Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (24 page)
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Authors: Miss South
I make a big batch and freeze some of it ready for those nights when you want the minimum of cooking. It also works beautifully with stuffed cabbage leaves (see
here
) or to make a vegetarian lasagne (see
here
) with some courgettes sliced into it.
SERVES 6 GENEROUSLY OR ALLOWS YOU TO STOCK THE FREEZER
1 tablespoon butter (about 20g)
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
½ bulb fennel, finely chopped (optional)
½ bunch fresh parsley stalks, finely chopped
2 × 400g tins chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
100ml red wine (optional)
1 tablespoon tomato purée
salt and pepper
Warm the butter in a preheating slow-cooker crock and add all the finely chopped vegetables, including the parsley stalks. These have the flavour of parsley, but are more robust than the leaves for long slow cooking. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes, if you can.
Add the chopped tomatoes and any juice from the tins. Stir well and add the sugar. This helps mellow the acidity in the tomatoes and makes the sauce smoother. Don’t be tempted to skip it for health or to add more than this. You shouldn’t be able to taste it, but simply miss it if it wasn’t there.
Pour in the red wine, if you’re using it. Stir in the tomato purée and add a pinch more salt. Tomatoes love a bit of salt and it’s best cooked into it rather than added at the end. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the sauce on low for 8 hours.
You can add in the Lemon and Olive Meatballs
here
at the same time if you choose or leave it vegetarian.
The sauce will reduce and thicken and become much darker. The vegetables will collapse into it and you can leave it chunky if you like the texture or you can blend it all with a hand blender for a smooth feel (or if you are trying to disguise the five a day!)
Serve with pasta and Parmesan or portion up and freeze. Defrost and use as needed.
When it comes to stuffing vegetables, I’m less Shirley Conran, who doesn’t stuff a mushroom, and more Deirdre Barlow, who stuffs a marrow at a moment’s notice. I love any ingredient you can stuff and tomatoes are a real favourite of mine. Slow cooking them is a particularly good way to add the flavour those big beef toms often lack when eaten raw. There’s something so delightfully retro about them too that you can’t help but smile when you’re eating them.
SERVES 4
4 large or beef tomatoes
100g Chorizo Butter Beans (see
here
)
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
75g roasted red peppers or Confit Peppers (see
here
), diced
1 teaspoon paprika
30g black olives, pitted
50g feta or Greek salad cheese, diced
120ml tomato juice
salt and pepper
Start by cutting the tops off the tomatoes. Cut low enough to ensure a solid lid for your toms, but not so low that you can’t put much filling in them. Then scoop the inside of each tomato out into a large bowl and reserve it.
Add the beans, chopped onion, garlic and the peppers to the same bowl. You can use jarred ones here as often the discount supermarkets do great deals on them or I use the Confit Peppers from
here
. Mix them all together with the paprika, reserved tomato flesh, black olives and feta cheese and season with black pepper.
Line the slow-cooker crock with reusable baking liner. Spoon the bean mix into the tomatoes and then gently lower them into the crock. Put their lids on. They’ll probably only fit at a jaunty angle. Pour the tomato juice round the tomatoes and season the closed tomatoes lightly with salt.
Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the tomatoes on low for 7 hours. The tomatoes will collapse nicely. Serve with a pile of steamed broccoli drizzled with the sauce for a great take on the Greek salad.
One of the things I love most about my slow cooker is that I can use it to preserve foods or add details to quick stove top meals that lift them from basic to brilliant. These tomatoes are a fantastic example of this. Suggested by my friend Nicholas from Salon in Brixton, they are a great way to use up a glut of home-grown tomatoes or preserve proper summer ones that taste of sun.
They are covered with olive oil in the slow cooker along with your choice of herbs and spices and then keep beautifully in a jar in the fridge for months. They can be used anywhere you’d pop a grilled tom or two or make a quick pasta sauce. Spiked with chilli they go well with a chunk of cheese and I make a fabulous creamy, coconutty soup with them too.
You can reuse the olive oil mixture for salad dressings since it’s now packed with flavour and you don’t have to buy extra virgin or anything. I buy stuff when it’s on offer and simply mark the bottle so I don’t get confused.
MAKES 500G
500g tomatoes
choice of woody herbs, such as rosemary, oregano, thyme, bay or marjoram (about a teaspoon each of whatever you choose to use)
choice of caraway seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds (about a teaspoon each of whatever you choose to use)
1 dried red chilli, whole or flaked (optional)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and bashed
150ml olive oil
200ml white wine or cider vinegar
sea salt
You don’t want anything as large as beefsteak tomatoes for this, but medium ones are fine. Baby plums or cherry tomatoes work well too.
If using medium tomatoes, cut in half crosswise. Layer them into the slow-cooker crock, no more than two layers deep. If you are using baby toms, layer the same way, but leave them whole. Season with the sea salt. Add your choice of herbs and flavourings. Scatter the sugar and peppercorns over them. Tuck the garlic in around them.
Cover with the olive oil and the vinegar. The tomatoes should be as near to covered as possible. Don’t worry if the very tops poke out. You may need a bit more oil or vinegar depending on the size and shape of your tomatoes.
Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 4–5 hours until the tomatoes are soft, but still holding their shape. Allow to cool for about 10–15 minutes and then lift the tomatoes out with a slotted spoon.
Put in a sterilised jar and drizzle enough of the oil over them to keep them moist. They will keep in the fridge for up to 3 months. Completely submerged in the oil they should last longer than that, but I’ve always managed to eat mine by then! Pour the remaining oil and vinegar in a bottle and use as needed.
Note:
You can also adapt this recipe to confit peppers. Simply cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds. Cut them in half again and sear on a griddle pan for about 3–4 minutes until they are slightly char-grilled. Follow the rest of the recipe for the tomatoes and use in salads, soups or chillies.
One of the most popular dishes throughout the Middle East, this tomato and pepper rich stew makes eggs the star of the show and is absolutely perfect to make in the slow cooker. Cook the vegetables low and slow, cook the eggs fast and serve it all with lots of bread to soak up the juice and the runny yolks. There are always clean bowls at the end of this and a friend told me it’s the best shakshuka she’s had. She used to work for Ottolenghi, so I definitely trust her judgement.
Traditionally served as a breakfast dish, make the sauce overnight and crack the eggs into it the next morning. They won’t take that much longer than a kettle will take to boil, making this a great way to wake up and the only way tinned tomatoes are acceptable in my breakfast…
SERVES 4
1 large onion
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 red chillies (optional), finely sliced
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons tomato purée
200ml water
6–8 eggs
chopped fresh parsley, to serve
salt and pepper
Start by slicing your onion and peppers into half moons and adding to the slow-cooker crock with the chopped tomatoes. Add the red chillies if you like a bit of heat with your eggs.
Toast the cumin seeds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until aromatic and then add to the tomato mixture along with the bay leaf, thyme and cayenne. Stir in the tomato purée and add the water. Season well, bearing in mind tomatoes love a bit of salt. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 7–8 hours.
When you are ready to eat, take the lid off the slow cooker and stir the sauce. Make small dents in the now thick sauce with the back of a serving spoon and break the eggs into these dents. Put the lid back on the slow cooker and turn the heat off.
Allow the eggs to cook for 10 minutes for a set white and runny yolk or 15 minutes for a set yolk as well. Serve the tomatoey sauce with an egg in the middle of it and some chopped parsley. Don’t forget the bread on the side. I am equally fond of white crusty loaf as I am of a puffed-up pitta bread here.
The possibilities for soup in the slow cooker are endless. Think of a style of soup. Think of an ingredient and wait 8 hours and you can make anything you could possibly imagine. I particularly love it for big robust soups and broths that traditionally take lots of nurturing over a low heat to give up their nourishment.
Pots of slow-simmered bone broths and pulse-rich soups are perfect in the slow cooker, helping economical ingredients go even further while giving them a new lease of life. Many of the soups create their own stock, but do try to use the best stock you can with those that don’t. Stock cubes can be great, but watch your seasoning as they can be very aggressively salty.
I freeze my own Chicken Stock from
here
or make a vegetable version with leftover ends and peels simmered in the slow cooker for 4–5 hours. I then pour it all into freezer bags and lay them flat on a baking tray that goes into the freezer. You’ll end up with flat packs of stock that stack easily and defrost quickly to allow you to reach for them without too much forethought. You can also freeze the cooked soups this way for a speedy slow-cooked lunch. No matter what the question is, soup is probably the answer…
Slow-Cooked Chicken Dumpling Soup
Spiced Carrot and Parsnip Soup
I have never quite lost my childhood fascination with pink and thus I have a very soft spot in my heart for beetroot with its vivid fuchsia hue. I’ve never met a way to serve it that I don’t love, but I have a particular adoration for borscht. An Eastern European classic, this flavoursome tangy beetroot soup is perfect at any time of the year. I make mine vegetarian and use dried mushrooms to add depth. Topped with a splodge of sour cream, it’s a very grown-up way to remind me of childhood loves.
This recipe is an amalgamation of Polish, Ukrainian and Russian traditions. They all do borscht brilliantly and it’s a shame not to combine their talents!
SERVES 2 AS A MAIN OR 4 AS A STARTER
3 large beetroot
1 carrot
2 medium potatoes
1 onion
1 leek
5g dried mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
3 allspice berries
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
750ml boiling water or vegetable stock
½ white or sweetheart cabbage
sour cream, to serve (optional)
fresh dill, to serve (optional)
salt and pepper
This soup is very easy to make. Start by peeling the beetroot and cutting it into 1.5cm cubes. You may prefer to wear gloves for this in case you stain your hands.
Peel and chop the carrot and the potatoes to the same size as the beetroot. Dice the onion finely and shred the leek and put all these vegetables into the slow-cooker crock. Add the dried mushrooms, whole cloves of garlic, allspice and vinegar. Season well.
Cover it all with the water or stock. Put the lid on the slow cooker, reserving the uncooked cabbage. Cook the borscht on low for 6–7 hours until all the vegetables are tender and the stock is beautifully scarlet.
Shred the cabbage very finely and add to the slow cooker. Replace the lid and cook for another 30 minutes. Serve ladlefuls of the soup in deep bowls with a dollop of sour cream and some fresh dill, if you have it.
Celeriac will never win any prizes for the prettiest vegetable in the garden, but underestimate them taste wise at your peril. Like a richer, creamier version of celery, they love strong flavours.