Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (23 page)

SERVES 4

1 edible pumpkin, approximately 800g to 1kg

6 sausages

1 × 400g tin cannellini beans or 150g dried

150g cherry tomatoes or 1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon tomato purée

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus a pinch for the pumpkin seeds

200ml hot stock

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Check your pumpkin fits the slow cooker. For a 3.5-litre slow cooker, I used a 20cm pumpkin. Line the slow-cooker crock with double thickness greaseproof paper or reusable baking liner (which looks like thicker, stronger baking paper, but is heat resistant and washable. I got mine in the pound shop).

Take the top off the pumpkin with a sharp knife. You want it to resemble a lid. If needs be, trim the stem down so it doesn’t protrude and stop the slow-cooker lid from fitting. Hollow out the seeds and fibres of the pumpkin. Reserve the seeds, but discard the slippery bits.

Cut the sausages into 2–3cm pieces and lightly brown them in a pan for about 3 minutes. I don’t think it improves the flavour especially, but they look unappetising otherwise.

Drain the cannellini beans and rinse them well. Mix them in a large bowl with the tomatoes, tomato purée, spices and the now browned sausages. Combine well so it is all evenly distributed. Season well.

Put the pumpkin into the lined crock and carefully put the sausage and bean filling into the pumpkin. Top up with the stock and the Worcestershire sauce. Put the lid on the pumpkin and then the lid on the slow cooker. Cook for 8–9 hours on low. The pumpkin will darken in colour and become soft and tender without collapsing.

While it is cooking, wash and dry the seeds from the pumpkin by laying them on a baking tray lined with kitchen roll for a couple of hours. About 15 minutes before you are ready to serve the pumpkin, toast them in a dry frying pan over a low heat. Watch them carefully so they don’t burn.

Take them off the heat when golden brown. Scatter with salt, a pinch of cayenne and some black pepper and serve sprinkled over the wedges of pumpkin for some crunch.

Note:
If you can’t get a pumpkin to fit your crock, or want to use a different kind of squash, just chop it into 3–4cm pieces and cook for 6–7 hours. You can scatter the pumpkin or squash with fried breadcrumbs for crunch instead of pumpkin seeds and even leave out the sausages to make it meat-free.

As an Americanophile teenager, I was obsessed with the idea of Thanksgiving. I loved the idea of a midwinter get-together solely based round food, friends, family and contemplation. However, the lack of presents meant I stayed loyal to Christmas and I only attended my first Thanksgiving lunch while I was writing this book. This stuffing was inspired by that, combining pumpkin and cranberries and would be amazing with the Vermouth-brined Turkey
here
that I learned there too.

SERVES 2–4

2 medium onions, sliced, or 150g Caramelised Onions (see
here
)

50g butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

½ teaspoon brown sugar

100g cranberries

1 onion squash or medium pumpkin

180g breadcrumbs

50g kale, finely shredded

1 egg

salt and pepper

You want to caramelise the onions for this dish, so if you have any of the Caramelised Onions from
here
, use those. Otherwise, add the sliced onions to a pan with the butter and olive oil and cover with a lid. Cook slowly over a low heat for about an hour. Add the sugar halfway through and stir well. Replace the lid and leave to become soft and golden.

About 15 minutes before you are ready to use the onions, add the cranberries into the pan, putting the lid back on. This will soften them slightly.

Cut your squash or pumpkin open, scoop the seeds out and set them aside. Chop the pumpkin into large chunks and peel them. Chop the flesh into small pieces.

Wash the seeds well and dry in a clean tea towel. Put them in a hot dry frying pan and toast them so they are a bit golden and crunchy on the outside. Keep shaking the pan to stop them burning easily.

Pour them into a large bowl. Add the breadcrumbs and shredded kale. Tip in the caramelised onions and the cranberries, along with all the butter from the pan. Season and mix it all well. Beat the egg in so the stuffing comes together. It shouldn’t be sticky, but it should form one lump.

Put the stuffing into a disposable loaf tin or small ramekins. Place in the slow cooker and pour boiling water into the crock so it comes about halfway up the side of the dish you are using. Cover the crock with folded kitchen roll, put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the stuffing on high for 5–6 hours.

If you are cooking the stuffing to go with the turkey, simply cook it in advance and reheat when needed. Serve in slices. You can also use the stuffing in the onions
here
. Either way, it will taste sensational and make you give extra thanks for the presence of gravy…

I know you are probably rolling your eyes and thinking a recipe for baked potatoes? Really? But these are a little slow-cooker secret. You can turn a big old spud into a crisp-skinned, buttery-centred beauty with very little effort and some long slow cooking while you’re at work. So, if like me, you love a proper jacket potato and find the flabby microwaved ones make you sad, but don’t have time after work for real ones, today is your lucky day!

First, find your large potato. I never buy those labelled ‘baking potatoes’ as they seem to charge twice the price that way. I simply root about in the loose spuds until I find something the size of a dinosaur egg and use that instead.

Give it a good wash and dry it well. A dry skin crisps up better, so there is method in the madness of giving your potato a rub down. Follow this by massaging a tiny drop of oil into the skin. You want the kind of gloss you get on a Hollywood starlet’s legs, but not greasiness.

Pull enough foil off the roll to wrap your potato up. Value foil is fine for this. The metal allows the heat to conduct better and this is what crisps the skin. Put the potato on the foil and then rub the potato with a tiny scattering of salt and some black pepper. Then wrap your spud up. As long as no skin is showing, it doesn’t matter what technique you use.

Place your potato parcel in the slow cooker. Cook without liquid or lifting the lid for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. Carefully remove when ready and unwrap.

Definitely worth the wait as you can do three or four at a time and then freeze the cooked potatoes until needed. Simply defrost them and warm gently in the microwave.

I usually do these the day after I’ve batch-cooked a stew and fill it with that. These are the best baked potatoes I’ve ever eaten. They taste like you’ve always wanted the ones cooked in the embers of a fire to, but without the burned bits. Rediscover the jacket potato today!

This is a lovely Scandinavian name for my favourite things all combined in one dish. Thinly layered potatoes cooked with sticky caramelised onions, salty little anchovies and a splash of cream until the potatoes go crisp round the edges — it’s perfect winter food.

In Scandinavia, they use
ansjovis
for this dish, which are actually pickled sprats, not anchovies. If you have an IKEA nearby, grab a few tins and be authentic. Otherwise, use my recipe with anchovies. I adore their umami flavour and would put them in anything and everything I’m cooking. I’m
this
close to needing a meeting with Anchovies Anonymous. I think you’ll fall in love after trying this too.

SERVES 2–4 (REHEATS BEAUTIFULLY)

750g potatoes

25g melted butter or vegetable oil

4 anchovies, chopped

2 onions, chopped or 150g Caramelised Onions (see
here
)

1 tablespoon sugar

500ml hot vegetable or chicken stock

150ml white wine or cider vinegar

75ml double cream, to serve

pepper

Start by preparing your potatoes. I use big baking-style potatoes for this dish so that the slices are large enough to crisp without burning. If you have a mandolin, use that to turn them into whispers of potato or use a sharp knife to cut them as thinly as possible.

Brush the slow-cooker crock with the butter or oil and then start layering the potatoes into the crock. I usually do two layers and then add one chopped anchovy, some black pepper and a quarter of the onions and then repeat until everything is used.

Dissolve the sugar in the hot stock and add the vinegar. If you happen to always have a jar of gherkins in sweet vinegar in the house or a pot of rollmop herrings, use the liquid from them instead. Adding this little bit of bite is more like the original dish and stops it being too rich.

Pour the liquid over the potatoes. The very top layer of spuds shouldn’t be covered, but the rest should be submerged. Add a last sprinkle of black pepper, but don’t add salt as the fish are enough.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8–9 hours. Everything melds together beautifully and tastes fabulous. Serve with the cream poured over the top so it soaks in.

This is a perfect one-pot meal, although I love the leftovers the next day with a fried egg on top for breakfast.

A few years ago Mister North and I went to Alnwick in Northumberland for the weekend and I fell madly in love with the Northeast of England. The people, the beaches and the scenery were all fantastic. The beer was brilliant, but the food was the best bit. Simple, but very flavoursome, it used fantastic ingredients and we ate incredibly well. It’s given me a longing to try more food from that area, but possibly when the good folk of the area realise I’ve tweaked their classic dish of pan haggerty, I won’t be invited back.

Usually made of thinly sliced potatoes layered with onions and bacon with melted cheese on top, it makes the most of simple ingredients. I’ve adapted mine to use all those root veg you buy and then wonder what to do with instead of just mashing them – and it’s fantastic. I get really quite excited about bags of stew vegetables now.

SERVES 4 (BEST EATEN FRESHLY COOKED)

4 rashers of bacon

20g melted butter

1 large sweet potato

¼ celeriac

1 swede (or turnip if you’re Northern Irish or Scottish)

1 large potato

1 carrot

1 onion, chopped, or 150g Caramelised Onions (see
here
)

100g grated cheese, such as Cheddar or mozzarella

salt and pepper

Start by cubing your bacon and frying it lightly in a small pan over a medium heat to crisp the edges. Set aside when you get a little bit of crunch on it. Butter the slow-cooker crock well.

Peel and slice your sweet potato, celeriac, swede and potato as thinly as possible. If you have a mandolin, that’s perfect. If you don’t, just cut them as thinly as you can. Peel and dice the carrot.

Begin layering up your vegetables. I tend to start with the sweet potato and then add some of the bacon, onion, carrot and some salt and pepper. Next I do the swede and more of the bacon, onion and carrot. Repeat with the celeriac. I usually get six layers and end with a mix of celeriac and potato having used up all the bacon, carrot and onion.

Brush the potatoes with a tiny bit more butter and put the lid on the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8–9 hours. About 10–15 minutes before you are ready to serve, sprinkle the grated cheese on top and replace the lid so that it melts evenly.

Serve spoonfuls of the pan haggerty with some peas or Savoy cabbage on the side.

This stew combines the flavour of those lovely Preserved Lemons
here
with potatoes and plump cannellini beans and adds olives to enhance their savoury flavour. I originally made this dish with goat, but my friend Jamey veganised it with the white beans and it’s a stunner of a dish. It’s great if you are cooking for a crowd and it’s so packed with flavour, no carnivore will miss the meat.

SERVES 4

1 × 400g tin cannellini beans or 200g dried beans

4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 sprigs of fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried

1 teaspoon ground ginger

50g black olives, pitted

450ml hot vegetable stock or water

1 Scotch bonnet pepper or 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

½ Preserved Lemon, chopped (see
here
)

handful of fresh parsley, chopped

pepper

If you are using tinned beans, open and drain them. Wash the water off them well. You can use dried beans without having to soak them if you prefer.

Put the beans in the slow cooker along with the potato, onion and garlic. Add the fresh or dried thyme, ginger, black pepper and the olives. I love those tinned black olives you get in supermarkets that are actually dyed green ones, but feel free to use little wrinkled, oil-infused ones if you have more refined tastes.

Pour the stock over it all and add the whole Scotch bonnet or Tabasco. Now add the chopped preserved lemon and stir well. Put the flesh and skin in for an intense flavour.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 8 hours on low or 6 hours on high until the potatoes are collapsing slightly round the edges and the beans are plumped up and falling apart.

Serve in deep bowls with some chopped fresh parsley. It needs no more accompaniment than that.

You will never be at a loose end in the kitchen if you have a batch of tomato sauce to hand. We grew up on it as children, heaped over pasta for a quick meal or baked with fish or chicken. It is perfect for the slow cooker as it takes simple ingredients, adds the magic element of time and turns it into something amazing with very little work.

The tomatoes are the star of this show. You want it to have that intense tomatoey essence you get in a warm greenhouse full of vines on a summer day, so pick your chopped tomatoes well. The very cheapest cans tend to be full of stalks and thin watery juice. Go up a level or two to supermarket own-brand or even branded ones when on offer. It works out better value in the long run and you’ll enjoy the flavour much more.