Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (38 page)
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Authors: Miss South
Many steamed puddings use suet. Suet is a form of animal fat that makes ethereally light pastry and puddings. If you are vegetarian, you can use veggie suet instead, but I find it is a little more dense as it’s essentially like grated margarine. I much prefer the real thing if I can.
All steamed puddings need to be steamed immediately after making. They will take about twice as long to steam in the slow cooker as on the hob, but the advantage is that they can’t overcook and you don’t need to keep topping up the water and worrying that the pan is boiling dry, making them very easy to cook in the slow cooker while you have a nap or a long walk before lunch.
Steamed puddings aren’t the only desserts that work brilliantly in the slow cooker. You can use it as a mini oven, steamer or water bath and create simple and stunning custards and chocolate puddings or lovely cooked or stewed fruits. You’ll be amazed how many old favourites you can make here with great ease.
Poached Spiced Pears in Vermouth
Fruits of the Forest Vanilla Compote
Stout-Soaked Christmas Pudding
Not to be confused with bread-and-butter pudding, this is more like a cake made from leftover stale bread. Rich and dense, it suits long, slow cooking even when you bake it in an oven. This is very easy to make and keeps very well. I like mine rich with spices and candied peel and served in a hefty chunk with a cup of tea at about four in the afternoon. It’s perfect for a packed lunch or taken on a walk to keep you going.
I often use lard instead of butter in my bread pudding as you need very little of it and it’s so much cheaper than butter. It gives it a richness like some German fruited breads or traditional British lardy cake. Simply use butter instead if you want it to be vegetarian.
SERVES 6–8
300g stale white bread
600ml milk
300g raisins
100g Candied Peel, chopped (see
here
)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground mace
2 tablespoons poppy seeds (optional)
50g sugar
50g plain flour
25g lard or butter
2 eggs, beaten
Line the slow cooker crock with reusable baking liner or greaseproof paper.
Tear the bread into medium pieces and put in a large bowl. I use white bread here, but you could omit the added poppy seeds and use something more brown and virtuous with seeds in it if you prefer.
Pour the milk over the bread and allow it to soak for about 30 minutes. Mix the bread and milk well with a fork to break it up and combine the crusts.
Add the dried fruit, spices, poppy seeds and the sugar and flour and mix it in. Melt the lard and pour it into the mix along with the beaten eggs. Combine well so it has quite a loose texture.
Pour the mixture into the lined slow-cooker crock. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours. After 4 hours, lift the lid and cover the crock with a couple of sheets of kitchen roll and replace the lid. Cook for another 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Lift the bread pudding out of the crock and allow to cool on a rack. It will set and become quite solid. Any melted fat will settle back into the pudding as it cools. Cut into thick chunks and serve with a proper strong cuppa. Store the leftover pudding in an airtight container for up to 3–4 days.
This recipe came from an old cookbook of my grandmother’s. She was a farmer’s wife and along with her own family to feed, she would have cooked lunches for farm workers too. Food was simple, economical and utterly delicious. I loved the milk puddings she made and retain a soft spot for semolina, rice, sago or tapioca puddings. I am firmly team frogspawn. If you only had school-dinner versions, try this much lighter, spiced steamed version and be converted.
SERVES 4–6 AND KEEPS WELL
50g tapioca or sago
250ml milk
150g breadcrumbs
1 medium apple, grated
50g Candied Peel (optional) (see
here
)
50g sugar
150g raisins
25g butter, melted
1 teaspoon cornflour
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
Wash the tapioca under cold running water to remove any excess starch. Soak it for at least an hour, or overnight, in the milk.
When you are ready to make the pudding, mix the soaked tapioca and the milk with the breadcrumbs, apple, candied peel, sugar, raisins and the melted butter. Stir well and add the cornflour and bicarbonate of soda, vanilla and the spices.
Pour it all into a 1.2-litre lidded pudding basin. Snap the lid on tightly and slip the basin into a cotton string bag and place in the slow-cooker crock. Pour boiling water halfway up the side of the basin and put the lid on the slow cooker. Steam the tapioca for 4 hours.
It will firm up and thicken. Remove the bowl using the handles of the bag and turn the pudding out onto a plate. Serve slices of it, but be amazed by how filling it is. It makes a lovely soft, sticky dessert or can be eaten as a great alternative to porridge.
Much as I love a cup of builder’s tea, I have a real soft spot for those seen as more refined and genteel. Take me to a tea room and I’m giddy with choice. A malty Assam, a floral rose-infused number or the smoky tones of Lapsang Souchong, I love them all of an afternoon. But my favourite is the bergamot flavour of Earl Grey.
A light, citrus flavour, bergamot is one of my favourite smells. My mum used Bergasol tanning oil on our childhood holidays, so I associate it with hot sunshine, jumping into an ice-cold swimming pool and lots of laughter. Earl Grey brightens and lifts my mood any time I smell or taste it, taking me back to childhood.
This is clever since it is a long-running family joke that I am like a little old lady. You’d think it comes from my sedate lifestyle, pottering to the library and being fixated by slippers, or maybe my fascination with blouses and slacks in my teens. But I suspect it’s because I am obsessed by stewed prunes.
I am that person who sees them at hotel buffets and gets excited by them. I heap them onto porridge and would have seconds and thirds if they didn’t have
that
reputation. I adore their soft stickiness and their ability to absorb flavours. You’ll love these.
SERVES 2–4
250g dried prunes
2 Earl Grey teabags
250ml freshly boiled water
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
You can use any dried or unsoaked prunes for this as the slow cooking will plump them up into something special.
Make the tea by infusing both Earl Grey bags in the freshly boiled water for about 5 minutes. Remove the teabags and add the vanilla extract.
Put the prunes into the slow-cooker crock and pour the infused tea over them. Put the lid on and cook on low for 4–5 hours. The prunes will become fat and sticky and flavoursome. They are lovely with the Granola
here
or Porridge
here
or can be used in the Sticky Toffee Pudding
here
.
I much prefer roasting fruit in the oven rather than stewing it. Roasting without added liquid intensifies the flavours, while stewing often mutes them, relying on lots of sugar instead. But it seems a shame to turn the oven on for small amounts of fruit. The slow cooker allows to you to cook the fruit overnight so you wake up to a beautiful aroma and piping-hot fruit for your porridge.
I particularly love cooked plums. Often the punnets you buy lack flavour and the texture is a little bit woolly. A low heat softens the fibres of the fruit and enhances the flavour. Doing a batch with cinnamon and allspice makes them something special.
SERVES 2–4
1 punnet of plums, approximately 400g
1 heaped tablespoon dark brown sugar
5 allspice berries
1 star anise
½ cinnamon stick
Halve and stone the plums. Lay them flat on the base of the slow-cooker crock. It doesn’t matter if you have several layers. Scatter with the brown sugar. Tuck the spices in around the plums evenly.
Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 6–7 hours or high for 3–4. The fruit will collapse slightly, but hold its shape. There will be quite a lot of liquid, so don’t be tempted to add any during the cooking. Remove the spices before eating. Dry the cinnamon stick for reuse.
Serve with Dulce de Leche (see
here
) or custard as a dessert or pile on the Granola from
here
or Porridge
here
. They are also beautiful with yoghurt, like the home-made version
here
.
My idea of living on the edge these days is to buy pears and see whether they become over ripe almost instantly, stay stubbornly rock hard forever or occasionally end up perfect and juicy with a sliver of Parmesan on the side as a dessert.
More often than not, they stay firm and I use them up by poaching them. This recipe adds just enough spice to warm up the flavour and takes advantage of the herbal and lemon hints in white vermouth. This fortified wine works out much cheaper than a bottle of wine as it doesn’t go off as quickly and it comes in much bigger bottles. It is a kitchen essential for me.
SERVES 2–4
250ml boiling water
125g sugar
4 pears (Conference or Williams are best)
125ml vermouth
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 star anise
2–3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled
½ cinnamon stick
Put the boiling water and the sugar into the slow-cooker crock and turn to high while you peel the pears, but leave the base and stalk in place. If you remove these, the pears will disintegrate while cooking and be impossible to lift out again.
Once the sugar has almost completely dissolved, turn the slow cooker down to low and add the vermouth, vanilla and the spices. You could switch these around, also using cloves, allspice, nutmeg or mace if you have them.
Lower the pears into the poaching syrup and set them on their side so they are completely submerged. Depending on the size of your pears, you may need to add a bit more water. If it’s more than 100ml, add another 50g of sugar.
Poach the pears on low for 5–6 hours. They will soften and darken slightly as they infuse with flavour.
Serve warm with a tiny drizzle of the poaching syrup and a dash of cream or serve cold on top of Porridge from
here
or Granola from
here
.
On an autumn night as the temperature dips and the nights start to draw in earlier, the perfect dessert is a baked apple. These work beautifully in the slow cooker, the heat diffusing through them gently until the flesh goes soft and frothy, collapsing when you pour a drizzle of dulce de leche onto them. I tend to do them two ways, either stuffed with candied peel and raisins, maybe with a few leftover nuts if I have them, or filled with syrup and oats for a take on granola. I’ve given both recipes here.
I use Bramleys for their tart taste and fluffy texture, but anything fairly crisp and thin-skinned will work well. Avoid apples like Golden Delicious as they just get mushy.
MAKES 1 (SCALE UP AS NEEDED)
2 tablespoons porridge oats
1 heaped teaspoon golden syrup
pinch of salt
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 apple
scattering of dried fruit (optional)
cream or plain yoghurt (see home-made Yoghurt
here
), to serve
OR
1 apple
1 tablespoon Candied Peel (see
here
)
1 tablespoon raisins or mixed dried fruit
½ teaspoon caraway seeds (optional)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
scattering of pecans, flaked almonds or pistachios (optional)
drizzle of Dulce de Leche, to serve (see
here
)
Line your slow-cooker crock with some reusable baking liner or greaseproof paper. This simply makes it easier to get the fragile cooked apples out again by lifting the sides of the liner rather than trying to scoop the fruit out.
