Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker Read Online Free PDF Page B

without getting the cloth wet. It should come no more than two-thirds up the way of the ramekins.
    Put the lid on the slow cooker and steam the pudding on high for 6–7 hours. Some people boil their rag puddings directly in water, but I found that it made the dough heavy and wet. Steaming in the slow cooker, however, created a melt-in-the-mouth pudding.
    Lift the pudding out using the string and unwrap it. Serve it sliced with Mushy Peas (see here ) and lashings of Easy Tomato Ketchup (see here ).

MEAT RAGU
    You might know this as the humble Bolognese sauce, but I think it’s much more versatile than simply dolloping it onto spaghetti. Few dishes have their authenticity examined as much as this one, but the one thing it really needs is slow cooking.
    I have adapted my recipe via famed Italian cook Marcella Hazan’s rules and my dad’s influence to make this rich, tasty version. There is no garlic in mine as it dominates, but lots of parsley stalks. Marcella’s suggestion of using milk to neutralise the acidity of the tomatoes is fabulous. Because my dad never used it, there’s no pancetta in my ragu.
    It is a dish that needs slow cooking and would always have it in Italy, so while the ingredients aren’t that different to the ones used to make the quick midweek version, they are so much more than the sum of their parts. I make a big batch and use the leftovers in cannelloni, lasagne or with creamy slow-cooked polenta instead of pasta. I never tire of this ragu.
    SERVES 2–4 WITH LEFTOVERS
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    2 stalks of celery, finely diced
    2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
    1 large onion, finely diced
    ½ bunch of fresh parsley stalks, finely chopped
    500g beef mince (or 250g pork and 250g beef mince)
    50ml milk
    ¼ teaspoon fresh nutmeg or ground mace
    2 × 400g tins chopped tomatoes
    1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée
    75ml wine (red or white)
    1 bay leaf
    salt and pepper
    Start the dish by warming the olive oil in the crock for about 10 minutes. Add the celery, carrot, onion and parsley stalks, which should all be diced and chopped to the same size for ease of cooking. The parsley stalks are more robust than the leaves so better for slow cooking, but impart the same flavour.
    Coat the vegetables well in the oil and then add the mince. If you can, use the mixture of the meats. It makes a wonderfully light yet rich ragu that’s hard to beat, but if you only use beef on its own it will stilll be delicious.
    Stir the mince well and combine with the vegetables. It won’t brown in the slow cooker, which gives a softer quality to the ragu than you might be used to if you brown the meat in a pan. Add the milk and stir well. It will start to absorb into the meat almost immediately and it lends a creaminess to the meat and stops the tomatoes from being slightly acidic.
    Season the mixture well with salt and black pepper. Add the nutmeg or mace. You want enough of it to flavour the ragu, but not too much that it defines the taste of the whole dish.
    Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée and the wine. Stir well to make sure everything is evenly distributed and add the bay leaf. Put the lid on and cook the ragu on low for 8–9 hours at least. It won’t harm it to have an hour or two more if you have the chance. In fact, for even slower cooking, the ragu is best allowed to cool, left overnight in the fridge and eaten the next day when the flavours have intensified. However, it’s still the best ragu you’ve ever had when served straight away.

CREAMY CANNELLONI
    These cannelloni use the Meat Ragu here . I add some red chilli flakes then top the pasta tubes with a creamy white sauce (velouté) to keep the whole dish moist. The pasta cooks comparatively quickly for the slow cooker, making this a meal I can avail myself of any time. I succumb to the cannelloni temptation quite often, not just because it’s delicious, but because it allows me to have fun with a piping bag to fill the tubes.
    SERVES 2–4 DEPENDING ON