Weekend Cooking: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook by Poppy O'Toole

Last month, the Lambs Ears Cook Book Club chose Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious One Pot Cookbook by Poppy O'Toole as it's March selection. I tried to get that one from the library but they didn't have it, so instead I borrowed Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious One Pot Cookbook instead. 

We haven't had much luck with British chef  Poppy O'Toole. I love watching her, and I like her voice and attitude. The intros to her recipes are always a lot of fun, but the two cook books I have tried from her before were interesting, but there wasn't much that I wanted to cook from them. 

Poppy is a Michelin trained chef who gained popularity on the socials during the pandemic when she started sharing all the different things you can do with a potato. It turns out that there is a lot and so the first book I looked at was her potato one, and then I borrowed her air fryer cook book because we are still looking for better ways to use the air fryer. 

If it hadn't of been for the cook book club, I wouldn't have even looked at this book, and I would have missed out, because there are quite a few things we have made from this book and they are all good. So much so, I am contemplating buying this book so we can keep cooking from it!

The book is set up in a pretty standard format with chapters covering Soups, Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Pork, Turkey, Veggies and Desserts. As you would expect from a cook whose passion is potatoes, there is a whole chapter on potatoes in this book as well. 

We have a combo slow and pressure cooker all in one, and we tend to use the pressure cooker function more than the slow cooker. With the weather becoming cooler, it was a good time to try some of these hearty slow cooked meals.

So far we have tried Beef Bourgignon, Marry Me Chicken, Chicken and Chorizo Orzo and Tomato and Paneer Curry which is the recipe I am sharing today. All of them have been good, with nice flavour which sometimes can go a bit missing when you are cooking things in the slow cooker. 

There are so many recipes that I would like to try though which is why I might need to purchase this book. Some I want to try include 

Soups: Spicy Gochujan Noodle Curry, Laksa, Ramen, French Onion Soup, Hearty Whole Chicken Soup

Chicken: Coq au Vin, Teriyaki Chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs, Fajita Chicken, Chicken Korma and more 

Beef: Beef Rendang, Stroganoff and more

Pork: Char Siu Pork, Overnight Apple and Cider Pork Bap

Veggie: Potato and Aubergine Curry, Breakfast Home Style Potatos

For the record, we also tried a recipe called Chicken and Orange Tray Bake which comes from the One Pot book and is available on her website. It was delicious too.

Today I am sharing the recipe from the Tomato and Paneer Curry which was really good. Before I went to India last month, paneer isn't something that I would normally have gravitated to. While I was there we ate quite a few curry dishes which featured paneer so now I am looking forward to experimenting with it more.

Tomato and Paneer Curry 

1 red onion, thinly sliced 
4 fat garlic cloves, grated or crushed 
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 2cm slices 
thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated, or peeled and julienned or finely chopped
 1–2 green chillies, thinly sliced (or 1–2 teaspoons chilli flakes) 
450g paneer, cut into 2–2.5cm dice 
25g butter, cubed 
1 x 600g jar of passata 
1 tablespoon tomato purée 
1 teaspoon caster sugar 
1 teaspoon garam masala 
1 teaspoon cumin seeds 
1 teaspoon salt, plus extra to season 
150ml single cream 
1 lime, juiced 
150–200g spinach 
small handful of coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves roughly chopped 

1. Add the onion, garlic, peppers, ginger, chillies, paneer, butter, passata, tomato purée, sugar, garam masala, cumin seeds, teaspoon of salt and lots of black pepper to the bowl of your slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours, until the veg are completely tender and the paneer is pleasantly soft, but hasn’t completely fallen apart. 

2. Stir in the cream, lime juice, spinach and coriander stalks, until the spinach has wilted. Taste to check the seasoning and adjust as needed. 

3. Divide the curry between four bowls and scatter over the coriander leaves. 

Weekly meals

Saturday - Swedish Meatballs
Sunday - Marry Me Chicken (new)
Monday - Pork chops with mash and broccoli
Tuesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise
Wednesday - Away
Thursday - Away
Friday - Away

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