More experimentation with the slow cooker, this. I started on Wednesday evening (i.e. 2 days before we ate this!), by putting some chickpeas (probably about 2.5 mugs full) to soak in cold water overnight. We do always have tins in the larder, but I like to used dried where possible, as they are so much cheaper.
On Thursday morning, I rinsed them and put them in the slow cooker for about 9 hours on low, then turned it off, then on Friday morning I took them out, rinsed and drained them and put them back in.
Then I chopped a large onion, and cooked it in some groundnut oil until it was just starting to brown. While they were cooking, I whizzed up garlic, fresh ginger, coriander seeds and a little bit of water into a paste. Added a couple of teaspoons of cumin seeds to the onion and cooked for a minute or two, then added the gingery paste and fried it all off for a couple of minutes.
Then in went a tin of tomatoes and a slug of balsamic vinegar (I was sort of following a recipe, vaguely, from my new veggie slow cooker book). Brought it all to the boil and put it in the slow cooker with the chickpeas.
It didn’t smell quite right – the balsamic was too … sweet, possibly, so I chucked in the juice of a lemon and hoped for the best. They had about 9 hours again, and we consumed them as an accompaniment to a tub of chicken dansak from the freezer, and some basmati rice. And the balsamic taste was all gone by then!
This also provided three tubs for the freezer, which would do nicely with some pitta bread for lunch, or as accompaniment for further Indian feasts. We cook/eat a lot of Indian food here, as you may gather.
I’m currently cooking something involving chicken, rice, peanut butter, onions and tomatoes. Sounds disgusting, tastes pretty good so far.
I’m moving on to pulses very shortly now. I love the thought of being able to hrul them into the slow cooker and forget about them for hours on end and having nothing dreadful happen. Yes, I did once boil dry a pan of chickpeas because I got seriously distracted. These days I am apt to be, and expect to be, seriously distracted. I’d thought the slow cooker would be great for coming home to, but it’s just as good for avoiding those other culinary disasters as well. Every cooking student should have one!
I have a hunk of gammon in mine at the moment. I’m utterly in love with this thing 🙂
Pulses that need to be boiled fast for a while are a specific slow cooker warning. I boil mine for a bit and then stick them in (obviously that’s a bit of a pain in the arse).