Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (29 page)

1 large onion

6 cloves of garlic

5cm piece of fresh ginger

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 green cardamom pods

1 stick of cinnamon, broken up

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

4 whole cloves

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

½ teaspoon ground mace

1 dried red chilli

1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

200ml water

Begin the rogan josh by straining your yoghurt. Reserve the whey in a shallow bowl and keep the thickened yoghurt in the cloth until needed.

Coat the lamb chops with the chilli powder and add them to the bowl of whey. Marinate overnight if you can to really tenderise the lamb. If you don’t have time, you can skip this step as you’re actually cooking the lamb in the whey.

Blend the onion, garlic and ginger together using a hand blender or a pestle and mortar or grate them together into a thick paste. Add this to the slow-cooker crock and combine with the chilli-coated lamb and the whey and mix well. Season with the sea salt.

Toast the cardamom, broken-up cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves, coriander and cumin seeds in a dry frying pan until they smell aromatic. Remove from the heat and bash them up a bit using a pestle and mortar or put them in a cloth and whack with a rolling pin.

Stir the toasted spices into the slow cooker along with the mace, dried chilli and the tomatoes, making sure the meat is evenly coated. Add the water to go with the roughly 100ml of whey you have.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 8 hours on low. When you are ready to serve, take the lid off and turn the slow cooker off. Allow to sit like this for about 10 minutes and then stir the strained yoghurt into it all. If you do it too quickly, the yoghurt curdles and looks unpleasant.

Serve with rice or naan bread and maybe an extra dollop of yoghurt on the side. This tastes even better the next day.

This is a really, really good basic curry that even confirmed veggie sceptics love. It uses butternut squash and courgettes, which are of course part of the summer squash family. It’s the perfect way to use up leftover odds and ends from the fridge and feel very virtuous while secretly being a little bit lazy…

SERVES 2–4 WITH LEFTOVERS

1 medium butternut squash (about 450g)

2 courgettes (about 450g)

1 onion, finely diced

4cm piece of fresh ginger, finely diced

3 cloves of garlic, finely diced

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon tamarind syrup (see
note
)

100ml boiling water

1 × 400ml tin coconut milk

spinach or fresh coriander, to serve (optional)

Peel and deseed your butternut squash. Cut into 2.5cm chunks. Top and tail the courgettes and cut into 3.5cm chunks.

Pop the squash, courgette, onion, ginger and garlic into the slow-cooker crock with the spices. Mix the tamarind syrup with the boiling water and pour it into the crock. Stir it all together well, add the coconut milk and put the lid on.

Cook on low for 8 hours. The vegetables will be soft and tender and the sauce will have thickened slightly. I usually stir some spinach or fresh coriander through it just as I serve to add an extra splash of colour.

Note:
The tamarind syrup is very easy to make. You need a block of tamarind pulp, which you can buy for well under a pound in the ‘world foods’ section. Break it up and pour about 300ml boiling water over it. Allow it to steep for about 20 minutes and then drain through a sieve. Throw the pulp away and keep the syrup. A little goes a long way and you can keep the leftover in the fridge for 4–6 weeks in a sterilised jar.

I love sweet potatoes. Adding their lovely orangey flesh to any dish just adds a splash of cheerful colour as well as their delicious sweet flavour. They are often a very good price when sold loose and keep much better than regular potatoes, so you always have something in the house for whipping up an easy tea.

This tasty curry adds paneer, that Indian cheese that soaks up flavour and enhances any dish. It can be bought in blocks and it also keeps for ages in the fridge, suiting the casual nature of this dish, or what my friend Claire calls ‘kitchen surprise’, made using whatever you have in the house around payday!

SERVES 2 WITH LEFTOVERS OR 4 AS A GENEROUS MAIN

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1 teaspoon onion seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 dried red chilli

1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

200ml water

1 × 400ml tin coconut milk

2 sweet potatoes

1 onion, finely diced

4 cloves of garlic, finely diced

1 × 400g tin spinach or 250g frozen and thawed spinach

125g paneer, cubed

Start by roasting all the spices and the dried chilli in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until the mustard seeds start to pop and they all smell very aromatic. Make sure they don’t burn or they will become bitter, so keep a beady eye on them. Take off the heat immediately. Crush lightly using a pestle and mortar.

Add the chopped tomatoes to the slow-cooker crock and purée them using a hand blender so they are very smooth. Add the water and the coconut milk along with the toasted spices.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cube into 4cm chunks. Add to the slow cooker with the onion and garlic.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 6–7 hours. About 20 minutes before you are ready to eat, add the spinach and the cubed paneer. Stir well and put the lid back on for 20–30 minutes to heat through and allow the cheese to soak up the flavours. Serve with rice or naan breads.

The first few times I made curries in the slow cooker they were a bit flat, but with some detective work from my friend Kavey and her mum, who are the food-blogging royalty behind
Mamta’s Kitchen
, I learned I was using my garam masala wrong.

They taught me that cheaper brands of ready-made garam masala are often bulked up with cumin and coriander, diluting the impact of the spice blend. It should be made in small batches as needed and stored in an airtight jar or the freezer until needed. Added towards the end of cooking, it adds flavour and a little goes a long way, making it surprisingly economical.

MAKES ABOUT 50G

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon whole cloves

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

5–6 cardamom pods

4–5 bay leaves

7cm piece of cinnamon stick or cassia bark

⅓ nutmeg, grated

1 star anise

Toast the spices in a dry frying pan until they smell aromatic. Take off the heat the moment that happens so they don’t burn.

Finely grind all the spices using a pestle and mortar. It is surprisingly easy to do. I simply waited until
The Archers
omnibus and vented some irritation with a particular character — ground spices in no time.

Sieve the spices to remove any large pieces and store in an airtight jar in the freezer. Use in recipes that call for garam masala and add towards the end of cooking.

Nothing to do with rabbits, bunnychow is a South African curry, particularly popular in Durban, served in a hollowed-out loaf or bread rolls. It’s a meal where you get to eat the container as well as the filling. It appeals to my love of putting anything in bread to make it even tastier and it’s a lovely change from having curry with rice. Kids especially love having a bunny to themselves.

Having never been to Durban (even though the city bizarrely boasts a replica of Belfast’s City Hall), I have no idea if this dish is their exact style, but it’s fantastic all the same. I like the curry to be slightly fruity here and the meatballs make it much easier to eat since I’m not graceful when faced with a street-food-style dinner. A heap of napkins on the side are not optional!

SERVES 2–4 WITH LEFTOVERS

450g Beef Meatballs (see
here
)

1 × 400g tin sliced peaches

1 onion, finely diced

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely diced

2cm piece of fresh ginger

1 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon Madras curry powder

1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

200ml tomato juice or water

1 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon Garam Masala (see
here
)

4 white crusty rolls or white batch loaf

20g chopped fresh coriander, to serve

salt and pepper

This is a very simple recipe to make. Follow the directions for the meatballs and ensure they are chilled for at least 30 minutes before you put them in the slow-cooker crock.

Rinse the syrup off the sliced peaches and break them up with a potato masher so they still have a bit of texture, but aren’t whole. Mix in the chopped onion, garlic and carrot. Grate in the ginger and add the spices. Stir in the tomatoes. Season well.

Pour the peach and tomato mix into the slow-cooker crock and add the tomato juice or water. The meatballs will be covered. Squeeze the lemon juice all over it.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the meatballs on low for 8 hours until the sauce thickens nicely and the flavours are combined. Scatter the garam masala over it all as you are ready to serve.

If you are using the white batch loaf, cut into four equal-sized pieces and use your hand to scoop out the middle, making sure you leave enough of a base to support the meatballs like a dish. Spoon the meatballs and sauce into each hollowed-out ‘bunny’ and sprinkle with coriander. Place the remaining bread on top to help you eat the filling and soak up the sauce.

Do the same with the rolls if using them, cutting off a lid first. A big Belfast bap would be perfect here with its robust crust, but use this as an excuse to tour through the regional variations of barms, butteries, stotties or teacakes. Maybe experiment with a Staffordshire oatcake, but don’t use baguettes or it becomes a meatball sub! I always set it all on a plate, so don’t worry if your bread leaks a bit. It’s just so much fun to eat this way.

This is one of those dishes that’s very simple to make, but that the slow cooker really excels at because the meat becomes so tender and the flavours intensify. I make this curry whenever I want something simple but easy to make from store cupboard ingredients. It has also gone down very well with my editor on occasion…

SERVES 2–4

500g stewing steak

1 onion, roughly chopped

4 cloves of garlic, diced

1 red chilli

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon black pepper

4 tablespoons tomato purée

1 tablespoon ghee (see
here
)

1 green chilli, sliced

300ml hot beef stock

1 tablespoon Garam Masala (see
here
)

salt

Chop the stewing steak into 5cm pieces and place in the slow-cooker crock.

Using a pestle and mortar or hand blender, blitz the roughly chopped onion, garlic and the red chilli into a purée. Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric, ginger, black pepper and tomato purée and blend together.

Pour the purée over the meat and toss it all to mix it well. Add the ghee and the sliced green chilli. Season well with salt and pepper. Pour the beef stock over it all.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the beef on low for 7–8 hours. About 30 minutes before you are ready to serve, sprinkle the garam masala over the madras. Serve the curry with steamed rice or naan breads. Or get on the bus and come to mine…

Few things make meat tastier and more tender than marinating it in yoghurt and as soon as I marinate meat in yoghurt, I think of the Indian tradition of tandoori chicken. Usually baked in a very hot oven, this style of chicken actually works very well adapted to the slow cooker, keeping the flavours and melt-in-the-mouth texture of the meat, but easier to make than building your own brick oven.

Don’t be tempted to marinate the chicken for longer to make it more tender. The lactic acid in yoghurt can make the meat feel a bit woolly in texture if you do. Even an hour marinating works well, but overnight is best.

SERVES 2–4 WITH LEFTOVERS DEPENDING ON THE SIDES YOU SERVE IT WITH

4 cloves of garlic

2 dried red chillies or 1 fresh red chilli

6cm piece of fresh ginger

200ml plain yoghurt, or home-made Yoghurt (see
here
), strained (see note,
here
)

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

4 tablespoons malt vinegar

4–6 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in

1 teaspoon Garam Masala (see
here
)