go slow

Now it's autumn I'm entitled to bring out the slow cooker again. Hurrah! I used it for the first time on Saturday to do my leg of lamb studded with garlic and anchovies, and oh, it was good. Now, a friend of mine reckons that nearly everything that comes out of a slow cooker tastes the same, which I tend to agree with - so I thought I'd try something different this time. 

I sliced a brown onion finely and made a bed on the bottom of the slow cooker, threw in a few bay leaves on top and then, after studding the meat with the garlic and anchovies, I browned it in a pan. I place the meat in the cooker on its bed of onions and bay then deglazed the pan with a half a cup of white wine (sauv blanc actually). I ground pepper over top of the lamb, poured the wine over top and then let it slowly cook for nine hours. 

It ended up with a whole, new taste. Not slow cooker taste, nor slowly cooked in the french oven taste - a bit of a combo of both. Very tender and tasty. We only ate half the lamb, so I had enough to make lamb and bacon pie for dinner {and caused my child to leap up and down in delight!}. Now, if I were an intelligent person I would have saved the onions and broth from the lamb in the slow cooker as stock for the pie. 

I'm not an intelligent person.

Tonight, I'm having my in-laws for dinner so I'm making beef bourginon in the slow cooker. I've had big chunks of steak marinating overnight in red wine, garlic and bouquet garni and now I'm off to fry up some bacon and throw it in the slow cooker with the meat, marinade, carrots, french shallots and sliced onions. With an hour to go I'll saute some button mushrooms and throw them in. I'll serve it with vegies and a baguette, and for pudding I'll make individual apple pies in ramekins - served with cream. Mmmmmmm. {But I'll cheat and only put pastry on the top layer so it's nice and crispy}