When it comes to cooking slow, which it will, frequently, there's one thing you can count on – bones. Be they shanks or shoulder bones, they be connected to the meat, which means they're going to help keep it as tender as a Neil Diamond song. These sticky, tangy balsamic lamb shanks are where you want to be.
Slow-roasted balsamic lamb shanks
Meat and bones aren't the only things that can withstand a long roasting and emerge at the other end supple and aromatic. Vegetables are amazing when given a bit of time. And we're not talking about stew-like ratatouille, either, but these still-pert oregano and caraway sprinkled tomatoes that are fresh from a three-hour-long roasting. Perfection.
Slow-roasted truss tomatoes Source: Benito Martin
Redolent with coconut, tamarind and spices, Indonesian beef rendang turns those more arduous cuts of meat into soft, pull-apart pieces. A long, slow ride in the oven renders this rendang almost more befitting a spoon than a fork, but we'll take it any way it comes.
Beef rendang (rendang daging) Source: Feast magazine
When we commit to going slow, a whole world of possibility opens up to us. What will we do with those next three hours? It's like free time, because your dinner is essentially autonomous. So while this well-behaved lamb slowly prepares itself to be tossed through pappardelle with green olives and almonds, we invite you to cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie.
Slow-cooked lamb pappardelle
Contrary to what some might feel, slow-cooking is one of the easiest methods of getting food on the table. It's ideal for your class-A lazy, low-commitment types. A slowly cooked recipe can make the most disinterested of cooks look like Julia Childs. This beautifully brothy braised beef noodle soup is literally a matter of chucking everything in the pot and turning your back on it for three hours. As you were.
Braised beef noodle soup Source: SBS Food
The original one-pot-wonder, the French 'pot au feu', or pot on the fire, is a classic example of set-and-forget cooking. Add some potatoes made creamy by time and a few marrow bones to slurp on, and you have yourself a very classic, very economical comfort meal to fight off the chills.
Pot-au-feu
We're about to slow it down even more right now. Forget your paltry three-hour cooking times, this poached apple and pear compote gets down for five long hours. Before you throw you hands in the air and wail, "but they'll turn to mush," just remember, we're not just going slow here, but low. And low will ensure your plump fruits remain so.
Poached apple and pear compote
