Tag: white wine

• 

  PK’s Slow Cooked Rabbit Soup

  This one is just for Dad because my kids are big into Peter Rabbit at the moment. 🙂 Rabbit soup is just as easy to make as chicken soup, especially if you use a slow cooker.

  Note: Rabbit is a lean meat that makes for a very light healthy soup.

  Simply

  1. Cut up your rabbit like so.
  2. Chop up your vegetables, I used onion, celery, carrot, green beans and coriander roots.
  3. Add some bay leaves, a sprig of thyme and a hearty slash of dry white wine.
  4. Throw everything into your slow cooker (medium heat) with 4 cups rabbit stock (any stock will do actually) and 4 cups water.
  5. Add some duck fat if you like as it helps keep the meat moist.
  6. Wait for 4 – 6 hours, stirring occasionally.
  7. Pull the meat off the bones (turn the latter into bone meal for a great soil improver), returning it to the slow cooker.

  Serving

  It just needs a bowl, some cracked pepper and crusty bread drowned in butter. 🙂

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

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  Written by

  PK

  ·

  May 2, 2018

• 

  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Osso Buco Slow Cooker

  Considering how much I love lamb shanks I am surprised it took me this long to cook Osso Buco for the first time. I always use Hugh’s recipe for the shanks (River Cottage’s Citrus Braised Lamb Shanks) so it is a no surprise I am using his Osso Buco Alla Milanese.

  You will be using thick slices of beef or veal shins with the shin bone still present. Look at the beautiful rich colour.

  

  The result was tender beef that was falling off the bone and a lovely sauce that was hearty but less fatty than you would get cooking with lamb.

  Note: Pop this on early in the day because it might take 6 hours or more on your slow cooker’s medium setting.

  You will be:

  1. Preparing everything
  2. Sealing the beef shins
  3. Sweating the vegetables
  4. Slow cooking everything
  5. Serving

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • 4 – 6 slices of beef shin with the bone still in the middle (about 1.3kg)
    • enough plain white flour to coat the shins
    • table salt and cracked black peppercorns to taste
    • 50g salted butter
    • A couple of slugs olive oil
    • 2 garlic cloves, diced
    • 2 celery sticks and their leaves, chopped
    • 2 brown onions, chopped
    • 1 carrot, chopped
    • A handful of snow peas, whole
    • 2 cups dry white wine
    • 2 cups stock (I have used homemade Slow Cooker Chicken Stock and Italian Beef Stock: Brodo Di Manzo but use anything you have to hand)
    • A handful of chopped mushrooms (optional)
  •  Equipment:
    • 1 long sharp knife
    • 1 chopping board
    • 1 frypan
    • 1 slow cooker

  Preparing everything

  1. While you  let the beef shins come to room temperature prepare the:
     • 2 garlic cloves, diced
     • 2 celery sticks chopped
     • 2 brown onions, chopped
     • 1 carrot, chopped
     • a handful of snow peas, whole
  2. Dry the beef shin slices with paper towel, season with salt and pepper and then dust them in the flour.

  

  

  Sealing the beef shins

  1. Turn your slow cooker on to high, add a slug of olive oil and cover.
  2. Melt the 50g of salted butter in a frypan and then add a good slug of olive oil.
  3. Brown both sides of the shins (if they start to curl on you during cooking, clip the outer ring of connective tissue with kitchen shears).
  4. Add them to the slow cooker.

  

  

  Sweating the vegetables

  1. Add the 2 cups white wine and the 2 cups of stock to the same frypan and bring to a gentle boil.
  2. Reduce the heat to low and then add the vegetables.
  3. Cook until they soften and then add everything to the slow cooker.

  

  Slow cooking everything

  Turn the slow cooker down to medium or low and cover. Mine took 6 hours before the beef was ready.

  Serving

  Serve on a bed of basmati rice with extra vegetables and some of Hugh’s gremolata.

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Related Links:

  • see all recipes using beef here
  • see all slow cooker dishes here
  • see more River Cottage posts here

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  September 22, 2017

• 

  PK’s Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

  This mouth-watering dish is designed to be super thrifty and dead easy to boot. I managed to use some old tired veggies and to get a free-range chook on special. I am also happy to say it took longer to eat the dish than it did to prepare it.

  I simply took a whole chicken, patted it dry and stuffed it with a whole lemon. I then rubbed a very generous amount of garlic salt, celery salt, ground black pepper and parsley flakes into the skin. The bird then went into a slow cooker that already had a bed of roughly chopped onions, carrots, a whole garlic bulb and a cup of white wine.

  

  8 hours on low and the meat was moist and falling off the bone 🙂 . I was very pleased because chicken is a lean meat and can dry out in a slow cooker if you are not careful.

  

  

  Serving

  I served it with some extra steamed vegetables on a bed of white basmati rice.

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

  P.S. I have a oven variant of this recipe here.

  And here are some more chicken dishes and slow cooker recipes: 

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  Written by

  PK

  ·

  September 15, 2017

• 

  PK Makes River Cottage’s Citrus Braised Lamb Shanks

  Everyone has a dish that they feel slightly guilty about. Guilty because somehow it turns out exceptionally good every single time.  This is mine and it has magical powers :).

  It is originally from the hit Channel 4 series and books, ‘River Cottage’ and I merely adapted it to work in a slow cooker. I like dishes that are a bit different and I prefer this lighter white wine and citrus version over traditional red wine based lamb shank recipes.

  River Cottage’s Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstool can’t have known its romantic power when he added this dish to his cookbook though, surely not. It was the first meal I cooked for my wife to be and she fell madly in love with me. That’s the magical bit and might contradict her version of events :).

  You will be:

  1. Sweating the vegetables in the slow cooker.
  2. Browning the lamb shanks and deglazing the frypan.
  3. Cooking it slow.
  4. Serving.

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • 4 lamb shanks
    • 2 carrots
    • 1 large brown onion
    • 2 celery sticks
    • 2 bay leaves
    • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
    • a few sprigs of fresh thyme or lemon thyme
    • a small handful of parsley or celery leaves, chopped
    • 1 large orange
    • 1 large lemon
    • half a bottle of white wine (I used a Sauvignon blanc)
    • 1 cup of home made stock (I used chicken stock as that was all I had) or 1 cup water
    • several slugs of olive oil
    • a good slug of tomato paste
    • ground rock salt to taste
    • cracked black peppercorns to taste
    • 0.5 Tbsp whole black peppercorns (optional)
    • A handful of small or chopped mushrooms (optional)
  •  Equipment:
    • a chopping board
    • a long sharp knife
    • kitchen tongs
    • a wooden spoon
    • a citrus zester
    • a citrus juicer
    • a large frypan
    • a slow cooker

  Steps:

  Sweating the vegetables in the slow cooker

  1. Put a slug of olive oil into your slow cooker and turn it on high, lid on.
  2. Rough chop the:
     • 2 carrots.
     • 2 celery sticks.
     • handful of parsley or celery leaves.
  3. Finely slice the 1 large brown onion.
  4. Finely chop the 2 garlic cloves.
  5. Add the above to your slow cooker to start them softening up, lid on (mix everything around occasionally).
  6. Once the onions have started to soften, throw in the 2 bay leaves and the sprigs of thyme.
  7. If you like a bit of peppery kick, chuck 0.5 Tbsp of black peppercorns in too.
  8. Juice and then zest the lemon and the orange and add to the slow cooker (retain some of the mixed juice and zest for serving time).
  9. Add the 1 cup of stock or 1 cup of water and mix gently.
  10. Add a good slug of tomato paste.
  11. Add a handful of small mushrooms now if you are using them.

  I love seeing ingredients together like this:

  

  Nice and soft:

  

   

  Browning the lamb shanks and deglazing the frypan

  1. Season the 4 lamb shanks with salt and pepper.
  2. Chuck another slug of olive oil into the pan and bring to medium heat.
  3. Slightly brown every surface of the shanks. Yep, even the ends with a bit of creative meat stacking :).
  4. Then add them to the slow cooker.
  5. I now deglaze the frypan with half a bottle of white wine. When boiling I then add it to the slow cooker.
  6. If the slow cooker looks a bit full don’t panic. Everything will shrink down as it cooks :).

  

  Cooking it slow

  1. Turn your slow cooker to medium and cook for at least 2 hours using kitchen tongs to periodically move the shanks around.
  2. Now you can keep the slow cooker on medium for speed or turn it down to low for a slower cook (my preference).
  3. When the meat is literally falling of the bone, when you are giving it a gentle mix with the kitchen tongs, it is ready.

   Serving

  I generally serve the shanks on a bed of mashed potato with some steamed green vegetables alongside. This time though I cooked my PK’s NoRecipe Oven Baked Potatoes and served the shanks on the bone with some greens.

  Remember how we set aside some mixed zest and juice? Sprinkle a bit of the zest and then drizzle some juice over each serve to freshen the citrus flavours and aromas.

  On or off the bone this dish is visually appealing:

  

  

  Make this dish for someone you love,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  February 17, 2017