I vividly remembered a caravan holiday in North Norfolk when my Mum used her newly acquired slow cooker for the first time. My mum being a rather brilliant hands-on cook however meant she just couldn't resist the temptation of having a regular sneaky peek at what was going on under the lid. The subsequent release of all that accumulated heat and steam meant the slow cooker lived up to its name and as my brothers and I sat hungrily my mum cursed the new-fangled gadget and the tepidity of its half-cooked contents.
Almost thirty years later and it was my generation's turn to test a descendent of the device. Slow cooking is a timeless technique. Once our Cro-Magnon ancestors had got beyond carbonizing their meat on sticks over a fire (black on the ouside, red and bleeding on the inside) they found a less intense heat over many hours produced a much tastier more succulent morsel. Cultures all over the world have since buried beasts in fire-pits or earth ovens to bake and steam overnight, and as I unwrapped the ‘Ecolectric' I briefly imagined myself as a burly Maori warrior preparing a hungi. Very briefly.
In recognition of the seventies connection I'd chosen a classic recipe from the period as my trial dish - chicken in white wine and mushroom sauce. Armed with some ‘Freedom Food' chicken thighs, a cheap bottle of plonk and a bag of little button fungi from our local greengrocer I set to work recreating a meal that wouldn't have looked out of place on the table in ‘Abigail's Party'. After sealing the meat, sautéing the onions and mushrooms and adding the vino and a dash of cornflour for thickening I just bunged the whole bubbling lot into the ‘Ecolectric's' crockpot (now a far more ‘noughties' slick black). And that was it!
I spent the afternoon working on my slow travel book (about our round the world trip without flying http://www.lowcarbontravel.com/) whilst the slow cooker worked it's magic. Only the condensation gathering on the underside of the glass lid belied the culinary activity going on within. Unlike my inquisitive mum I resisted the urge to steal a look inside. Six hours later my girlfriend Fi and I tucked into fragrant, tender chicken in a toothsome sauce with some slightly psychedelic steamed black Shetland potatoes (continuing the seventies theme) and sprigs of purple sprouting broccoli on the side. Absolutely delicious!
And here's the thing. With a little forethought and preparation you can come home from a busy day at work to a lovely slow-cooked meal. You can also adjust cooking times for recipes from a few hours (on ‘high' setting) to a whole day (on ‘low'). We're looking forward to experimenting with dishes from beyond 1978, although the Hungarian ghoulash does sound tempting, but most of all in an age of ever increasing speed, fast food and ready meals there's something rather wonderful about the joy of slow.
A couple of neighbours had found a babysitter and invited us to join them for a meal in the local. But my wife is feeling credit crunched and doesn't fancy paying twenty quid a head for a pub meal. Why don't they come over here I say. ‘No-one can be bothered to entertain during the week' she says.
Wrong... the answer, my love, arrived on my desk yesterday - the SLOW COOKER. On the way home I bought 1kg of cubed skirt (a very flavoursome but cheap cut of beef which needs long slow cooking) for about £7 an onion and a bottle of dry Italian red that was on special. Got home and slung it in the pot with a couple of tins of tomatoes and some herbs (kept back half the wine for chef lubrication). Added some veggies that were knocking about in the bottom drawer of the fridge and a stock cube. Left it overnight in the fridge and after breakfast switched it onto the low setting and went to work.
Came home twelve hours later to the delicious smell of stew throughout the house. Mashed some ‘tatoes and waited on my mates turning up with the peas. With a kilo of beef to eat I had invited a couple of other neighbours who conveniently brought dessert!
The whole meal can't have cost more than £15 quid - fed six people (who stopped just short of licking the plates clean) - used very little energy and took very very little effort. Cooking skirt that long there is really no need to brown the meat or sweat the onions.
In short - TOTAL SUCCESS. Mid week dinner parties are back on!