Liberation!

I find slow-cooking liberating – not a word that immediately springs to mind where cooking is concerned – there'll be no bra burning!

It might sound a touch dramatic but to illustrate how much time, effort and money you'll save I give you, the gammon, chicken and leek pie. There are three options here from the same recipe. The first is a healthy version, the second is not and the third is somewhere in between.

I will concede that you'll have to think about your shopping list but if you are now subscribing to the “multi-tasking method” you'll have jacket potatoes on your list ready to throw in the oven.

Here we go :

Option 1 – healthy

Gammon, Chicken and Leek pie

Serves 4 generous portions

Gammon joint – smoked or unsmoked to suit your taste – approx 500g

4 chicken breast fillets

2 stock pots – chicken or vegetable

4 medium leeks, topped, tailed and sliced thickly

Rapeseed oil – approx 1 tbsp

black pepper

2 tins (295g) of Campbell's condensed low fat chicken soup (this is now low salt, low fat and only 77 calories per serving)

3 large jacket potatoes, baked, cooled, then peeled and sliced

Salt and black pepper for potato topping

Seal your gammon joint and slow cook in the stock pots, do the same with the chicken fillet. If your slow cooker is big enough cook them all together. 4 hours is fine but longer won't hurt. If you have left over chicken and gammon in the freezer its an alternative quick recipe! Leave to cool.

Break up the gammon and the chicken into medium chunks and transfer for the moment into the casserole or foil tray that you'll be using to cook the pie. Reserve the stock.

Peel and slice your leeks, then soften in the rapeseed oil, set aside.

Tip the soup into a large mixing bowl. Next add a ladle of stock into the soup to loosen it, then fold in the gammon, chicken and leeks. Transfer the mixture back into your casserole.

Place your sliced potato on top, season with a little salt and black pepper.

Pre-heat your oven and bake at 200/180fan/Gas 6 for 30-40 minutes – check after 30 - until the top is golden and crispy.

Option 2 – not as healthy!

Replace the soup with a Velouté sauce. A Velouté sauce is one of the “Mother Sauces” - a light white sauce made with chicken or fish stock and a roux – used as a base for other sauces i.e. a Sauce Supreme.

Use half a pint (300ml) of your stock. Strain the stock, cover and refrigerate until cold, ready to make your sauce.

You'll need:

15g unsalted butter

15g plain flour

½ tsp Dijon mustard

200ml double cream

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter, take the pan off the heat, add the flour and whisk. Return to the heat and cook out the flour for 2/3 mins, stirring continuously – do not walk away.

Then tip your cold stock straight into the roux and whisk until smooth, then cook on a low heat for 30 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the mustard and cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

Fold your gammon, chicken and leeks into the sauce.

Top your sliced potatoes with seasoning and 2/3 knobs of butter, finish with a mixture of grated Red Leicester and mature Cheddar cheese. Bake as before.

Option 3 – somewhere in between

Omit the potato, butter and cheese topping and replace with a puff pastry lid. This option can also apply to Options 1 or 2. Bake as before. You could “hit the middle” and make Option 1 enriching the tinned soup by adding double cream. The world is your lobster.

So, for those sceptics among us who think that a slow-cooker is only capable of producing stews and casseroles I hope you might be persuaded otherwise.