Tag: Slow Cooker

Categories
Mains Recipes

Mushroom & Bean Stroganoff

Crisp cold air, weak rays of sun on a walk along an empty beach, NFL play-offs, storms that have their own names, and Chris and Michaela in padded jackets outside a yurt on BBC’s Winter Watch – all the signs that we really are in the far depths of January.

It can only mean one thing in the ADK Kitchen – slow cooker season!

The electric slow cooker is a wonderful invention – chuck in a bunch of seasonal veg with some hearty stock, fresh herbs, a large glass of wine, and leave it to bubble away for a few hours in the corner of the kitchen, unassumedly radiating warmth and a delectable aroma that leaves everyone looking forward to dinner time.

Here’s a new addition to the ADK slow cooker recipe collection – a vegetarian hotpot rich in succulent mushrooms that take on the flavours of a creamy white wine and Dijon mustard sauce, with freshly torn thyme sprigs and the pleasing texture of soft cannellini beans. A true culinary comfort blanket!

No slow cooker? No problem – just use a casserole dish in a fan oven at 140C.

Servings

4 adult portions.

Timings

20 mins to prep – 3 hrs in the slow cooker.

You Will Need

  • 30g dried porcini mushrooms
  • 200ml boiling water
  • a drizzle of oil
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 onion
  • 3 celery sticks
  • 1 red pepper
  • 250g chestnut mushrooms
  • 3 tbsp plain flour
  • 150ml veg stock
  • 200ml dry white wine
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 bunch of fresh thyme
  • 1 400g can of cannellini beans

Method

  1. Switch on an electric slow cooker to the high setting.
  2. Cover the porcini mushrooms in the boiling water and let them sit in a bowl for around 20 mins.
  3. Crush the garlic and chop the onion into some hot oil in a wok. Then add in the chopped celery and pepper, and stir.
  4. After a few moments, add in the chestnut mushrooms, halved. Give it all a good stir and let it simmer for a few minutes.
  5. Turn the heat down and sprinkle over the flour. Turn the veg over with a spatula until all of it is coated in the flour, then pour in the stock and wine. Turn the heat up again and stir so that a thickish, creamy sauce begins to form around the veg.
  6. Add in the Dijon mustard and cayenne pepper. Twist in some black pepper and sea salt. Tear in a good few sprigs of the fresh thyme. Tip in the porcini mushrooms and the water they’ve been soaking in.
  7. Add the cannellini beans and mix through, then transfer to the bowl of the slow cooker. Turn down to the low setting and let it simmer for 3 hours, stirring every so often.
  8. Spoon on to warmed plates, and tear over some more sprigs of the fresh thyme. Serve with boiled brown rice.

Customise It!

I’ve used two different kinds of mushrooms – porcini and chestnut – but you could add in a third, maybe swapping in some chunked portobello in place of some of the chestnuts. I was tempted to change the white wine to a full-bodied, warming red, and may do this the next time I make this, as I reckon it will pair well with the beefy-like stock water that comes from the soaked porcinis.

Dance classics season continues in the ADK Kitchen – hey, it helps keep us warm this time of year! Here’s a great opportunity to hone those moves – it’s Gloria Gaynor with Never Can Say Goodbye.

Categories
Breakfast Recipes

Seville Orange Marmalade

For these past few days, the ADK Kitchen has been passed over to my wife, Lesley, for the making of some Seville Orange Marmalade. I do, of course, have a vested interest in this, as I shall be scoffing a fair amount of it spread on toast for breakfast over the coming months (starting today, in fact – see my main photo above). Over to Lesley to explain…….

This time of year we have Seville oranges in our shops – the only time in the year when they are in season. Grown in Spain, their bitter taste and high pectin content makes the ideal marmalade – a traditional and uniquely tangy breakfast treat. I have vivid memories of my parents making jars and jars of this when I was little. It involved a major kitchen takeover at the time.

I set out to recreate it in the modern day, based on a recipe from Riverford. I was interested to see if the kitchen equipment available in the 2020s made the process any different from how it was in the 1970s. I found that using an electric slow cooker and a normal saucepan, I didn’t have to patiently keep watch over a large, boiling preserving pan for several hours, as my parents had done!

To ease on storage, I wanted to make just a couple of 1lb jars, rather than enough to last a full year – see the photo below.

The remaining oranges in the pack have been prepped and stored in the freezer, so that I can make another batch during the year, as a special treat when the oranges are no longer in season.

Servings

This makes 2 1lb jars (or 400 – 450ml each jar).

Timings

The first stage, in the slow cooker, takes 8 hours. The second stage takes 1 hour on the hob. Then allow 24 hours to cool and set.

You Will Need

  • a slow cooker with bowl of 3l capacity
  • 7 or 8 seville oranges (750g)
  • 1 lemon
  • 900ml cold water
  • 1kg granulated sugar
  • muslin cloth and string
  • 2 sterilised marmalade or jam jars to reuse

Method

Here are some photos I took as I went along. Instructions follow, below.

  1. Wash the oranges, and peel with a veg peeler. Chop the peel into shreds of the width that you like to have in your marmalade, whether fine or thick.
  2. Chop all the oranges and the lemon in half. Squeeze the juice from each into a bowl.
  3. Once the juice has been extracted, wrap the squeezed halves in the muslin cloth (I had a clean muslin curtain I had cut up) and scoop it up to make a bag of a size that will fit into your slow cooker bowl. Tie it around the neck with string.
  4. Put the juice, shreds and water into the slow cooker bowl. Place the muslin bag of fruit in the bowl with the neck of it draped over the side of it, held down by the lid (see photo).
  5. Cook for at least 8 hours on the high setting.
  6. 8 hours later, switch the slow cooker off and let it cool. Once cool, squeeze the rich pulpy residue, that has formed in the muslin bag, into the slow cooker bowl getting out all the lovely sticky juices formed from the pith, pips and pulp.
  7. Transfer the lovely orange scented juice to a normal saucepan, via a measuring jug, and place on the hob for the final high heat stage. I don’t think the slow cooker can achieve the fast boil you need for this. Add 450g of sugar for every 500ml of liquid. Begin with a low heat under the saucepan, and stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar so it doesn’t catch. You then increase the heat to a rolling boil once the sugar is dissolved – mine needed about 10 mins.
  8. Take a teaspoonful of the liquid and set it on a cold plate, gently pushing on it with the back of the spoon. If it wrinkles, it means the marmalade is at its setting point, which is what you are aiming for. If it isn’t wrinkling, test again (and again if necessary) every few minutes, until the wrinkling point is reached – this means it will set and be spreadable.
  9. Immediately remove from the heat and leave to stand for 15 mins. This short cooling time will mean the shreds will be evenly distributed in the jar and not all rise to the top.
  10. Taking care, spoon or pour the hot liquid into the sterilised jars, and screw on the lids (if you don’t have lids, use a piece of greaseproof paper cut into a circle on the surface of the marmalade, and another piece held on by an elastic band). Leave to cool until the next day.
  11. Open the jar at breakfast time, spreading the marmalade on toast with some butter and take in that orangey scent.

Thank you Lesley. I’ve just made a fresh pot of tea and popped another slice of harvest grain in the toaster. Lesley’s choice of track for the ADK playlist is very apt – Labelle with Lady Marmalade.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Slow Cooked Beef and Stilton

I first tasted the combination of beef and stilton cheese some years ago, as a hot filling in a Cornish Pasty. I thought the taste was divine and have been a fan ever since, enjoying it in casseroles as well as pies. Stilton adds a salty sharpness to the beef juices, making a rich and creamy gravy to coat and complement the tender and succulent beef.

What better dish to make, therefore, as the next in my slow cooker season.

Servings

6 adult servings, alongside your choice of veg.

Timings

20 mins to prepare, and 4 – 5 hours bubbling away in an electric slow cooker.

You Will Need

  • 700g braising beef, cut into chunks
  • a few spoonfuls of plain flour
  • salt and pepper
  • oil
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 litre of beef stock
  • 1 large glass of red wine
  • 200g stilton cheese
  • some cornflour and tap water

Method

  1. Turn on the electric slow cooker to the high setting.
  2. Sprinkle the flour, salt and pepper on a dish, then roll the pieces of beef in it till they are coated all over.
  3. Warm some oil in a frying pan and fry the beef until the pieces are seared all over. Transfer to the slow cooker bowl.
  4. Crush the garlic clove and add to the remaining hot oil in the pan. Chop the onion and add also. Stir until softened, then add to the slow cooker bowl.
  5. Pour the stock and wine into the hot pan, and heat until it is bubbling. Pour over the beef and onions in the slow cooker bowl.
  6. Leave the slow cooker on high for around 30 mins, then reduce to the medium setting. Let it bubble away for 4 – 5 hours.
  7. Using a fork, pull out a piece of beef to check that it is cooked. It should be tender and flake apart when pressed with the fork.
  8. Cut the stilton into pieces and then crumble with your fingers into the slow cooker. Stir gently so that the pieces begin to melt into the gravy, thickening it as they go.
  9. If you wish to make the gravy thicker, mix up a couple of teaspoons of cornflour with the same amount of tap water, and stir to dissolve. Add into the gravy. You can repeat this again if necessary, to reach the thickness you desire.
  10. Serve with your choice of roasted, boiled or steamed veg. Mine in the photo is served with roast potatoes, boiled brussels sprouts and carrots.

Customise It!

If you wish, you can add veg directly into the slow cooker, and they will take on the flavours of the beef gravy as they cook. Root veg, such as carrots, swede, parsnips and celeriac will work well. You could also serve the dish with rice instead of roast potatoes, to soak up all that rich, stilton sauce.

Don’t worry if you do not have an electric slow cooker. You can use a casserole dish instead, and cook it in the oven. Start off with the oven at 180C, then reduce it to 160C at step 6 above.

It’s getting to that time when I receive my playlist from Spotify with all my most-played tracks of the year. This is one that will almost certainly feature, as I’ve listened to it many times. It’s by New York band Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Heads Will Roll.