply double the amount of garlic, anchovy and mint sauce.

SERVES 4–6 WITH LEFTOVERS

1kg piece of lamb shoulder

4 anchovies, each cut into thirds

6 cloves of garlic, halved

150ml mint sauce

salt and pepper

Prepare your meat by taking a small, sharp knife and poking small slits into it, each about 2–3cm deep. You’ll need about twelve of them. Wrap your anchovy pieces around the garlic. Stuff each one into the slits in the meat so they are obscured.

Rub the mint sauce all over the surface of the meat and place the lamb into the slow-cooker crock. Season well with salt and pepper. The anchovies are salty, but their flavour mellows into the meat to become neither salty nor fishy, but just incredibly savoury.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the lamb on low for 8–9 hours. The meat will be transformed into something truly amazing. Serve with roast potatoes and green beans with mint sauce on the side.

This is the dish that Mister North most enjoys making in his slow cooker. He lived in Lancashire for many years before venturing just across the Pennines to West Yorkshire, but his heart still lies with a dish that allows for more black pudding in his life. (He is a bona fide black pud obsessive, having even made his own!)

If you can get mutton for this dish, then do use it. Halal butchers often sell it and the older, more flavoursome meat works beautifully in the hotpot. If not, some lamb does the trick nicely.

SERVES 4 WITH LEFTOVERS

500g lamb or mutton shoulder, cut into 5cm cubes

1 tablespoon plain flour

500g potatoes

50g butter, melted

200g black pudding

1 large onion, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

250ml water

salt and pepper

Coat your meat with the flour mixed with some salt and pepper. Set aside while you slice your potatoes as thinly as possible. If you have a mandolin, life will be easier. If not, use a knife to make them just a few millimetres thick.

Brush the bottom and the edges of the slow-cooker crock with about half the butter and then layer some potatoes into the base. I usually do two layers here and then I put in half the skinned and crumbled black pudding with some of the onion.

Add another layer or two of spuds and then half the lamb and carrots. Repeat another layer of potatoes, then the rest of black pudding and onion. Next up is more potato and then the remaining lamb and carrots. Add the bay leaf. Finish off with a final layer of potatoes.

Mix the Worcestershire sauce with the water and pour it all over the hotpot. Brush the top layer of potatoes with the remaining butter and put the lid on the slow cooker. Cook the hotpot on low for 8–9 hours.

The potatoes on the bottom will crisp up and caramelise, while the lamb steams and the black pudding melts it all together, making each layer extraordinarily good. Serve with red cabbage and a healthy appetite.

I grew up on Irish stew and I love it, but few other dishes have been so maligned and thus reinterpreted by people as this simple stew. Traditionally served more like a soup thickened with the potatoes than the casserole-type stew we think of now, people expect a rich gravy. I like mine served in deep bowls with lots of the lovely stock being poured over the top and supped with a spoon. Usually the stew pot was covered with greaseproof paper under the lid to stop the stock evaporating, but the slow cooker doesn’t need that with its tendency to make food a bit more watery than the oven. This dish takes the potential flaw of the slow cooker and serves it up as a real warming treat.

The Marmite may not be traditional here, but as we’re using lamb rather than the more mature hogget or mutton that’s had time to develop more flavour, it gives a lovely oomph. You need lamb on the bone for this dish to create the stock. Lamb neck is perfect, but there isn’t a huge amount of meat on it. I buy a small amount of neck and then bulk it out with frozen lamb chops.

SERVES 2 WITH HEAPS OF LEFTOVERS OR 4 HUNGRY PEOPLE

500g lamb chops or lamb neck

1 large onion, sliced into half moons

2 carrots, chopped small

500g potatoes, chopped into 2cm cubes

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 teaspoon Marmite

750ml water

chopped fresh parsley, to serve

salt and pepper

Layer about half the lamb chops into the bottom of the slow cooker, cutting them in half if needs be so that they cover the crock evenly. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Lay half the chopped onion, carrot and potato on top. Add the thyme. Season again.

Put the rest of the lamb on top in another layer and season once more. Spread the Marmite over the meat and add the remaining potato, onion and carrot. Season a bit more. This dish needs serious seasoning to stop it being flat in flavour.

Pour the water over it all and put the lid on the slow cooker. Cook the stew on high for 7–8 hours. The lamb will become meltingly tender in the rich bone broth and the potatoes will start to collapse round the edges.

Stir it all up and allow the potatoes to break up slightly so that they thicken the stock into something more like gravy. Serve in deep bowls and scatter with chopped parsley. Slurp up the broth with a spoon among friends.