More Slow Cooking: Recipes from The Australian Women’s Weekly, 2012
A generation of family cooks have benefitted from this hugely reliable culinary team, whose magazines, (dubbed weekly but actually monthly) have been a source of tips, classic and trendy recipes, new gadgets, ingredients, techniques and more for many decades.
Their magazines and cookbooks, in demand across the southern hemisphere, resulted in my fielding dozens of calls from Cape Argus readers asking for substitutes for Aussie ingredients unknown to South African cooks.
The last quarter of the year is usually hectic at home and at work, with sporting and extra-mural activities crowding the school calendar. Just the time to get out the slow cooker: working parents can leave home in the morning, knowing that this clever and safe machine will greet them at night with an inviting aroma and a nutritious, delicious supper.
Provided the cook takes a little trouble to start with, such as browning the meat and adding flour to thicken the mix, the slow cooker can become a reliable friend. Thrift is another advantage, as slow cookers deal with the cheaper, tougher meat cuts with panache and results are never burnt.
A good example is the poule-au-pot, where a raw chicken is placed in the slow cooker, surrounded by carrots, turnips, onions, topped with potatoes, seasoned with bay leaf, thyme and peppercorns and covered with liquid. The machine does its thing, slowly, on low, for eight hours, presenting the family with a fragrant and tender Gallic classic.
If your family prefers their birds poached Asian style, there’s a version sparked with soy and sesame, ginger, garlic, chilli, finished with fresh coriander.
Robust soups, lamb, beef and pork and vegetarian stews are predictable recipes.
But the slow cooker can be used for pasta dishes like lasagna, and rice-based classics such as biryani and paella too. For those entertaining from small kitchens, it’s great to know that the slow cooker can be put to making desserts, such as crème caramel, steamed chocolate cake, sour cream cheesecake and – right in season – a croissant custard pud with macerated strawberries.
The book also includes slow-cooked recipes for top of the stove and oven – those for poultry are particularly appealing, offering affordable and flavourful fare that will look after itself while cooking slowly.
Looking ahead to festive catering, the slow-roasted turkey with wild rice seasoning could be just the ticket for harried cooks faced with 10 guests for Christmas dinner.
Every recipe is photographed in colour and the index is comprehensive. This is a hardback that will become a well-used family friend. - Weekend Argus