Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (28 page)

SERVES 2–4

2 onions, finely diced

3 cloves of garlic, finely diced

1 stalk of lemon grass or 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest (if waxed, give the lemon a vigorous scrub under the hot tap first)

1 fresh red chilli, chopped (or 2 dried red chillies, whole)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon tamarind syrup or lemon juice

½ teaspoon ground ginger or 2–3cm piece of fresh ginger, grated

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground mace

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

500g stewing steak, cut into 3cm chunks

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce or 2 anchovies

1 × 400g tin coconut milk

200ml water

salt and pepper

Blend the onion, garlic, lemon grass, fresh chilli (if using), sugar, tamarind, fresh ginger (if using) and all the spices in a hand blender or pestle and mortar. Don’t add the dried chillies. Add the oil to make a paste. Rub into the cubed stewing steak and leave to marinate overnight in the fridge.

Put the marinated meat in the slow-cooker crock. Add the dried chilli. Drizzle the soy sauce and Thai fish sauce over the meat and stir to coat well. Pour the coconut over the meat and add the 200ml water so that the meat is just covered.

Cook on high for 10–12 hours. In the early stages of cooking the coconut milk will look curdled and lumpy. Don’t panic. Like adolescence, it’s just a stage. By the time 8 hours are up, it will be well rounded and smooth as the sauce thickens and reduces. At 10 hours, it will have almost completely reduced to barely coat the tender meat. By 12 hours, it’s so beautiful you’ll be putting it all over Instagram to show it off.

Serve with steamed rice. It reheats very well so is even better the next day when the flavours have developed even more. The oil in the coconut may rise to the top and you can skim the excess off if you prefer.

Note:
If you can’t find tinned coconut milk, use a quarter of a block of creamed coconut mixed with 300ml of warm water instead.

I have to admit I used to be quite sceptical about fish curry as it summoned up ideas of those seventies-style curries with sultanas in and I couldn’t quite get my head round it. Then my friend Zoe cooked me a fish curry one night and I was smitten. Creamy coconut milk, aromatic spices and flavoursome fish, it’s become a real favourite. This recipe was inspired by Felicity Cloake’s ‘perfect’ fish curry in
The Guardian
.

I’m lucky enough to have a superb fishmonger’s near my house so I make this often. I’ve used fish that anyone should be able to get if they aren’t as lucky to have such a choice. White fish is best, but salmon works well too. My fishmonger Donna ate some of the curry for lunch and felt I’d definitely done justice to her stock, which is one of the best compliments I’ve had of my cooking!

Don’t be startled by the inclusion of conger eel. It is less like the small eels people think are slimy (but aren’t) and more like a firm white version of salmon. Its flesh is perfect for slow cooking as it is quite robust and it soaks up flavour well.

SERVES 4

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 dried red chillies

2 star anise

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 green chilli

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 cloves of garlic

1 onion

4cm piece of fresh ginger

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 × 400g tin plum tomatoes

1 × 400ml tin coconut milk

2 thick conger eel steaks, about 300g

2 thick coley steaks, approximately 200g

2 handfuls of fresh mussels (optional)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

5 curry leaves

½ teaspoon black mustard seeds

Don’t be put off by the relatively long ingredient list; this curry is very easy to make. Start by toasting the coriander seeds, cloves, cumin, red chillies and star anise in a dry frying pan until they smell aromatic. Remove from the heat immediately so they don’t burn. Bash them up a bit using a pestle and mortar and put in the slow-cooker crock.

Purée the turmeric, brown sugar, green chilli, salt, garlic, onion, ginger and white vinegar together using a hand blender or a pestle and mortar. It should be a thick paste, but it doesn’t have to be smooth. Add to the spices in the slow cooker and stir together.

Squash the plum tomatoes a little bit with your hands and add to the slow cooker along with the coconut milk. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours. The fish needs less cooking so it goes in later.

The coconut milk should be bubbling round the edges at this stage. Take the lid off and pop the fish in. Steaks rather than fillets of fish work better here as they cook slowly while absorbing all the flavour of the spices.

Make sure the fish is submerged in the coconut milk and replace the lid on the slow cooker. Cook on high for a further 2 hours.

If you are using the mussels, scrub and de-beard them under cold running water. Discard any mussels that don’t close when tapped as they are already dead and not safe to eat. Add the mussels to the curry 1 hour before the end of cooking to allow all the lovely flavours to mingle in.

About 5 minutes before you are ready to eat, heat the vegetable oil in a small pan on the hob and fry the curry leaves and mustard seeds until they smell aromatic and the mustard seeds start to pop. Remove from the heat as soon as that happens.

Serve the curry in deep bowls with steamed rice and lots of the lovely coconut-rich sauce and the fried mustard seeds and curry leaves on top of it all.

Goat might not be particularly well known in Britain, but if you have a halal butcher in your area, they will sell this tasty meat at a reasonable price. Almost never intensively reared, goat is slightly gamier and less greasy than the cheaper cuts of lamb. It always needs long, slow cooking to make it tender and bring out the flavour. You could use mutton or stewing lamb if you can’t get your goat easily.

I usually cook goat curry in a Caribbean style as the hint of heat really suits the meat, but it also works well in with the Potato and Olive Stew with Preserved Lemons
here
instead of beans.

My friend Brian at Fish, Wings & Tings in Brixton serves his goat curry along with pumpkin stew in a buttery soft roti or flatbread, and I’ve taken to putting pumpkin into the stew to make this a one-pot meal as the two are fabulous together.

SERVES 4 GENEROUSLY

1kg goat, either leg or shoulder on the bone, in 4cm chunks

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 lime, juiced

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly crushed

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 tablespoon Madras curry powder

1 Scotch bonnet pepper (or 4 shakes of Tabasco sauce)

1 small butternut squash or large wedge of pumpkin (about 400g)

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

600ml hot chicken stock

salt and pepper

Ask the butcher to cut the goat into chunks for you. I prefer it on the bone as it adds flavour to the stew.

Marinate the goat in 1 clove of the garlic, lime juice, cumin, allspice and curry powder for 24 hours. If you want a bit of heat in the dish, chop your Scotch bonnet pepper and add it to the marinade. Otherwise, keep it whole and add later when the stock goes in.

Add the marinated goat into the slow cooker along with any remaining marinade. Peel and chop the butternut squash or pumpkin into 1cm cubes and add in with the goat. Add the onion and remaining garlic. Sprinkle in the Worcestershire sauce. Stir to make sure everything is mixed.

Pour the chicken stock over it all. Add the whole Scotch bonnet pepper if you haven’t used it earlier. It will infuse the curry with flavour without too much heat. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 6 hours. The meat will be tender and the pumpkin will have cooked down to the point of collapsing.

Serve with rice or flatbread to soak up the lovely flavoursome juices.

If ever a dish has suffered due to reputation and bravado, it’s the vindaloo. A traditional vindaloo is rich with chilli and vinegar and hails from the Portuguese-influenced area of Goa in southern India. British vindaloos tend to be just overwhelmingly hot and lacking the layers of flavour it needs. This version gives you that chilli buzz people mention, but with all the other flavours you need to keep it tasty. Don’t be afraid of the long list of ingredients, this is a very simple curry to make.

SERVES 4

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 heaped teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

½ teaspoon ground cloves

6 dried red chillies

1 teaspoon brown sugar

3 tablespoons vinegar

500g pork shoulder, diced

2 onions, finely sliced into half moons

2–3cm piece of fresh ginger or 1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger

1 large green chilli, sliced

6 cloves of garlic, sliced

250ml water

Using a pestle and mortar or a hand blender, make a paste of the spices, dried chillies and sugar with the vinegar. Pour this over the pork and mix well. Marinate overnight if you can.

Add the pork to the slow-cooker crock with the sliced onion, ginger, green chilli, garlic and water. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the pork on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours. The pork will become meltingly tender and the flavours will come together in many layers.

Serve it with some fluffy naan bread and a cooling drink on the side.

Note:
A mango lassi would be just perfect with it. Use some of my home-made Yoghurt from
here
to make a batch by blending about 50g fresh or tinned mango with 100ml yoghurt and 50ml water.

This is a show-stopper of a meal and a particularly good dish to do with frozen lamb. A leg or half leg from the freezer cabinet will become something really special here. The only effort is a bit of time it takes to marinate. I have all these ingredients in the house anyway and this is a favourite Easter dish or when I have lots of guests. I usually serve it with flatbreads or naan and it makes a leftover sandwich to rival even a Boxing Day number!

SERVES 4–6 WITH SCOPE FOR SANDWICHES

1 half leg lamb, approximately 1kg

5cm piece of fresh ginger

4 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon red chilli powder

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

2 cardamom pods

1 lemon, juiced

250ml plain yoghurt or my home-made Yoghurt (
here
), strained (see
note
)

2 tablespoons desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons ground almonds

1 tablespoon clear honey

If you are using frozen lamb, make sure the meat is completely defrosted before you begin cooking. A half leg fits nicely into a 3.5-litre slow cooker and a whole leg should fit a 6.5-litre one, but do check your proportions first!

Start by making your spice paste. Grate the ginger and garlic together into a bowl and add the cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, salt, pepper, chilli powder and cloves. Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods with the tip of a sharp knife and crush them slightly using the side of the knife. Add them to the garlic and ginger spice mix and combine it all into a paste with the lemon juice.

Take a sharp knife and make deep slits into the lamb. They should be big enough to wiggle the end of your little finger into. Rub the garlic and ginger spice mix over the lamb, poking it into the slits in the meat to really infuse the flavour. Allow the lamb to marinate overnight in a cool place.

Mix the strained yoghurt with the desiccated coconut, ground almonds and honey to make a thick, slightly lumpy paste. Spread this paste over the marinated lamb and place in the slow cooker.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the lamb for 7–8 hours on low. The meat will be falling off the bone and the yoghurt will have tenderised it all while the spices and nuts add flavour and texture. Serve with flatbreads or rice. I like an extra drizzle of yoghurt with a little chopped chilli on the side too.

Note:
Strained yoghurt sounds like a specialist ingredient, but it’s extremely easy to make. Also known as labneh, it simply involves straining yoghurt through a cloth to remove the watery whey and make it thicker, creamier and less likely to curdle when cooked. Make it by spreading a clean J-cloth or muslin square in a sieve over a bowl and pouring some plain unsweetened yoghurt into it. Gather the cloth up into a purse-like shape and allow the yoghurt to strain for at least 15–20 minutes. The whey will drain into the bowl and you will be left with thick, creamy yoghurt. Store the whey for up to a week in the fridge for use in the Lamb Nihari
here
.

I remember my dad making rogan josh when I was a very small child and I think it was probably my first introduction to Indian food. It seemed like a very long, involved procedure that went on all day and thus we didn’t have it very often, but I loved it when we did. I have no idea how authentic it could have been back in 1980s Belfast and I’m not sure how authentic this modern-day version is either. But it’s not involved at all and it tastes absolutely amazing. My inner child and I make this one a lot.

SERVES 4

200ml plain yoghurt, strained or my homemade Yoghurt (
here
), strained, (see note,
here
)

500g lamb chops

1 teaspoon chilli powder