Your Autumn Treasure Chest (ATC) … slow cooking spree

If you're not familiar with slow cookers, or crock-pots in the USA, it's a method of cooking that you'll find very useful, particularly through the Autumn and Winter.

What follows gives you basic hints and tips and then a series of recipes and how to fill your Treasure Chest.

First up, the boring bits - the hints and tips :

You can slow cook all sorts of stuff apart from meat and poultry – soups, veggies, desserts, the world is your lobster!

I've used mine, all three of them in various sizes, principally for meat and poultry.

Cheaper cuts of meat take longer to cook to become tender and flavoursome.

For example, beef cheeks (or pigs' cheeks) are now popular, braised for 8 hours they melt in your mouth. Cuts of meat like shin and skirt make great casseroles or pie fillings. You're using cuts that come from the hard working muscles of the animal.

Two other cuts I'd recommend :

Lamb shanks – fashionable these days. I slow cook 4-6 (depending on the size of the shank) at a time. You can either leave in tact or strip and then freeze. Place a defrosted whole shank in a pre-heated oven so that the outside can brown.

Pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6. Wrap the shank in foil and bake for 20 minutes, remove the foil and let the shank brown for a further 15 minutes.

The meat from the shank falls away and is tender and sweet. Bear in mind that when you slow cook meat containing a bone it will take longer.

Ham hock is another cut that is perfect for slow cooking and its uses are many and varied. If you want to be cheffy you can turn it into a terrine. Strip it and leave in sizeable chunks to partner your slow cooked chicken as a pie base. Pea and ham soup anyone?

I've used a slow cooker for years and still apply the same principles as I've always done (which does not include the whole chicken recipe – rules are meant to be broken!). I seal my meat/poultry before it goes into the slow cooker and although these days you can buy slow cookers that are suitable for hob to hotplate I use a frying pan to seal – I know it creates washing up but the method in my madness is that I can set aside the protein and then use the juices in the pan adding stock and whatever else I feel like, de-glazing and getting the best flavour possible. I can see what I'm doing too.

Don't overfill with liquid – as a guide half to two thirds maximum.

Thickening. I'm not a lover of coating meat in flour and then sealing it. As far as I'm concerned you're slow cooking the coating and not the meat. I prefer to thicken with a teaspoon or two of slaked cornflour at the end of the cooking time.

If you don't own a slow cooker you might be tempted to buy a small version. It's my experience that you'll regret it – if you are cooking for yourself but feed family and friends too it's the perfect vehicle for saving you time, effort and of course dosh.

I find that stainless steel and a separate hotplate is most practical for me. I can decant from the slow cooker to freeze but leave enough for a meal and then transfer the cooker to my hob to re-heat later.

There are lots to choose from so take your time!

P.s. If you're new to this slow cooking malarkey invest in a slow cooking recipe book. There are some excellent ones out there – Lakeland publish at least two.