… ever since Janice started the Slow-Cooked Challenge over on the brilliant Farmersgirl Kitchen I have lamented the fact that I didn’t have an actual slow-cooker, so much so that she even changed the rules of the challenge just so I could join in… My friends and neighbours all sing the praises of the slow cooker and over the years I have thought about getting myself one but just never got round to it… I often cook long and slow roasted meals in a conventional oven so I never really thought i’d need an actual slow cooker and that I wasn’t really missing much… how wrong could I have been? This week, to celebrate the long-running Crocktober campaign, the good people at CrockPot, the original slow-cooker makers, offered me a Crock-Pot 4.7L Countdown Slow Cooker to trial and review, so now, not only have I spent the best part of the week creating the most wonderful slow-cooked meals but i’m afraid, Janice, you’ll just have to change the rules back…
slow-cooked vegetable and lentil stew with polenta dumplings
as you can imagine I did a lot of ‘slow-cooker’ reading and research over the past week. It’s quite incredible how vast the slow cooker world is out there, it’s almost like a cult. This is a great thing for a novice however as there is a vast plethora of recipes and guides to using the slow cooker… maybe too much information as I did get a little overwhelmed in the end and just decided to go for it and treat it like I would a regular oven, just slower… The one thing I felt was really lacking, although there were a few, was a decent vegetarian stew. The thing about the slow cooker is that not only does it allow you to have a pot of beautiful food waiting for you on the return home from a long day but it also works wonders on meats, tenderising the fuck out of them in a glorious way, so there are a lot of meat recipes out there and the vegetable ones tend to be side-lined and very ‘American’ and I wanted something traditional… it was beautifully easy and completely delicious and I feel that i’ve discovered something new in my polenta dumplings that i’m very pleased with…
for the stew
1 large onion – roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic – crushed
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
2 large sticks of celery – chopped
2 large carrots – chopped
1/2 swede – peeled and chopped
8 or 10 baby pearl potatoes – halved
half a savoy cabbage – chopped
150g red lentils
3/4 litre of good quality vegetable stock with 3 teaspoons of gravy powder in in
1/4 litre white wine
salt and pepper
fresh herbs of your choice – I used rosemary and thyme
for the polenta dumplings
50g vegetable suet
80g self-raising flour
50g polenta
80ml cold water
a pinch of salt
a little extra flour for your hands
heat a little olive oil in a pan and gently sauté the onions until soft, add the garlic and dried herb and let them gently turn golden
pour the cooked onions into the slow cooker, add the rest of the veg, lentils and stock and cook in the slow cooker for 6 hours on low – you’ll add the fresh herbs and any more seasoning in the last hour
in the last half hour, make the dumplings by combing the ingredients in a bowl and forming 6 small dumplings – you may need to flour your hands
place the dumplings on the top of the stew, replace the lid and let them cook for at least half an hour
… not only did the lovely folk at Crock-Pot give me a slow-cooker to cook with but they have very generously given me a Crock-Pot 4.7L Countdown Slow Cooker and Crock-Pot Warmer RRP: £74.98 to give away to one lucky Belleau Kitchen reader… all you have to do is fill in the clever little rafflecopter widget below and let me know what you’d cook in yours…
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eat and of course, enjoy!
