Globecooking recipe : Slow Cooker Beef Maffé (Mali)

I'm very impressed at how adventurous the Madhouse kids have been this week. When I laughingly asked who fancied trying an African beef stew with peanut butter in it, I thought they'd flatly refuse, but I was amazed when they all said OK ... as long as they didn't have to finish it if it was horrible ! Luckily it turned out very tasty.

I've already shared a recipe for Chicken Mafe, which used products from a Cameroon-themed Kitchen Trotter box. This time, I adapted a recipe for Beef Maffé, which is described as a dish from Mali. Many recipes have variations that cover large geographical areas that can't be pinpointed to a single country though, so I'm sure they are both very similar in origin. I made this in the slow cooker to make sure the beef was nice and tender, but the original recipe used a casserole dish in the oven.

Slow Cooker Beef Maffé

ingredients :

1kg beef

2 onions

1 clove of garlic

1 green pepper

1 tin whole peeled tomatoes (or 2 fresh tomatoes)

2tbsp tomato concentrate

4 heaped tbsp peanut butter

1 chicken stock cube

salt, pepper, paprika (+ chilli powder, if desired)

a couple of handfuls of baby potatoes

Chop the beef into chunks and throw it into the slow cooker. You can brown it off on all sides beforehand if you want, but I didn't bother this time, as I was short of time. Season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Peel and chop the onions, garlic and green pepper and add to the slow cooker.

Add the tinned tomatoes, the stock cube, the tomato concentrate and the peanut butter. 

Toss in the potatoes. 

Give it all a good stir and add a little water if needed, not forgetting that you need very little liquid added in the slow cooker.

 Leave to cook for 4-6 hours until the beef is tender (almost to falling apart) and the sauce is well blended.

 Serve on its own or with an extra vegetable of your choice. You could also serve it with flatbread to scoop up the sauce.

*** Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index ! ***

Slow cooker recipe : Pulled Beef Stew

The slow cooker was working overtime during the recent half term holiday and it reminded me of just how lovely it is to come home at the end of a busy day and not have to worry about cooking dinner. When I went freezer diving for some meat, I found a pack of stewing beef. My usual go-to recipe for this cut of meat is Carbonnade Flamande, a rich beef in beer stew that is very popular in Belgium and Northern France. (Click through for the recipe.)

I wanted to try something a bit different this time though, so I headed to my tin of seasoning sachets to see if there was anything I could use. I found this pack of Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork mix and decided to try it with beef.

The on-pack instructions tell you to combine the contents of the sachet (mainly sugar, smoked paprika, garlic and onion) with 125ml  tomato ketchup, 2 tbsp brown sugar and 3 tbsp cider or white wine vinegar. This was a great way of using up all the ketchup sachets that were cluttering up the fridge.

I used up the end of a bottle of BBQ sauce to replace some of the ketchup and used balsamic vinegar, along with the brown sugar.

A good mix produced a really thick, sweet and smoky sauce that already smelt really nice.

My meat was straight out of the freezer so I unceremoniously dumped the sauce on top and left the slow cooker to work its magic.

Eight hours later, I had a decent looking beef stew.

I used a couple of forks to pull the beef apart and served it with rice. We loved the sweet smokiness of the sauce and I'll be very tempted to try recreating this from scratch next time.

This used up the end of a bottle of BBQ sauce and several sachets of ketchup that were squished in the bottom of the fridge door, along with a sachet of Pulled Pork seasoning that has been in the cupboard for ages, so I'm adding it to this month's #KitchenClearout linky.

Globecooking recipe : Ropa Vieja (Cuba)

Back at the start of the summer, I started following some new foodie blogs, one of which was The Daring Gourmet. When I saw a blogpost go by entitled Ultimate Ropa Vieja (The National Dish of Cuba), I was intrigued - I've covered a lot of countries in my globe-cooking index, but I don't think I've got a single one from Cuba - so I just had to go and have a look.

It turns out that Ropa Vieja, which means "old clothes", because the long strands of slow cooked beef resemble old rags, is a lovely tomatoey, meaty stew. I didn't really have the right cut of beef - I had a pack of bourguignon stewing beef in the freezer, I'm not sure which cut it was - but you should really use chuck or flank to get the right look/texture. It was still a delicious rich stew though and I'll definitely be adding it to my list of favourite slow-cooker winter warmers.

I've taken a lot of liberties with the recipe and adapted it to suit what I had in the cupboards, so do click through to check out the original (which also tells you more about the cultural origins of the dish).

Ropa Vieja

ingredients :

drizzle of olive oil

800g-1kg stewing beef

2 onions

1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 green pepper (I used a tin of peppers stewed in chilli that was in the cupboard)

2 cloves of garlic

3tsp dried oregano

3tsp cumin

3tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp allspice

6 whole cloves (or 1tsp ground cloves)

2 bay leaves

salt & pepper

a good glug of white wine

1 chicken stock cube

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin cherry tomatoes

a squeeze of tomato concentrate

1 cup green olives

I wanted to sear the beef before putting it in the slow cooker so I started off by gently frying the onions and garlic in a drizzle of olive oil, to add extra flavour. Once they had gone soft and released some flavour to the oil, I transferred them to the slow cooker.

Then I browned the beef on all sides on a high heat before adding it to the slow cooker.

Keeping the pan that you seared the beef in on the hob, add a generous glug of white wine (enough to cover the bottom) and deglaze the pan - scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Pour the wine with all the lovely flavour from the meat, onions and garlic, into the slow cooker.

Have a good rummage through your spice rack and see what you've got - I used oregano, cloves, cumin, paprika, mixed spice, rock salt, black pepper, chilli flakes ...

Toss all the herbs and spices on top of the meat.

In order to get a really rich tomatoey sauce, I used a trio of tomato based products - chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and some baby plum tomatoes, which I discovered recently and which are wonderful for adding extra texture and sweetness to stews and pasta sauces.

After adding the tomatoes, crumble in the stock cube.

Add the tin of peppers (or red, yellow and green peppers, cut into thin strips).

Toss in the bay leaves and the olives.

Give it all a stir and leave to cook for about 8 hours.

If you can get your meat to fall apart into shreds, you'll have the perfect texture for ropa vieja. Mine stayed in chunks but it was nevertheless a deliciously rich, flavour-packed meal - I still love the way my slow cooker has dinner ready and waiting for me when I get home from work !

*** Click through for my country-by-country globecooking recipe index ! ***

Globecooking recipe : Irish Stew (Ireland)

I always thought that Irish Stew was made with lamb but the recipe in my Irish-themed Kitchen Trotter box called for veal, so I took an even bigger liberty and used pork ! I think you could probably use any cheap cuts of meat to be honest. I decided to verge even further away from the recipe and use my slow cooker and I was really pleased with the result. Good hearty rustic food that gets all of your five-a-day in one plateful !

There was a sachet of Irish seasoning in the Kitchen Trotter box, which is a blend of white pepper, garlic, fennel, chilli, rosemary and thyme.

Irish Stew

ingredients :

500g stewing pork or lamb

2 onions

2 carrots

3 turnips

8 green cabbage leaves

1 leek

4 potatoes

2tbsp parsley

2 bay leaves

3 chicken stock cubes

salt, pepper

2tbsp Irish seasoning (see above)

Collect all your veggies together and get peeling and chopping !

Put the meat in the bottom of the slow cooker with the onions and a drizzle of olive oil and sear on the hob to give it some colour. (Depending on your slow cooker - you can leave this step out if it's not possible.)

Toss in the carrots and turnips.

Then add the leek and potatoes. When I lived in halls of residence with some Irish girls, they never used to peel their potatoes before boiling them, which is something I've now adopted !

Add the stock and seasoning and cook on high for 4-5 hours, adding in the chopped cabbage leaves for the final hour or so.

This makes a huge potful that fed a hungry family of five with leftovers.

*** Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index ! ***

#readcookeat recipe : Greek-style lamb casserole with mint and cinnamon (Runaway)

I've just finished reading Runaway by Peter May (click through to read my review), in which a group of grandads decide to recreate their teenage jaunt to London fifty years before. Back then, they were full of hope and youthful dreams of making it big in the music business, but this time, their trip has a darker, more sinister edge, even if they're not all aware of it. In the sixties, the young lads were taken in by the seemingly benign Dr Robert, who gave them a place to lay their heads and food to fill their bellies, even if it wasn't all as altruistic as it seemed. This was their first meal together (where, it turns out, their wine has been laced with LSD).

p247 I don't think any of us had ever drunk wine before. A warm, rich, heady red with which Dr Robert filled our glasses each time they were in danger of emptying. We all sat around his table, changed and washed, eating Greek food that he'd had delivered from a restaurant in the high street. Another first - at least, for me. I had never tasted anything like it before. Lamb flavoured with mint and cinnamon. Rice wrapped in vine leaves. Slow-cooked beef in a rich gravy that simply fell apart when you poked it with your fork. Tuna like steak, broken into pieces and served in a salad with little white cubes of cheese.

It was the first decent meal we'd had in three days, and we devoured it.

I've cooked quite a few Greek recipes before so I already have a blogpost about dolmades (stuffed vine leaves).

I also have a tried and tested recipe for Carbonnade, a slow cooked beef in beer casserole from Belgium which is always a family favourite.

So this time I decided to recreate a Greek-inspired lamb casserole with mint and cinnamon.

Slow-cooked  Greek Lamb with Mint & Cinnamon

ingredients :

shoulder of lamb, chopped into pieces

2 onions

1/2 green pepper

drizzle of olive oil

2tbsp cinnamon

1tbsp smoked paprika

2tbsp dried mint

sprinkle of salt and pepper

a few stalks of dried oregano

3tsp garlic puree

1 tin tomatoes

a squeeze of tomato puree

Put the meat and onions in the slow cooker. Drizzle with olive oil and toss in all the herbs and spices. Throw it all around to cover the meat.

Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 6 hours (or whenever you get home from work !).

Serve with rice or orzo, to be authentic. We had ours with macaroni cheese because that's what the kids were eating !

Fancy cooking the books? Join in with the #readcookeat challenge over at Chez Maximka.

Madhouse recipe : Slow-cooker Pork Goulash

My favourite thing about the autumn and winter is getting the slow cooker out. I love coming home from a long day at work to a lovely comforting casserole waiting for us all to tuck in with zero effort. I usually make goulash with beef but I had a pack of pork in the freezer so I used that instead.

Slow-cooker Pork Goulash

ingredients :

800g pork cubes

3 onions

3 carrots

1 red pepper

3 large mushrooms

1tbsp each of smoked paprika, caraway seeds, thyme, oregano

1 beef stock cube (or stock pot)

1 cup water

sprinkle of gravy powder (if needed to thicken)

10cl liquid crème fraîche

As this was going to be slow cooked for several hours, I just put the pork straight in, still frozen, from the freezer.

Throw in all the rest of the ingredients except for the cream and gravy granules, that need to be stirred in just before serving. And that's it ! Cook on low for 6-7 hours (or whatever suits you - I put it on at 8am as I headed off to work and it was still on the "keep warm" mode at 6.30pm when I got home from work and picking up the kids !)