20 January - lamb stew in a new slow cooker

I cooked up an extra couple of chicken thighs last night, so for lunch today I used the meat from them to make a creamy chicken and leek soup for lunch - chunky and warming.

As a welcome home present, Tris had bought me a really funky new slow cooker - it's kind of two earthenware dishes, with one fitting snuggly on the top of the other like a lid. You just put all your ingredients in, put it in the oven and let it cook, long and slow.

It came with a little recipe booklet, so tonight I tried out a variation on their stew recipe. You start off by soaking the slow cooker in cold water while you prepare the ingredients:

• Fry c. 200g diced lamb coated in flour just to brown it, then remove from the pan.
• Next fry a small onion, a chopped courgette and some chopped carrot in the same pan.
• Add a tbsp tomato puree, 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 500 ml water and stir well to combine.
• Put everything in the slow cooker, stir, add a bay leaf and cover. Then put it in a cold oven - turn it on to 175C and leave for 2 hours.
• When it's ready, add some chopped olives and parsley. Season and serve.

It was a bit of a leap of faith to just leave everything for two hours without being able to check what was going on, but it came out fantastic. The meat was lovely and tender and the sauce was rich and delicious. Served with some roast new potatoes, it was a real triumph. Can't wait to try my new toy out some more!