Slow Cooked Chunky Beef Chilli

I love chilli made with minced beef but I love this recipe even more with meltingly soft and tender chunks of beef in a rich, spicy sauce.  You get far more texture and variety making chilli this way and the slow cooking makes the flavour awesome.  Smoked paprika may sound like an odd ingredient but it gives a sweet smoky depth to the stew.  Just make sure you use sweet smoked paprika or test the flavour first as you can get spicy versions.

Chilli flakes and powders vary (mine was a pretty new jar and the more recently the jar or pack is opened, the spicier it will be) so you may find this less spicy than you like.  My top tip though is to use some tabasco or other hot sauce to bring up the spice at the end if you feel that it needs it.  The problem with slow cooking is it tends to intensify the flavours of chilli so it's easy to end up with a chilli at the end which is more "blow your head off" than "gently warming" so I'd err on the side of cautious then correct the flavour at the end.  The other benefit being you then have a more multidimensional flavour.

Slow Cooked Chinese Style Pork

I had some pork belly strips in the fridge and wanted to treat them so they'd end up in a sweet, sticky and spicy glaze.  This is what I came up with, with the crunchy vegetables it turned out to be a delicious feast.

Beef Pot Roast

Pot roasts.  Gloriously, flavourful, delicious, falling apart beef gorgeousness.  Are you with me yet?

Is it pretty?  Not really unless you love hunks of meat (sorry veggies, sometimes I do, everything in moderation).  Does it taste great?  Absolutely.

I have to get my disclaimer in first.  There is no making a pot roast for one.  There, I've said it.  So why am I posting this recipe?  Well despite the fact I made this in my weeny household, I did seriously cook 1kg of beef and it was so blooming tasty I certainly didn't mind eating leftovers for a few days but see tips towards the end for more on that.

Mixed Bean Chilli

I love chilli, I particularly love vegetarian chilli, slow cooked meat chillis, frankly I just love the heat.  What is great about this chilli though is as well as being vegan, it also contains mostly store cupboard and "likely to be in your fridge" ingredients.  It's so cheap as well and freezes brilliantly making it the ideal recipe for when the month is nearly up and your bank balance doesn't look quite so healthy.

You could mix up the beans in this; I would have used pinto beans if I'd been organised enough to soak and cook them (I couldn't find any in cans in my local supermarket.)  Of course you can use dried beans here which would make this even cheaper, just soak and cook them first as I find cooking them with something acidic like tomato if they're not already cooked through makes them a little tough.

Venison and Chestnut Stew

When the weather is chilly outside, I often look to my slow cooker for something delicious, hearty and filling.  Venison may not be the most obvious choice but I bought some wild venison from my local supermarket.  Some people get very squeamish about eating it presumably because deer are prettier than cows?  I don't.  We have several deer parks in the UK and deer are a pest in many areas, especially Scotland.  I also can't see a better life to lead than a completely wild one.

That said, venison is a lean, delicious meat but not a cheap one.  This is why I bought cheap pieces of venison for slow cooking and also had the idea to include chestnuts.  I've included chestnuts once or twice in stews before and if you've not tried it, I urge you to.  They add a textural difference and a delicious, sweet note, they also make 300g of expensive venison into 3 portions.

Slow cooked lamb curry

This is a cracking frugal recipe which you could adapt to what you have available.  It makes the most out of quite a small amount of lamb.

If your lamb is on the bone, cook it in the curry bones and all and take them out later (if you like) as this improves the flavour.

Beef and Mushroom Pie

Slow cooking is not the most obvious thing to do when cooking for one but actually the great thing about it is that it always freezes well and is adaptable.  You can serve as a stew or as an awesome pie like this.

Game stew

Now autumn feels like it's properly here.  I love summer but the first flushes of autumn with stews, pies, traditional puddings are like the coziness of coming home.  Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, at the end moving into winter, the crisp cold, maybe snow.  The older I get the more I look forward to every season and everything it brings.

The dried mushrooms in this massively add to the flavour.  Without them, it wouldn't be the same, it wouldn't have the depth of flavour so I really would give it a go.

This was going to be a game pie and it would be fabulous to make into a pie filling if you prefer.  I was just too lazy and my son liked the smell of it so he wanted to taste it straight away (it was a hit with the 6 year old too!)

Individual Cottage Pie

This was made at the request of my son who loves his traditional food.  I have to admit it was pretty lovely.

This is an unusual recipe for me because it makes 3-4 small portions but it's easy to freeze before baking with the mashed potato on top, then defrost prior to cooking; add the cheese and bake.

Slow cooked lamb shanks

Lamb shanks might not sound like the most romantic of meals but providing your other half is a meat eater there is something that feels pretty special about it.

I mean look at that?  Meltingly tender meat with lovely fresh vegetables.  That's romance on a plate that is!

Alternatively if you are on your own, this is a great special meal or Sunday Lunch option.  I cooked two shanks together and took the meat off the second one, serving with leftover gravy and vegetables heated in a microwave at work (in front of jealous stares.)

Leftovers pie

We all end up cooking too much on Christmas Day.  In a lot of ways I wished when I saw my groaning table I'd joined up with Spare Chair Sunday but I know that a lot of you are looking for something to use up those Christmas goodies.

I've not tried this with other stuffings but I'm sure anything meaty would work.  Sometimes I include the cooked butternut squash, sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I include other vegetables like peas or you could include left over vegetables too.

Slow Cooked Turkey with Haricot Beans

I love my slow cooker.  It even gets used throughout the summer for filling but summer friendly dishes like chillis but in autumn, winter and colder days of spring is where it comes into it's own.

For years I was stuck in a rut of only cooking cheap beef cuts in mine, I ventured into lamb and mutton (curried this is fantastic) and had brief and delicious forays into pork but poultry is not something I've tried much.

When shopping one day I saw a pack of boned turkey thigh.  Is there anything more comforting than turkey?  It just makes me think of lying on the sofa, cosy watching TV after Christmas lunch.

So I gave it a go using beans to add a bit of interest but also a great source of fibre and one of your five a day.

Pork and Chorizo Chilli

I bought some pork shoulder on a whim thinking I'd slow cook it but then I changed my mind on the garlic and mustard dish I was planning and improvised a slow cooked chunky pork chilli and man it was good.  You could also use pork belly I would think for this but it would make it less healthy.  Ok, chorizo isn't the healthiest thing but with masses of beans, this isn't so bad either and really thrifty (and most importantly tasty).

Chicken Stew

Sunday lunches.  Used to be Mum would be in the kitchen getting ready for lunch, Dad would be in the pub, having a few pre lunch pints.  Or perhaps that was just my household!  Saturday and Sunday lunches aren't really the mainstay they once were but that doesn't mean with our busy lives we shouldn't sit down, eat something hearty and appreciate each others company once a week.  Even if you live on your own or there's just two of you, it's still worth cooking a Sunday Lunch.

What's great about doing something in a slow cooker though is you can still get on with your busy life (whether that means taking a child to swimming lessons, football, rugby or just that you get to go down the pub!)  In the meantime, the slow cooker is happily bubbling away with no need for input from you and what's even better, a slow cooker uses much lower electricity than an oven.

The BEST ribs you've EVER tasted!

Ribs in the slow cooker is not something I'd done before.  Previously I'd always slow roasted them but I had a busy day, important things to do, ok, it was shopping.

The idea behind this recipe is to slow cook the ribs, a really cheap cut of meat, to melting tenderness and then add the sticky glaze and finish in the oven.  Using a slow cooker when cooking for one may seem like a waste of energy but this is the great thing; most slow cooker meals are great frozen and reheated, by freezing after the slow cooker stage but before the oven, it makes it possible to have these delicious ribs ready in 20 minutes after a day at work.  How good is that?  What's more, slow cooking in an oven uses loads of energy but a slow cooker is much more efficient.  Now I've tried these, I don't think I'm going to make ribs any other way.

Beef Ragu

I am currently running down my freezer stock because I need to move it in a few days time as I'm getting the paint brush out.  I had the idea for this after defrosting some beef and thinking I wanted to do something different with it than the usual stewed beef in beer.  If it seems odd having chunks of meat with pasta, think of it like a chunkier bolognese.

Don't dismiss slow cookers when cooking for one, almost everything you make in a slow cooker reheats well and this is no exception.  Also you won't get that "I'm bored" feeling because you could eat this as a stew or with pasta, or mix with pinto beans and tabasco for a cheats chilli.  If you do get bored, stick leftovers in the freezer.