Slow cooker Irish Stew and Dumplings

A hearty, warming winter favourite. It's one of the recipes that you can put on in the morning and leave all day to simmer away into lamby, oniony perfection. We like it with dumplings, and I tried to cook them in the slow cooker, but they didn't cook very well. I ended up finishing it off in the oven to get dumplings cooked through and with just a hint of brown on the top. It's really quick to prepare if you have a food processor with a slicing disc as it powers its way through the veg slicing in no time and the veg is sliced consistently thinly, something I'm hopeless at doing by hand.

The stew before cooking. I forgot to photograph it in all its glory at the end of cooking. Next time...

• 700g potatoes, thinly sliced
• 400g carrots, thinly sliced
• 2 onions (about 300g) thinly sliced
• 600g stewing lamb
• about 1 litre stock (I used homemade unsalted chicken stock and crumbled a Knorr lamb stock cube into the stew for extra flavour)
• salt (but be careful if using stock cubes as they usually have a lot of salt)
• pepper

For the dumplings:

• 8oz self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
• 4oz suet
• 1 - 2 tbsp water to mix

1. Cut up the meat into bite sized chunks, removing excess fat.
2. Put the sliced potatoes in the base of the slow cooker.
3. Cover with a layer of sliced carrots, then onions.
4. Arrange the lamb on top.
5. Season with pepper
6. pour over enough hot stock to more or less cover the meat.
7. Cook for about 9 hours or so. I usually set it on Auto, which cooks it on high for a while, then switches it to low for the remainder of the time.
8. To make the dumplings, pre heat the oven to 190 C. Stir the suet into the flour, stir in the salt and herbs, then add enough water to form a dough. Shape into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball (they will expand) and put on top of the stew about half and hour before you want to serve it. Cover and cook in the oven for about 15mins, then remove the lid and let them brown for another 10 - 15 minutes.

Gammon

When we have gammon I always cook it in the pressure cooker using the method described in my trusty old pressure cooker manual. This is getting increasingly illegible thanks to the splashes of gammon stock, so here's a photo of it. I cooked this a couple of days ago, and planned to take a photo, but it proved such a hit that we had eaten it before I remembered.

Basically you need to soak a smoked gammon joint in cold water for a couple of hours, then drain it put it into the pressure cooker, cover with water and bring to the boil. You then drain it again (the idea being to get rid of excess salt, although it still ends up pretty salty). Then put it back in the pressure cooker, almost cover it with cold water, add a bayleaf, some leek or onion, a carrot, and any other herbs you happen to have (thyme and sage are good). Bring it up to pressure and cook it under pressure for 12 minutes per 400g. You take it off the heat at the end of cooking and let the pressure come down on its own.

I usually serve it with roast potatoes and whatever veg I have on hand. Roasted cauliflower is good (sprinkle with cumin seeds, salt and pepper and toss with olive oil before roasting for about 25 mins). This time I made a creamy leek and cava sauce to serve with it as I had a solitary leek lurking in the fridge and the dregs of a bottle of cava on the side. I gently sauteed the leek in butter for a few minutes until it was soft, threw in a couple of teaspoons of cornflour and cooked that out. Then I poured in the cava (about 1 small glass), stirring to over a gentle heat to cook off the alcohol, then stirred in some milk and some of the stock from the gammon, stirring all the time as the sauce thickened, then I finished it with a little single cream and some seasoning. Any white sauce made with a roux base (about 25g each butter and cornflour cooked together) and a mixture of the stock and milk to thicken works well - chopped parsley  is a good addition.

Whatever you do, don't throw away the stock after cooking the gammon - it is the perfect base for my favourite spilt pea and bacon soup. As it is very salty however, you do need to dilute one to one with water if you use it for this recipe.

Fruit Salad

Easy peasy dessert, delicious, fresh and very healthy. You can use whatever combination of fruits that you like; I try to make it as colourful as possible. But one fruit you will never ever find in my fruit salad is banana because I hate the slimy texture it takes on. Here I used apple, pear, red and white grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe and galia melon, blueberries and orange segments. The syrup is very light, and not too sweet, and the lemon juice in the syrup stops the fruit from going brown. It keeps for a couple of days in the fridge and is great for breakfast with muesli.

For the syrup:

1 lemon

1/2 pint /300ml water

2oz granulated sugar 

1. Put the water into a microwave proof jug with the sugar and heat in the microwave, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Add the juice of the lemon, stir well and leave to cool.
2. Pour the syrup into a large bowl
3. Cut up fruit of your choice into bite sized chunks and stir into the syrup. It doesn't all need to be submerged, just make sure that it has all been coated with the syrup to stop it from browning.
4. That's it; I said it was easy!

You can serve it with single cream, but I prefer it without.

Spiced Apple Cake

For the cake:

300g/10oz SR flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tsp ground mixed spice

113g/4oz butter, softened (or sunflower spread/marg)

113g/4oz brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
about 360-375g/ 12-13oz unsweetened stewed apple
50 g/2oz walnuts, roughly chopped

For the icing:

50g/ 2oz/ 1/2 cup icing sugar

1 – 2 tbsp maple syrup

1 - 2 tsp water

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 C/gas mark 4. Grease a large loaf tin.

1.  Whisk together flour, salt, and mixed spice.

2.  Cream butter/marg, brown sugar, and vanilla until pale and fluffy.

3.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then mix in stewed apple.

4.  Gently fold in flour mixture until just combined, then stir in walnuts.

5.   Spread evenly in loaf tin and bake until golden brown and a skewer inserted into centre of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Loosen by running a knife around edge of tin, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

6.   For the icing, put the icing sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup in a large bowl and stir to combine, adding water if necessary to make a smooth consistency

Drizzle the icing over the cooled cake.

Fish and bacon chowder - original recipe

This is a flavoursome and hearty (and economical) main meal soup, even though it looks a bit uninspiring. Stir in some single cream and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper, grated nutmeg and maybe some snipped up fresh chives or chopped parsley just before serving. Serve with fresh bread - herb and garlic or olive bread goes well with it. I always make it in the pressure cooker, so it cooks very quickly. 

serves 4 - 5

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 350g bacon, chopped
• olive oil
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 450g - 500g white fish fillets (the cheap frozen kind work fine in this recipe)
• 500 - 600 g potatoes, peeled and chopped into bitesized chunks
• 1 bayleaf
• 1.5 l chicken or fish stock, preferably home made without added salt
• salt and pepper
• dash or two of milk (optional)
• 1 - 2 tbsp single cream
• freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tbsp chopped chives or parsley

1. Heat the bacon gently in a large pressure cooker or large deep cooking pot until the fat starts to run out. If the bacon is very lean add some olive oil.
2. Toss in the onion and mixed herbs and fry gently to soften.
3. Toss in the potato and saute gently for a couple of minutes.
4. Pour in the stock, add the bayleaf and season well with black pepper. Hold back with the salt as the bacon usually adds enough.
5. If using a pressure cooker, lay the whole frozen fish fillets on top, no need to defrost first. Close the cooker and bring up to pressure. It will take a while to come up to pressure, during which time the fish will thaw and start to cook. Once at pressure, cook for about 3 minutes, then let the pressure down and check if the potatoes are done. This may seem quite short, but you don't want to over cook the fish. If you are using a regular cooking pot it will need longer - cook the chowder without the fish for about 5 minutes to get the potatoes started, then add the fish and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or so; keep checking to see if it's done.
6. Give it a good stir and squish some of the potatoes to thicken it up a bit. You can add a dash of milk at this stage if it look a bit watery (although it will taste just fine without).
7. Check the seasoning, adding more salt if necessary.
8. Pour into bowls, stir a dash of single cream into each bowl and grate some nutmeg over the top, along with a grind of fresh black pepper. Sprinkle over some fresh herbs if you have them and serve with plenty of bread and butter.

Carrot cake

This is such a delicious cake and actually not too unhealthy (if you discount the icing). I originally picked up the recipe in South Africa about 20 years ago and I've gradually adapted it to our tastes. I'm guessing a lot of people might find it's not sweet enough, but for me it's perfect. I've cut the amount of sugar in the cake itself by at least a half from the original recipe (and the carrots do contain plenty of sugar too of course). The last time I baked it I only used 4 ounces of sugar, but 6 ounces is a good compromise. The icing has a lot of sugar and balances the sweetness in the whole cake. You could make the mixture up in muffin cases and skip the icing for a pretty healthy snack.

For the cake:

• 8 oz/225g self raising flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4oz/113g sunflower spread or softened butter
• 4 - 6oz (113g - 170g) brown sugar, depending on how sweet you like your cake
• 50ml sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp water
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 4oz/113g chopped walnuts
• 10oz / 285 g raw carrots

For the icing:

• 1.5 oz /42g softened butter, preferably unsalted
• 6 oz /170g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and grease a large loaf tin, or 9 inch square deep pan.
2. Peel and grate the carrots (easy in a food processor with the grating attachment).
3. Whisk together the flour, spices and salt.
4. Beat margarine/butter, oil, sugar and water until light and creamy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, and the vanilla, beating well each time.
6. Fold in the flour mixture until just combined
7. Gently stir in the carrots and walnuts.
8. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before icing.
10. Beat the icing ingredients together in a bowl until smooth.
11. Spread the icing over the cooled cake. Or in our case, cut the end slice off the hot cake and spread a little icing on it because you just can't wait for it to cool. Then ice the rest of the cake when it really is cool.

Chicken, bacon and mushroom lasagne

This dish is based on a recipe from the side of a pack of Presto lasagne from many years ago. I even still have the original recipe, although Presto has long since gone out of business. Over the years I've adapted the recipe and it makes a regular appearance on our table throughout the year.

For the tomato layer:

1 leek, cleaned and sliced

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

275g mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

400g tin tomatoes

dash red wine

1 bay leaf

seasoning

For the chicken and bacon layer:

250g cooked chicken, chopped

175g cooked bacon, chopped

30g marg

30g cornflour

1 pint (450ml) chicken stock

300ml milk

320g lasagne sheets

For the topping:

75-100g grated cheese 

1. Gently fry the leek and mushroom with the dried herbs in a glug of olive oil until softened, about 5 - 10 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, red wine and bay leaf, season and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. In a separate pan, melt the margarine/butter, stir in the cornflour and cook gently for 2 or 3 minutes.
4. Stir in the stock and milk gradually, stirring constantly until a smooth sauce forms. (If I get lumps, I have been known to blast the sauce with a hand blender, but it's usually ok).
5. Take out about 1 pint of the sauce to use for the topping and set aside.
6. Stir in the cooked chicken and bacon into the remaining sauce, taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
7. Stir half the grated cheese into the sauce you set aside for the topping.
8. Assemble the lasagne in a large baking dish, starting with a tomato layer, then lasagne, then chicken. Repeat these layers, then top the last layer of lasagne with the cheese sauce and sprinkle over the rest of the grated cheese. You will see in the picture that one corner is cheeseless, as we have a cheese hater in the family (he will tolerate the cheese in the sauce, but not the extra on top).
9. Bake at 190C for about 45 minutes, until the lasagne is cooked and the topping is golden brown.

Guacamole

Just yum.

1/4 of a small peeled onion or 2 - 3 cleaned and trimmed spring onions

1 large tomato quartered

2 medium avocados

squeeze of lemon or lime juice

salt and pepper

optional handful of washed fresh coriander

optional dash tabasco sauce

Put the onion and tomato (and coriander if using) in a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped.

Scoop out the flesh from the avocados and add to the food processor with the lemon/lime juice and seasoning and tabasco if using. Pulse until combined, but not too smooth. 

If you don't have a processor, you can chop everything by hand, but it will be a much chunkier guacamole.

Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

Serve with tortilla chips.

Tip: If you have left over tortillas after a Mexican meal, you can cut them up into triangles and bake in a low oven (about 100C) for about half an hour or so to dry them out. They are great for dipping in guacamole.