So…I did it! I popped my slow cooker cherry! Was it all I hoped it would be? Did it live up to the hype? Kind of like most things *ahem* done for the first time, it needs to be worked on, experimented with, but I know I am onto a winner. We just have to work each other out, me and my cooker.
So what did I go for? Well…after much deliberation, I decided on a whole leg of lamb (which doesn’t really seem like the usual curry or stew that would be ideal for the cooker ) but I had a hankering nonetheless, so went with it. I scoured the web for hints and tips – to add liquid or not to, how long, to brown off before adding to the cooker or not, to roast in the oven at the end, or not. You know?
So here was my version. Made up from instinct, and from tweaking variations found all over the web:
1.3kg leg of lamb
Rosemary
1 x Garlic knob (incidentally I used some weird version where the whole knob was one clove?!)
Salt & Pepper
Lemon juice & zest of 1 lemon
1x Carrot
2 x sticks of celery
1 x brown onion
6 x potatoes
1 x sweet potato
Half cup dry white wine
Firstly I browned off the onions, carrot and celery in a pan just to add in some extra flavour. Then once these had sweated off & got some colour I added to bottom of the slow cooker.
Then I peeled potatoes and sweet potato and added into next layer of cooker (kept quite large as I knew over time they could break down)
In my mortar & pestle I mixed up the whole clove of garlic, lemon juice & zest, plenty of salt & pepper and rosemary until it was a (kind of) paste.
Daisy helped in this process and then afterwards made up quite the potion of potato peel, and lemon juice and all other kinds of things. Harper watched.
I then placed the lamb on top, poured over the wine, added the lid and put on high for 5 hours (I didn’t have enough time to have on slow which I think would have been a better option).
I then forgot to take a picture of how it looked after the 5 hours but picture a greyish colour. I then decided to put into a hot 200 degree oven for 15 mins for colour. I also added the potatoes as well to crisp up – the scan pan roaster (as always) did NOT let me down.
I also strained the liquid from the bottom of the cooker (getting rid of carrots etc) and reduced on stove top to make a (kind of ) gravy that I poured over the meat.So…it was delicious. It was slightly overdone. It will be tweaked somewhat, and done again. But I am proud of my efforts and in any case my kitchen smelled delightful all afternoon. A slow cooker success!
Thanks to Raul (aka Rob) for the photos, who spoke with a spanish accent and pretended he was shooting for gourmet traveller. The girls thought he was hilarious, and as ever, he did a great job! I can still hear Daisy now “excuse me RaooooooooL!”
That’s like cooking on Masterchef! Did Daisy do well?
Zac Hallinan
it was delicious Zacy!!!! Grandpa and I got to try some and Daise and Beth did do well…especially with that added touch of lemon!!!X
Zac! That has MADE my day! A comment – thank you! It was a little like Masterchef – Daise helped me out and enjoyed doing it too. I think I will have to get you to help me do the next one! Love you x
Nice recipe! I love my slowcooker – it’s kinda on a par with google & ikea as the things I’d run away with if they were a man!
Great job you!! In no time you’ll be making your own recipes once you and the slowcoker are better acquainted. If you love a lamb roast in your slow cooker I put a fab one up on kidspot (the link is on my blog I’m sure under slowcooker/kidspot) it was stuffed and seriously melt.in.the.mouth. I always brown my roasts after being the slowcooker.. it needs it for the crispy-ness/colour factor!
Bless Daisy and Raul – great team you’ve got there 😉
Congrats hun, slow cookers are apparently excellent. I’m buying one this winter.
Can’t wait to try lots of recipes.
x
You go girl! They’re a strange beast, but once you understand them, they’re magnificent.
I think I need to borrow your magnificent photographer btw…
Oh it looks good. I so need one. I’m still a little fragile from my Aldi experience though….