Product Description

Over 100 recipes for slow cooking, gathered from around the world and adapted for use in the Aga.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15727 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

From the Publisher
The essential Aga Guide to Slow Cooking
The Traditional Aga Book of Slow Cooking Louise Walker’s most recent Aga Cookery book is full of delicious recipes for slow cooked meals. As well as giving invaluable instructions for Aga owners, Louise has also included traditional oven timings thus enabling all cooks to enjoy her cooking.

Customer Reviews

`Everyone knows that Agas are brilliant for one thing - cooking food slowly.....
They are of course good for all other cooking methods, quick stir-fries, perfect pastry, moist cakes let alone drying the washing and more besides...
But back to slow cooking.
The gentle even heat of the simmering oven cooks food at an even temperature with little moisture loss, so casseroles, cakes and puddings will cook at an even pace and come out luscious and moist.
Food cooking in the simmering oven will not dry out and spoil if it is not taken out at the precise time stated in the recipe, and, as all Aga-owners know, it is easy to leave food cooking longer than planned because no smells permeate the kitchen!
All Agas are different....and where appropriate I have given the cooking times and electric oven temperatures for some recipes for the benefit of those not yet owning an Aga! These recipes have been tested on a non-fan mode of an electric oven which seems most appropriate for slow cooking...........'

160 high quality matt pages split over main chapters:-

(1) Soups and Starters

(2) Main Courses:-

Beef
Poultry
Game
Lamb
Pork
Vegetarian

(3) Accompaniments

(4) Puddings

(5) Chutneys

with an introduction including conversion chart, slow cooking and basic techniques, blank pages for your own `cooks' notes' and a full index.

Laid out in easy to read, black and white format it should be noted that there are no photographs at all in this book.....just a few charming blue illustrations to open each chapter and head each page.
Each recipe opens with some relevant text e.g.:-

`Daube de Boeuf'
`This must be one of the easiest casserole recipes. I have adapted this from my much used `French Provincial Cooking', by Elizabeth David.......,

followed by the list of ingredients, method and number of servings.

A small taste of the recipes within:-

Cream of Chicken Soup
Farmhouse Paté
Pot Roast Beef in Red Wine
Chicken and Dried Fruit Tajine
Duck Breasts in White Wine
Rabbit with Dijon Mustard
Hare Stew with Whisky
Lamb Goulash
Shepherd's Pie
Lancashire Hotpot
New Orleans Cajun Pork
Scrummy Sausages with Boston Baked Beans
Osso Buco
Vegetable Curry
Dumplings
Puy Lentils
Jacket Potatoes
Steamed Fruit Pudding
Plum Duff
Chichester Pudding
Crème Brulée
Baked Apples
Green Tomato Chutney

Slow cooking - the new fast food?
Slow cooking is something of a lost art, yet ironically it can be the fastest of fast foods.
Often you can do the preparation in advance, store the dish in the fridge, then bung it in the oven when you go out to work and it's all cooked and ready when you get home.

There are many great advantages to slow cooking, not the least of which is the food tastes way better and is far more nutritious. Also it's usually very tolerant of going over / under the cooking time, so you don't need to get stressed about trying to get everything ready at the same time.

There are some excellent recipes in this book - all the ones I've tried worked really well. Despite the Aga title, the recipes also come with conventional oven guidelines, and so this represents a great book for any keen cook.

Despite the rather unexciting presentation (- 1*), this is a book crammed with wonderful ideas and recipes that can seriously enhance your gastronomic pleasure. It's clearly been produced for using rather than looking at, and covers many different styles of cooking. The recipes are simple but produce great results. The depths of flavour, the unhurried pace, make slow-cooking (and eating) a real pleasure.

Overall, not a book for "armchair" cooks who prefer looking at pictures. But for anyone who enjoys great tasting food at a relaxed pace, this is a marvellous "life-enhancing" book.

Quality family meals at the dinner table an unexpected bonus
Since this book gives cooking times for both electric ovens as well as the traditional Aga, no excuse exists not to have this cookbook adorning the shelves beside your cooker (Aga or Rayburn prefered obviously).

Would make a good accompaniment to Hugh Farnley-Wittingstall's "River cottage cookbook" for that full on traditional satisfaction. I don't think he had an Aga or Rayburn but this is completely to his loss!

As for the recipes themselves, the roasts probably stand out as the most to benefit from the slow cooking method, particularly if your meat is full of flavour, such as organic. The method seems to allow for a development of flavours in the pot, filling the air with the most mouthwatering smells and consequently I have not used any other method to cook a roast since.
Our labrador is probably the biggest fan though!