Slow Cooker Sunday – Page 4

Slow Cooker Sunday: ORANGE & LEMON-BRAISED LAMB SHANKS (Guest Post)

This week I have a special treat for you, someone who can really cook. It’s none other than Keith, from Reluctant Housedad famous for his Thrice-Cooked Chips. I only cook mine once and they come out of a bag. I had to rein him in a bit as he has a penchant for things that takes days to cook (e.g Heston’s three-day ultimate bolognese). I’m all up for slow cooking but really not that organised. :-)

ORANGE & LEMON-BRAISED LAMB SHANKS with CINNAMON SQUASH and CAVALO NERO

As we all know, lamb goes great with strong flavours such as Garlic, Rosemary and Anchovies, but I like to add a little zing to this delicious comfort food dish. The long, slow cooking in the orange and lemon stock permeates the meat, making it aromatic, fresh and light. Don’t cook it for too long: you’re after a firm texture for the meat, which you can break part into its individual muscle lobes once it has cooled, ready for finishing, bathed in its own gravy.

Serves 2

For the lamb

1 tbsp sunflower oil
2 lamb shanks
1 onion, chopped
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
3 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tbsp tomato puree
300ml white wine
500ml chicken stock (from a good quality cube is fine)
Zest and juice of 1 orange
Zest and juice of 1 lemon

To finish:

1 tsp cornflour dissolved in a little water
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon

For the butternut squash

1 butternut squash, seeds removed, skin on, chopped into chunks
1 cinnamon stick
3-4 small dried chillies
1 tsp sea salt flakes or rock salt
2 tbsp olive oil

For the cavalo nero

8 big leaves, stalks trimmed
1 tbsp olive oil
Knob of butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

1. Add the sunflower oil to a large frying pan and brown the lamb shanks all over, approx. 6-8 mins.

2. Add the browned lamb and the rest of the ingredients to a slow cooker and cook on LOW for 3-4 hours until the lamb meat is very tender and almost, but not quite, falling off the bone.

3. Remove the lamb from the stock and transfer to a plate. Leave to cool.

4. Drain the stock into a pan through a sieve. Put the pan on the hob on a high heat and reduce by half. Leave to cool, then transfer to a jar and put in the fridge. This will allow the excess fat to rise to the top and solidify, which you can then remove. Once the fat has been removed, transfer the stock to a saucepan.

5. Using your hands, break the lamb meat away from the bone, along the lines of the meat’s natural lobes. Trim of any fat and sinew, then add the lamb meat to the saucepan of citrus stock.

6. Meanwhile, in a coffee grinder or pestle and mortar, grind the cinnamon, chillies and salt. Toss the butternut squash chunks with this spice mixture and the oilive oil. Cook in the oven preheated to 180C/Gas 4 for 35-40 mins, until the squash is tender.

7. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and butter and add the cavalo nero. Cook for 5-7 mins, stirring, until the cabbage turns slightly crisp.

8. Meanwhile, bring the pan of lamb and citrus stock to the boil and add the dissolved cornflour to thicken the sauce.

9. Serve the lamb and its gravy at the centre of the plate, surrounded by the squash and cavalo nero. Garnish with finely chopped orange and lemon zest.

A huge THANK YOU to Keith, it looks amazing.

Contribute to Slow Cooker Sunday

Now it’s your turn to join in by either adding a link below or by leaving your recipe in the comments section. Don’t worry it doesn’t have to be as fancy as Keith’s.

Don’t forget #scsunday is also on Instagram and we now have a dedicated board on Pinterest with all the featured recipes.

Slow Cooker Sunday: Converting Conventional Recipes to use in a Slow Cooker

Prior to having a Slow Cooker I really wasn’t confident in the kitchen. Whenever I cooked it was like a meticulous science experiment, following recipes word for word and if I didn’t have an ingredient all hell would break loose as I wouldn’t know what to use instead.

However, the more and more I have used my slow cooker the more confident I’ve become. I now feel comfortable converting some of my conventional recipes to use in slow cooker. So, I thought I’d share some of my tips with you.

Below is a list of cooking times. The good thing about slow cooking is that it is forgiving and if you leave it in for an extra hour or two it’s not a problem and sometimes leads to a better result (e.g melt in your mouth meat).

1) If a recipe calls for liquid you’ll need to reduce the amount you use as the liquid will not evaporate whilst cooking. I tend to reduce the amount of liquid by 125-250ml. It’s always better to have less liquid and add more if needed, than having too much resulting in a watery dish.

2) However, if you are cooking rice, beans, or pasta, don’t reduce the liquid called for. You generally need twice as much liquid as product to cook these ingredients.

3) Conversely, if the recipe doesn’t call for any liquid I’d encourage you to add approx 125ml of stock, type depending on the dish. If in doubt use vegetable stock.

4) Not all people agree but I always brown meet prior to putting in the slow cooker as this reduces the amount of fat swimming around the top.

5) If you’re adding tender vegetables such as Mange Tout, Broccoli or Peas, I tend to add them about 30 minutes before the end of cooking time or then end up overcooked.

6) If the recipe calls for lentils or beans, I tend to par boil for about 10 minutes or alternatively use tinned ones.

7) I know it’s hard to resist, but try not to take the lid off too often as all of the heat escapes and the slow cooker will have to get back up to temperature. The beauty of slow cooking is that you don’t need to continually stir the contents.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share? If so please do leave a comment. For more recipe inspiration click here.

Slow Cooker Sunday is all about sharing our favourite recipes. Don’t forget they don’t have to be done in a Slow Cookers as long as its been slow cooked.

Slow Cooker Sunday: Haddock & Chorizo Rice

Contrary to popular belief you can actually slow cook fish and as you know I’ve done it on occasion. This week we have a guest blogger and there isn’t anything she doesn’t know about fish. I rang her last week and whilst wrangling two kids in the supermarket, who were fighting over a cucumber, she was able to tell me all about the sustainability of Pollack! Now that’s multitasking.

Without further adieu can I introduce you to Jo, aka @mummysknee the Fishionado!

‘We love seafood and would never have tried cooking it in the slow cooker if it hadn’t been for Chrissie (Mediocre Mum) feeding me recipes every week on Slow Cooker Sunday to instill me with confidence. So after trying the Haddock Chowder we thought we would try a rice this time.

We looked at loads of recipes for cooking rice in the slow cooker and each said 1 cup of rice to 2 of boiling hot water for 2 hours so that’s what we did.’

Ingredients

1 finely sliced onion
125g Chorizo sausage sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 chicken stock cube
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of basmati rice
2 cups boiling water
2 fillets of haddock

Method:

1. saute onion in olive oil, once softened crush garlic cloves in and add chorizo pieces until they release their paprika oil to coat the onions
2. mix in your cup of rice to coat the rice, add the boiling water, crumble in the chicken stock cube and mix well.
3. When bubbling, decant into your slow cooker. It should take 2 hours on high. This is where I’m going to exercise a little caution. My slow cooker is a rather large one and so the base of it heat quickly so when you make a dish for 4 like this one on high it cooks it quicker than if you have it full to capacity for 8. I had to add an extra half a cup of boiling water just before I popped in the fish. You need to check the rice after an hour to see if it needs more.
4. half an hour before serving you add you fish chopped into inch size pieces. Don’t stir the rice as it can become mushy , I just place the fish on top then push it gently under the surface with a large spoon.

The verdict on this one was that it was extremely tasty. You can always add in slices of pepper at the frying pan stage and peas when you pop the fish in the slow cooker to give you more of a paella type dish. If I’m being honest, I forgot to add my peas! You could always add in a chopped red chilli or a few splashes of tabasco sauce if you like spice.

Slow Cooker Sunday is all about sharing. So now it’s your turn…. feel free to add your recipes to the Linky below but if you don’t blog you can always leave your recipes in the comment section.

You can also check out more of my Slow Cooker Recipes here.

Slow Cooker Sunday: Moroccan Harira Soup

Welcome to Slow Cooker Sunday a place to share slow cooker recipes and to be inspired! Feel free to join in. You can either use the linky below or leave your recipes in the comment section.

My Slow Cooker has been working overtime this week we’ve had Vegetable Biryani, Beef Stew, Fish Creole but the favourite was the Moroccan Harira Soup.

Moroccan Harira Soup

Unfortunately the pictures didn’t do this justice. It was a lovely, warming combination of lamb, chickpeas, lentils and spices, perfect for a winter’s night. My hubby moans about lamb on occasion as he finds it fatty but he absolutely loved this one. We served it with Ciabatta Rolls.

Serves: 4-6

Difficulty: Moderate

Temp: Low

Time: 8 hours

Ingredients:

1 TBPS of olive oil
1 Onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 celery stick, chopped
454g of diced lamb or mutton
Salt and Pepper
1 tsp of ground turmeric
1 tsp of cinnamon
5cm piece of root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
900 ml of vegetable stock
125g brown lentils, rincsed
400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tsp of harissa paste

Method:

1) Heat the oil in a large pan add the onions and sauté for about 3 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and celery and cook for another 5 minutes or so.

2) Add the lamb, season with salt and pepper then cook until it is sealed on all sides. Add the turmeric, cinnamon and ginger mix well so it is evenly coated. Some of the spices may stick to the bottom of the pan. Poor a small amount of the stock in, bring to a boil and scrape the goodness off the bottom.

3) Meanwhile put the lentils and chickpeas in the slow cooker. Transfer the meat mixture to the slow cooker, add the harissa paste and pour in the remaining stock. Mix well, cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

So what have you been Slow Cooking ?

Slow Cooker Sunday: Chorizo, new potato and haddock

Welcome back to Slow Cooker Sunday, we seem to be picking up more momentum and had a brilliant turn out last week. I’m guessing it may have something to do with the weather cooling down. Perfect time of year to dig out your slow cookers!

Chorizo, new potato & haddock (Pollack) one pot

I had some Pollack to use up in the freezer. Pollack is part of the Cod family but a more sustainable alternative. Pollack is not that dissimilar to Haddock and Cod and I often use it whenever a recipe calls for white fish.

A lot of people don’t think of doing fish in a slow cooker, however, I’ve had a lot of success with it. Although the cooking times for fish are a lot shorter. Depending on the recipe I tend to add the fish towards the end of the cooking time as it just needs to be steamed in essence, as you will see below.

If you work full time or are out all day, and if you’re like me and don’t have a slow cooker with a timer, you may consider getting a separate timer for the mains plug and set it to come on mid afternoon. But don’t forget to turn the plug on before you leave the house!

I wasn’t convinced by this recipe at first but it was rather nice.

Takes 3-4 hours

Cooking Temp: High

Serves: 2

Difficulty: Dead easy

Ingredients

50g Chorizo Sausage, peeled if you can be bothered and thinly sliced
450g of sliced new potatoes
4TBSP dry sherry
2 skinless fillets of white fish
Salt and Pepper
Handful of cherry tomatoes cut into halves
Parsley
Olive Oil
Crusty Bread

Method

1) Put the potatoes and the Chorizo in the slow cooker. Toss with 3 TBSP of sherry. Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours.

2) Season the fish with salt and pepper, add the tomatoes to the potatoes and stir, then place the fish on top, splash with the last TBSP of sherry and sprinkle with parsley. Cover and cook for another 30 minutes.

3) Drizzle with olive oil and serve with some crusty bread.

Now it’s your turn. What have you been slow cooking this week?