Karen Wright:

Food cooked in the slow cooker is perfect for Autumnal nights.

Once October has arrived and Autumn has got its foot in the door, I start to use my slow cooker more often. It is such a fantastic way to prepare food, especially the tougher cuts of meat that really lend themselves to a long slow simmer. This brings out the best taste and texture, resulting in a dish where the meat just melts in the mouth or falls off the bone.

I took inspiration last week from a bag of windfall apples that someone had given to me. My thoughts went a bit like this, ‘which meat goes well with apples?’ the answer was pork, then ‘what goes well with apples and pork?’. The answer was mustard, honey, cinnamon and sage. I gathered up all those ingredients and set to work.

I found a few vegetables in my fridge that were a perfect base for the casserole, I always have a few carrots in the house along with celery and onion. Those three things are often used as a starting point, in fact the Italians have a word for the trio, they call it soffritto!

After putting those ingredients in the pot, I added a couple of leeks and some pork shoulder steaks. Next, I popped in a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a good glug of honey, a sprinkle of cinnamon and some fresh sage leaves from my garden (although dried would work perfectly too). I cut up a few apples and they went into the pot and then I stirred in a heaped tablespoon of plain flour, which would thicken the sauce as it cooked.

Next came the wet ingredients to make the sauce: I used half a can of dry cider and about 200ml of chicken stock. I seasoned it well with salt and pepper and then set the slow cooker on low, and I went out for the day. When I returned, I increased the setting to high and let it cook until everything was nice and soft. I added a tin of drained butter beans and a handful of peas. The sauce was still a little thin, but a few chicken gravy granules worked some magic. I topped the casserole off with fluffy dumplings, which my husband said were a real treat!

Another tip for a busy life is to prepare meals like this well in advance. You could pop all the prepared ingredients for a dish into a freezable bag and freeze until needed, before defrosting and adding everything into the slow cooker, switch it on and away you go!