SLOW COOKED SUNDAY ROASTS - Slow Cooking for Two - Lori Jimenes

Slow Cooking for Two: The Ultimate Guide to Slow Cooking With 45 Easy to Prepare Recipes for Two - Lori Jimenes (2016)

Chapter 4. SLOW COOKED SUNDAY ROASTS

As we said in the introduction, you can slow cook your meals using the oven as well; to do so, you will first always need to sear the meat at high temperature for 5 minutes in a pan; then cook it for 24 hours in the oven. This will give you the best meat roasts you have ever tasted; there is a scientific reason for it; the fibres of muscles break apart (making the meat tender) when they are cooked; however, if you cook them with temperatures past 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) the fibres do not stay loose, but form knots as soon as the meat cools down, making your meat tough; instead, if you cook your meat at 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit), they will remain loose and tender.

All the dishes in this chapter can also be cooked with a crock pot, slow cooker or with a saucepan as well, but it makes sense to have a separate chapter for dishes that you can also slow cook in the oven. If you do not want to use the oven, each recipe will have a different timing for the oven and for slow cookers, and you can skip the first part of the recipe, where the meat is seared at high temperature. However, if you want to have that ‘roast flavour’ we are all so used to, you can try using the oven instead. Remember that if you decide to cook these recipes in the oven, you will have to prepare them on Saturday to eat them on Sunday.

36. Slow cooked roast boar

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Roast boar[36]

If you want to really treat yourself, go to a farmers’ market and buy some wild boar meat to roast; it is leaner and has more flavour than pork, and if you slow roast it or slow cook it, it will be so tender that it will literally melt in your mouth. This is a gourmet recipe, so, maybe it is not something to have every Sunday, but if you decide to try this astonishing dish, use good quality full bodied red wine (not your average cheap red cooking wine), something like a Barolo or a Burgundy, as its bouquet transfer to the meat and make it taste literally heavenly. This recipe can take up to 2 days to prepare, so, it really is not your ‘last minute’ Sunday roast.

Ingredients:

400 grammes (1 pound) of wild boar for roast

3 apples

6 medium shallots

A large carrot

A bottle of full bodied red wine

A stalk of celery

A bunch of thyme

4 fresh rosemary twigs

10 fresh sage leaves

200 grammes (7 oz) of baby potatoes

120 grammes (4 oz) of black olives

2 chilli peppers

12 bay leaves

40 ml (2 tablespoons) of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Serves 2

Preparation:

Cooking time: 24 hours in the oven, 12 hours in a crock pot or slow cooker; add 12 hours to marinade the boar.

Peel and chop the shallots very finely.

Peel and chop the carrot very finely.

Chop the celery finely.

Cut the chilli peppers in the middle, remove the seeds and chop the, very finely.

Put the boar meat in a bowl, cover it with the wine and add the shallot, the chilli, the celery and the carrot.

Cover the bowl with cling film and marinate the boar overnight.

Cut the apples into 4 slices and core them.

Chop the thyme.

Heat a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan.

Remove the boar from the marinade and sear it on all sides at high temperature (you don’t need to do this unless you are roasting it in the oven).

Pour the marinade into an oven dish, in your crock pot, in your slow cooker or in your saucepan.

Add the rosemary, the bay leaves and the thyme.

Add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

Add the potatoes, the apples and the olives.

Add the boar, cover with a lid and cook for 24 hours at 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit) in the oven or on low heat for 12 hours in a crock pot, slow cooker or saucepan.

5 minutes before serving, remove the wine sauce and reduce it in a frying pan before serving.

37. Slow cooked roast pheasant

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Roast pheasant[37]

It’s not every day that we eat pheasant; in fact some of us have never even tried this wonderful meat… If you know where to get pheasant (it is quite common in the countryside and at farmers’ markets), you may know that it is a much more savoury meat than chicken or turkey and it is much leaner as well. As it is not something most people eat every week, you may want to take your time cooking it. Here is a delicious recipe for you.

Ingredients:

An average size pheasant, whole

60 grammes (2 oz) of dry porcini mushrooms (cep)

180 grammes (6 oz) of fresh honey agaric mushrooms

200 grammes (7 oz) of new potatoes

2 medium onions

3 cloves of garlic

2 glasses of good quality, full bodied red wine

A large carrot

A stalk of celery

10 bay leaves

3 fresh twigs of rosemary

120 grammes (4 oz) of chopped tomatoes

300 ml (half a pint) of chicken stock

40 ml (2 tablespoons) of extra virgin olive oil.

Salt and pepper.

Serves 2

Preparation:

Cooking time: 24 hours in the oven or 12 hours in a crock pot, slow cooker or saucepan.

Put the dry porcini mushrooms in a bowl of lukewarm water to soak for at least 15 minutes.

Peel and chop the onions finely.

Peel and chop the carrots finely.

Cut the celery into small pieces.

Peel and crush the garlic.

Peel and cut the potatoes into cubes (about 1 inch or 2.5 cm in size).

Put a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and heat it on high temperature (this is only necessary if you are oven roasting the pheasant).

Sear the pheasant thoroughly for about 5 minutes.

Put a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in your oven dish, crock pot or slow cooker.

Add the carrot, the onion, the celery and the garlic.

Add the pheasant and the wine and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes if you are not using the oven.

Add the stock, the chopped tomatoes, the potatoes, the mushrooms, the rosemary and the bay leaves.

Season and cook for 24 hours at 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit) if you are roasting it in the oven or for 12 hours on low heat if you are using a crock pot or slow hear.