Tag: meals

Slow Cooker Sunday: Lentil and Sausage Casserole 25 Nov 2012

Slow Cooker Sausage CasseroleHere is my offering for Slow Cooker Sunday, where we come together to share our favourite recipes.

This recipe came from one of my new Recipe Books, ‘The Slow Cook Book’ by Heather Whinney.  I really like it because each recipe has instructions for using in a slow cooker but if you don’t have one it also has the traditional method listed.

The original recipe called for Toulouse sausages but I just used regular Cumberland Sausages, I think.  It doesn’t look appealing but I can assure you it was very tasty.  We served it with crusty bread and a dollop of Sour Cream.  Perfect winter food.

Serves 4-6

Temp:  Low

Time: 6-8 hours

Ingredients

  • 2 TBSP of Olive Oil
  • 6 Cumberland Sausages, roughly chopped
  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 140g Chorizo Sausage, diced
  • Pinch of dried Rosemary
  • Pinch of Thyme
  • 200g Puy Lentils, rinsed
  • 175ml red wine
  • 500ml Pork Stock you can use Chicken if you don’t have any
  • 1 Red Chilli left whole

 Method:

  1. Heat 1 TBSP of oil in frying pan, fry the sausages for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
  2. Heat another TBSP of oil, add the onion and carrot and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add the garlic, chorizo and herbs give it a stir.  Return the sausages to the pan and stir in the lentils.  Add the wine, bring to a boil and cook for a minute.
  3. Transfer everything to the Slow Cooker and add the stock and chilli.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
  4. Prior to serving remove the Chilli.  If you prefer your dish with a bit of kick you could chop the chilli and add it.

Now it’s your turn.  Add your recipes by simply using the Linky below.

Don’t forget we’re also on instagram #scsunday and all of the recipes can be found on our Pinterest Board



Slow Cooker Coconut Beef Madras

For a number of reasons; holidays and a technology meltdown, Slow Cooker Sunday had a break for a couple of weeks, but we’re back.  Feel free to share your own recipes by either linking to an old or new recipe on your own blog, a recipe on the net that you love or you can also leave your recipe in the comments section.

Unfortunately, my hubby has deleted the photos of this recipe.  However, we all really rated it and it was incredibly easy to make.  One of the things I like most about slow cooking is that it allows you to use cheaper cuts of meat, and we’re always looking for ways to pinch the pennies, as it cooks slowly all day even the toughest cuts of meat melt in your mouth.

Serves 4

Slow Cooker Setting: Low

Cooking time: 6-8 hours

Ingredients

  • 2 TBSP of vegetable oil
  • 500g of stewing beef or similar, cut into bite sized cubes
  • 1 Large Onion, chopped
  • 2 tsp of Lazy Garlic or 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 5cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
  • 2 green chillies, chopped
  • 4 TBSP Madras Curry Paste
  • 400 ml of Coconut Milk
  • 1 Large cinnamon stick broken in two
  • Salt, season to taste

Method:

Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the beef until it’s sealed on all sides.  Transfer to slow cooker with slotted spoon.

Put the Onion, Garlic, Ginger and chillies into a food processor, and chop finely.  Squeeze out the excess liquid and transfer to frying pan, sauté for a few minutes until onions start to soften.  Add the Madras paste, mix well and fry for a further minutes, until it’s fragrant.  Add the Coconut Milk and Cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil.  Season to taste with salt.  Pour over the beef in the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove the cinnamon sticks; serve with Basmati rice, yoghurt and Naans.

Do check out everyone elses recipes and like and comment.

Click here for more Slow Cooker Inspiration

Slow Cooker Chicken and Couscous

Thanks to the lovely Victoria Roberts (@starPS) who shared this slow cooker recipe with me.  She’s very keen to share no nonsense meals that kids will devour and my family did!

‘This one is a staple in my house,  my mates (and their various offspring) request it often…its my kids fave too!  Dead easy.’

Ingredients

  • Whole chicken (do bear in mind it needs to fit in the slow cooker)
  • Garlic bulb
  • Lemon
  • Salt, pepper, dried cumin & coriander
  • Chicken stock cube thingy
  • Pint of hot water
  • Mixed frozen veg
  • Couscous
  • One finely chopped onion

What you do with it!

  1. Brown the chicken off in a frying pan or wok first with a little bit of butter or oil to give it some colour.  Cut the lemon in half and put it inside the carcass, break up the garlic bulb and also ram it in there.
  2. Rub salt, pepper, a bit of cumin & coriander on the skin of the chicken, put it in the slow cooker.  Add a pint of chicken stock.  Put it on low heat for 8 hours. Don’t lift the lid during cooking as that will let out all the lovely steam.  When it’s done, lift it out and put it somewhere covered to rest while you make the couscous.
  3. Leave all the lovely stock and chicken juices in the bottom of the slow cooker but turn it off, add enough couscous for how many people you are feeding.  If you need to add some more stock at this point go ahead.   Put the lid back on the slower cooker and let the couscous steam itself, still leave it switched off though.  Gently fry off the onion in a smear of butter or oil.  Add the frozen veg to the frying pan and a splash of water. Simmer till warmed through, add to the couscous in the slow cooker and give it a good stir.
  4. Serve…the chicken will literally fall off the bone so I like to bung it in a nice big dish, the couscous in another one and let people help themselves but you may be posh and prefer a more civilised method!

A few small changes:

Normally I stick to recipes word for word.  However, in this case I was a bit worried about trying to brown the chicken in a frying pan. I had visions of it falling on the floor.  So, I preheated my oven on full whack (250 degrees).  I put the lemon and garlic in the cavity and rubbed the chicken with oil, and massaged the salt, pepper, cumin and coriander on the skin and then browned it in the oven for 20 min.  I then transferred it to the slow cooker and carried on with the instructions above.

I also used my own chicken stock substituting the stock cube and pint of water for 500ml of home made chicken stock.

The only other change I made was the amount of liquid for couscous.  We are only a family of 3 so I was a bit worried that there was too much liquid.  After checking the back of the couscous pack, I worked out that I would be using 250g of couscous and 300ml of liquid.  So I removed 250ml of the stock and I think it was the right decision.

Many thanks Victoria!  It definitely goes on our ‘have again’ list.  You’re welcome on the blog anytime.

 

 

 

 

 

Pasta in a flash!

Quick Creamy Tomato Pasta

As a busy mum, I sometimes get so wrapped up in things I forget about organising meals for Madame until she says ‘mummy I’m hungry’.  Quick check of the watch and realise, yes, it’s dinner time and I need something quick.  This is one of those recipes that you can throw together in about 10 minutes.

Ingredients

2 TBSP olive oil

½ an onion chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 TBSP of cream cheese

1 tsp of dried basil

50g of pasta per child (any shape will do)

Method

  1. Start cooking the pasta.  I’m not going to tell you how as the instructions are on the back of the pack.
  2. To make the sauce.  Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onions until soft (approx 3-5 minutes).
  3. Tip in the chopped tomatoes, bring to a boil, turn down add the cream cheese and basil.  Heat through.
  4. Drain the pasta a mix into the sauce.

I tend to serve it with sweet corn or cucumber slices on the side.  If I have a bit more time to preheat the oven, as ours takes about 30 minutes to heat, I serve it with garlic bread.