Slow Cooked Meals for Lovely Lazy Flavours

Fast food has come in for a right royal bashing lately and, with certain noble exceptions (stir-fries, for example), quite right too. The irony is that, in true tortoise and hare fashion, traditional slow cooking methods may actually be easier on your time than rushing to get a meal on the table in a hurry.

Getting organised several hours ahead leaves you free to do other things while the dinner is gently cooking away – and, with slow cooking, you can use less expensive cuts of meat in slow roasts and casseroles that are meltingly tender and have loads more flavour than the pricey prime cuts.

Traditional dishes like Irish Stew and Beef & Guinness casserole make tasty comfort food that’s perfect for chilly days, but there’s plenty of variety using slow cooking methods, including great Sunday roasts that will give you a second meal for lunch next day; buying a bigger joint gives better value, and will cook better than smaller pieces of meat that may shrink and dry up too easily.

If you have an Aga or other range type cooker with a slow oven that’s ideal, otherwise you can use an electric slow cooker (which is very easy on the power bills) or any ordinary oven on a low setting.

Ask your local butcher about the best cuts to use for slow cooking, and look online for delivery services too, especially for free range pork, which is almost impossible to get in the shops. A fast-growing service that I’ve found reliable is Nigel Cobbe’s SimplySourced; they deliver nationwide.

Although free-range meats are perceived as expensive, online customers may be pleasantly surprised; you can choose boxed meats (casserole boxes from only €25) or create your own combination of cuts or right up to a full, bespoke butchered Saddleback pig! Just remember that rare breeds tend to be smaller (and more uneven in size) than mass produced animals – this should not be disappointing as they make up in flavour and texture anything they may lack in size.

Paprika Spiced Pork Belly

Pork belly (also known as lap of pork) is currently trendy in restaurants, but tastes much better when cooked at home. It’s easy on the budget and is often the only cut available rind-on from butchers/supermarkets, who now tend to sell everything without the skin – so no delicious crackling.

Belly of pork makes brilliant crackling (and lots of it) and, although it may look fatty, much of the fat melts away during cooking to leave beautifully succulent meat.

This is a spicy dish, but the joint is also delicious cooked plain (ie simply scored and rubbed with a little salt) to serve traditionally with gravy, apple sauce and seasonal vegetables - an ideal candidate for a free-range roast.

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Lamb Shanks With Roast Root Vegetables

The ‘lamb’ we get at this time of year is actually hogget, ie one year old sheep – making it a bigger animal, of course, so roasting joints feed more mouths and all the meat is better value. Everybody loves shank of lamb and, although it’s one of the most popular dishes on menus, it’s easy and healthy to cook at home, as this recipe from Tim O’Sullivan of Renvyle House Hotel in Connemara explained in a recent IHF Happy Heart promotion.

Quantities are given for four, but lamb shanks vary in size and a large shank should serve two people. And it’s worth cooking extra shanks while you’re at it – any extras can be frozen together with their vegetables for a quick, hearty meal that you’ll be glad to come home to some cold evening.

Or, if you have leftover meat it can be used to make a tasty lunch the next day (see below).

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• LUNCH SUGGESTION:

Lamb Wraps with Garlic Aoili & Tomato Salsa

You could slow-cook a small shoulder of lamb, or an extra one or two lamb shanks, especially to make up these wraps with garlic aioli and tomato salsa, or you could use leftovers from the lamb shanks given above.

Either way, the meat should be so tender that it is easily shredded with a fork.

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Lamb Hot-Pot

You can use sweet-flavoured shoulder of lamb, gigot chops or inexpensive neck of lamb for this tasty stew, which makes a wholesome one-pot dinner for the whole family and needs only a fresh seasonal green vegetable to make it a completely balanced meal.

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