Slow Cooker Katsu Curry

A promoted ad for the BBC Good Food website’s recipe for Easy Katsu Curry Chicken has inspired me to make a slow cooker katsu curry.

Yes I know one, if not the main, feature of Katsu Chicken is the crispy breadcrumbed finish.  But as we’ve never had this before who’s to know!

It is still blipping away in the slow cooker, and whilst the carrots and onions look quite presentable in the sauce, I probably will puree the sauce and thicken it with cornflour in a small saucepan before serving to avoid all evidence of vegetables.

This has a very mild curry flavour, and in fact reminds me of the curry sauce they serve in a chip shop!

Serves a hearty 4
8 chicken thighs

Sauce ingredients (from Gizzi Erskine’s recipe for Chicken Katsu Curry in The Independent)
1 tablespoon groundnut or vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
5 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon medium curry powder
600ml chicken stock
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 bay leaf
half a teaspoon garam masala

Turn on your slow cooker to heat up.  Brown the chicken thighs in a large frying pan.  Once browned, place the chicken in the slow cooker and fry the onion, carrot and garlic for a few minutes.  Add the curry powder & garam masala, stir once more to warm the spices, then scrape everything into the slow cooker and rinse the pan out with the boiling hot stock (or boiling water, adding the crumbled stock cube).  I added the honey and soy sauce here, but eating it 6 hours later I’m now thinking it would be best adding this right at the end before serving.

Cook for High for 4+ hours.  When just about ready to eat, remove the chicken thighs to a warmed bowl and transfer the liquid and stewed vegetables to a saucepan.  Remove the bay leaf and liquidise with a stick blender.  Mix the cornflour with about 1 tbsp water to a single cream consistency and add to the sauce it begins to simmer, stirring until it thickens.  Add the soy sauce and honey if you haven’t already and check for seasoning.

Slow Cooker Beef in Red Wine

It’s tipping it down outside, but I’m happy as I’ve just found the remains of Sunday’s beef stew and eaten it.

I did find another portion a few weeks ago at the bottom of the freezer and wondered if I could recreate it. But Dad took Sunday dinner into his own hands, as he does, and has managed to make a similarly tasty stew without knowing it.

With a slow cooker I think the trick is to leave most vegetables out. We just steamed some to have on the side later.

1kg stewing beef, shin (off the bone is cheaper), or ox cheek cut into bite sized pieces
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp plain flour
2 bay leaves
1 stick of cinnamon or a star anise (this gives a lovely warming tingle)
500ml red wine
Beef stock cube
Boiling water to top up
Cornflour to thicken

Toss the beef in the flour and brown in a frying pan. Place into the heating slow cooker then fry the onions and garlic, adding more oil if needed and fry until beginning to brown then add to the slow cooker. Heat the wine in the frying pan with the crumbled beef stock cube and scrape all the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan. Pour over the beef once it has come to the boil. Add the bay leaves and cinnamon or star anise if using and top up with boiling water so there is about 2cm covering the top of the beef.

Leave to cook on high for at least 6 hours. And something I’ve only recently learnt, try not to peek! It lowers the temperature and makes the cooking time even longer, and shin and ox cheek all the tenderising help they can get!

After 6 hours, when tender enough pour off the liquid into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Mix 2 heaped teaspoons of cornflour with a little water until it is the consistency of single cream and add to the simmering sauce to thicken. Return to the sauce to the meat in the slow cooker and season to taste.

Dad served ours with roast potatoes and parsnips as it was Sunday, but it works just as well with boiled or mashed potatoes or even pasta.

Simple Slow Cooker Venison Casserole…with Chocolate

I picked up a pack of casserole venison in our local butcher during the week as the ideal thing to put in the slow cooker on Saturday, to cook whilst we spent the afternoon in the rugby club celebrating the opening of the new pitches.

Not the cheapest meat, I opted only to buy a 500g pack between five of us and bulk it out with something.  I settled on this recipe with button mushrooms, as I am not a fan (as I might have mentioned) of overly stewed carrot and celery.   Only one child baulked at them.

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
500g casserole venison
1 medium onion, finely sliced
1 large clove of garlic, finely sliced
50g smoked bacon offcuts or 2 rashers smoked bacon, diced
200g button mushrooms
200ml red wine
1 beef stock cube, crumbled
1 tbsp redcurrant jelly
Boiling water

At the end of the cooking time:-
4 heaped tsp cornflour
4 cubes dark chocolate
Salt and pepper, to taste

Fry the cubed venison in the olive oil in batches to brown it.  When brown, place in the warming slow cooker.  Fry the onion, garlic, bacon and mushrooms in the pan after the venison.  When it begins to brown or catch add the wine, stock cube and redcurrant jelly.  Bring to the boil and pour into the slow cooker.  Top up with about 200ml boiling water so the meat is just peeking out.  Stir, cover, and leave on Auto for about 6-8 hours.

When ready to eat, pour back into the pan you used to fry everything in if still available.  Mix a little water into the cornflour until it is the consistency of double cream and stir into to the simmering stew to thicken.  Melt the chocolate into the sauce (mainly done to win the kids over admittedly), check the seasoning and serve with mashed potato, or pasta if you think you’ll still need additional help winning the kids over!

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Slow Cooker Chilli con Carne – New & Improved!

I cooked last night’s Halloween tea in the slow cooker.

I had presumed that I would take my standard chilli recipe and just leave it blipping away in the slow cooker until tea time.  But, as ever, I made a few tweeks as I went along.  The result was a beautifully rich chilli.  So much so I resolve to cook it this way every time in future.

1) Use cubed shin of beef or ox cheek.  This tough meet tenderises beautifully and the connective tissue, gristle, and fat (yep, you need this) melts with the slow cooking into a thick rich sauce.

2) Possibly a personal foible, but forget celery or carrots.  Whilst I happily add them to stove top chillis I have a personal grudge against slow cooked vegetables as they taste overly stewed.

3) Add a stock cube.  Slow cooked dishes tend to be a bit watery.  A stock cube adds an additional depth of flavour.

4) Tomato paste is a great thickener, and more added flavour, stirred in right at the end.

Serves 6
500g cubed shin of beef or ox/beef cheek
1 large onion
1 large clove of garlic
1 red pepper
1 tbsp sunflower oil
3 tsp cumin
3 tsp oregano
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 tin of kidney bean cooking water (if available)
2 tins kidney beans or 250g beans, soaked and pre-cooked
1tbsp red wine vinegar
1 beef stock cube
1/4 – 1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp sunflower or olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
Salt & pepper

Finely chop onion and garlic and fry gently in large frying pan with the oil.  Cube the meat if not already cubed.  If using ox cheek, slice off as much of the fat off in one piece as you can.  You should cook this with the meat, but leaving it as a large piece makes it more easy to remove it at the end of cooking!

When the onion has softened a little, push it to the side of the pan and add the beef in small handfuls.  Leave it as long as you can to brown, only moving it to make room for a later handful of beef.  Add the fat too. Dice the red pepper and stir this into the meat to fry for a few minutes.  Next time I might  chop this finely in a mini food processor as the red blobs were the only thing my kids grumbled about

Add the tomatoes, beans, 1 can full of bean cooking water or just plain water, cumin, oregano, vinegar, chilli, stock cube and bring to the boil.  Do not add salt or tomato paste until just before serving.

Tip everything into your slow cooker and cook on high for 6-8 hours. When ready to serve, add tomato paste to thicken a little and season to taste.  And whilst this has arguably taken a long time to cook already, we discovered last night that the flavour is better still if left to stand for an hour or so after the first helping was served to the kids.

I usually serve ours up with rice or baked potatoes.  And a generous handful of grated mature cheddar cheese.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry