Category: 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

Slow Cooker FishI 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?

 



Slow Cooker Sunday – Spinach and Egg Tarka Dahl (7th Oct 2012)

Did you know it’s National Curry Week this week 8th-15th October?  Apparently, 73% of Brits say they love curry and 24% name it as their absolute favourite.  We’re fans in our house as well.

Hence my offering this week for Slow Cooker Sunday, a place to share recipes and be inspired to try something new.  You can either leave a link to your recipe in the Linky below but don’t worry if you don’t have a blog you can always leave your recipe in the comment section.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with this week as I’m always looking for new recipes to try.  Don’t forget the Linky is open all week so you can always pop back later.  There is a badge in the sidebar if you’re so inclined but not mandatory.  :-)

Slow Cooker Sunday – Spinach and Egg Tarka Dahl (7th Oct 2012)

Recipe Type: Slow Cooking
Cuisine: Indian
Author: Mediocre Mum
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Spinach and Egg Tarka Dahl (Inspired by Sara Lewis) Cooking Temp: High Difficulty Level: Easy Cooking time: 3-4 hours Serves 4
Ingredients
  • 250g of red lentils
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • ½  tsp turmeric
  • ½ tsp cumin seeds, roughly crushed
  • 2 cm fresh root ginger, finely chopped
  • 200g canned chopped tomatoes
  • 600 ml vegetable stock
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 2 handfuls of frozen spinach
  • 4 hard boiled eggs
  • Natural Yoghurt
  • Naans
  • Tarka
  • 1TBSP sunflower oil
  • 2 tsp black mustard seeds
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, crushed
  • Pinch of turmeric
  • 2 cloves of garlic
Instructions
  1. Rinse the lentils well and place in the slow cooker with the onion, spices, ginger, tomatoes and stock.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours.  Make sure the lentils are soft or you may chip a tooth.
  2. minutes before serving, stir in the frozen spinach.  Peel and slice the eggs, placing them on top of the lentil mixture, return the cover and cook for another 30 minutes.  Till the spinach and egg are heated through.
  3. To make the Tarka, heat the oil in the pan, add the spice and garlic and fry for 2 minutes.
  4. Spoon the lentil mixture into bowls, top with a dollop natural yogurt, sprinkle with Tarka and serve with warm Naans.
Do peruse the offerings below and ‘Like’ a few!

Slow Cooker Sunday – Caramelized Onion Soup

The weather is going to make a turn for the worst this week so if you’ve packed your slow cooker up for the summer it may be time to dig it out!

Slow Cooker Sunday is all about sharing your favourite recipes; you can either link up a blog post or a website you have used, tweet a picture with #scsunday and I’ll include your twitter handles so people can contact you about recipe or you can leave a recipe in the comments section.

This week we had Caramalized Onion Soup, for me it was reminiscent of French Onion Soup.  The recipe came from Sara Lewis’ 200 More Slow Cooker Recipes.  If you don’t already have one of her books I’d highly recommend them as I’ve rarely had disasters with her recipes.

Caramelized Onion Soup

  • Serves 4
  • Cooking Temp:  Low
  • Cooking Time 4-5 hours

Ingredients

  • 25 g of butter
  • 2TBSP Olive Oil
  • 500 g onions, halved and thinly sliced
  • 1TBSP Caster Sugar
  • 2TBSP plain flour
  • 250ml brown ale
  • 750ml of Beef Stock
  • 2 bay leaves (I didn’t have any so skipped them)
  • 1 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
  • Salt and Pepper

Cheese Toast

  • 8 slices of French bread
  • 75 g cheddar cheese
  • 2 TSP Worcestershire Sauce

Method:

  1. Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions for about 15 till they are soft and starting to turn golden.  Then add the caster sugar and fry for another 10 minutes until they start to caramelize on the edges.
  2. Stir in the flour, mix for about a minute.  Then gradually add the stock, ale and Worcestershire sauce.  Season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil and then transfer to the slow cooker.  Cover and cook for 4-5 hours on low.
  3. When it’s just about time to serve, sprinkle cheese onto the French bread and drizzle a bit of Worcestershire Sauce on each one.  Grill until the cheese starts to bubble.
  4. Serve the soup in large bowls and float the toast on top.

I look forward to seeing your recipes!


Slow Cooker Sunday – Potato Goan Soup 16 Sept 12

Have you used your slow cooker this week?

I’m making a slight change to Slow Cooker Sunday this week, where we share our slow cooker recipes.  Please do keep linking up all of your recipes.  But for those of you who don’t have time to blog or don’t have a blog, feel free to just send me a photo via twitter using the hashtag #scsunday and don’t forget to tell me what it is.

I  can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to.  This week, using a new Soup Recipe book I modified a recipe and made Goan Potato Soup!  It was delicious and we served it with Vegetarian Samosas!


Potato Goan Soup

  • Serves 4
  • Cooking Time 6-7 hours
  • Temp: Low

Ingredients

  • 2 TBSP of sunflower oil
  • 2 tsp of black mustard seeds
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 red chilli, seeded and chopped
  • ½ tsp of ground turmeric
  • ¼ tsp of Cayenne Pepper
  • 900g of potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size cubes
  • 1 heaped TBSP of dry curry leaves
  • 750 ml water
  • Couple handfuls of frozen spinach
  • 400ml of coconut milk
  • Salt and Pepper

Method

1.) Heat the oil in a frying pan.  Add the mustard seeds and cook until they begin to pop.  Add the onion and chilli and cook for 5-6 minutes until the onion is soft.  Stir in the Turmeric, Cayenne, Potatoes, Curry Leaves and water.  Bring to a boil and transfer to the slow cooker, on low, for about 6 hours.

2.) 30-45 minutes before serving, stir in the spinach and coconut milk.  Ensure it is piping hot before serving.

3.) Season with salt and pepper to taste

4.) Serve with Samosas, you can make your own, but I bought mine from the Deli at Morrisons, 10 for £1.50