Getting acquainted with Big Ears

SO FAR all the recipes I’ve attempted on my slow cooker, Big Ears, have been fairly basic ones – the ones that accompanied the cooker itself.

I suppose their purpose is to familiarise me with the cooker’s uses.

The simple beef stew I made, for example, was to acquaint me with the browning/sealing function of the cooker, as much as anything else.

Then the chicken and white wine casserole demonstrated the need to cook poultry for the shortest time.

Today, I did the simplest dish of all – a boiled ham, a gammon joint cooked in water on low for ten hours.

And oh yes, it was beautifully tender – if fact, it fell apart as I was trying to lift it out of cooking pan.

And yes, it was very tasty, although I think cooking the ham in cider might have made it bit richer.

The trouble is, though, I don’t really feel these recipes are exactly stretching my culinary abilities.

We do have a couple of slow cook books with recipes aplenty, but My Good Lady is insisting that I continue with the included dishes, so that I become fully conversant with all of Big Ears’ little quirks.

Looking ahead, though, I see some more interesting ideas coming up: a Bolognese sauce for example, a Sausage Pot, a Thai beef curry…

There are some dessert ideas, too – but neither MGL nor I are really pudding people, so I might just skip these.

Adventures in cooking

SOME SMALL health concerns on my part don’t preclude me from attempting an experimental cook yesterday.

I do us spicy prawns with chorizo – it’s intended to be a tapas type dish, but I put some sautéed Jersey Royal potatoes with it to turn it into a main course.

It’s simplicity itself to do.

Thinly slice a clove of garlic, deseed and chop a red chilli, finely dice a goodly length  of chorizo sausage, then chuck them all into some pre-heated olive oil and fry them up for a couple of minutes.

Then toss in a good handful of cooked, peeled prawns – I use the frozen ones, already thawed – and a splash of red wine.

Another three or four minutes of pan frying is all it takes: and you have one of the most delicious ways of serving prawns that I have yet encountered.

Absolutely gorgeous – we have to eat them slowly to prolong the pleasure.

A crusty bread roll mops up the delicious juices.

I’m intending to cook again tomorrow – this time using “big ears”, my slow cooker – so-called because of the large handles on either side of the pot.

It’s a full four-hour job, this – chicken breasts cooked in white wine and stock with cream and mushrooms.

Should be interesting.

Weekend celebratory

THE HOTEL is one of these modern, characterless places designed for economy and for the attentions of commercial travellers.

The whole chain of such establishments have identical rooms in size and layout, so that no matter in which one you stay, you feel as of you’re in a home away from seedy home.

The bed proves to be reasonably comfortable at least - and that’s about the most positive thing I can say about the room.

The bathroom is lit by what seems like a twenty watt light bulb, and it casts more of a pallid gloom than a light!

Never mind, we tell ourselves, it’s only for three nights!

We’re visiting Stoke-on-Trent to help celebrate My Good Lady’s cousin’s golden wedding anniversary, and a couple of birthdays to boot.

It proves to be a great weekend for food and for general conviviality.

I enjoy one of the best steak and kidney pies I have ever tasted at a cosy country inn in the company of three of MGL’s cousins and their husbands.

We indulge in another splendid spread of food at a party the following evening where we also toast the happy couple whose fiftieth anniversary this is.

Yes, a very pleasant weekend, then - satisfying, if, for me, a little tiring – it is the longest journey I’ve done since my stroke and it proves to be rather taxing.

Never mind. Even the dismalness of the hotel doesn’t spoil the pleasure of this family do.

Foody contest

WE’RE SITTING in the Geriatrics’ Corner of the Pub when conversation turns to the subject of the Great British Menu (BBC 2) – the competition for professional chefs for an opportunity to cook at the prestigious People’s Banquet.

Now, naturally enough, we’re all rooting for the North West finalist, Lisa Allen – if for no other reason than because Lisa began her career at this very pub kitchen, and has been guest chef here a couple of times.

Memorably, we went to one of her “special” evenings here, and very good it was too – not surprisingly she is now working at a Michelin-stared restaurant down Blackburn way.

Anyhow, we are all impressed, indeed amazed, by the lengths to which some of the chefs go to to wow the judges – from antique copper fish kettles to bales of hay on which the judges are expected to sit.

One chap brought a charcoal barbeque into the kitchen to give some of his pork that extra bite – and filled the whole kitchen with smoke and ash!

Another chef dished up his dessert in a bouquet of flowers and spiked it with lit sparklers in order to make the judges sit up.

It makes the beef stew I’m slow cooking today seem a bit limp; if I can find a couple of little union jack flags I might just stick them into the jacket spuds I’m serving the stew with – just for fun!

Love doves

I AM sitting at the kitchen table, looking out onto the garden.

We’ve just finished My Good Lady’s crab gratin – not an unqualified success I’m sorry to say – and we’re now supping the last of the wine.

Meanwhile, outside, a couple of collared doves are billing and cooing at one another, perched as they are on our old, rather ramshackle trellis.

A favourite spot for birds is this trellis – we sometimes have a dozen or more on it, diving at the feeders and back again.

Anyhow, as I watch, our randy pair of doves suddenly decide the big moment has come – and in a wild flutter of feathers one pounces on the other.

It’s all over in matter of seconds, almost in the blink of an eye.

And then, there they sit, clearly satiated and content – I can almost imagine them lighting up their post-exertion cigarettes!

And with a smile on my face I think to myself, “Ah, happy days”!