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‘Surely there’s a limit to the number of ways you can slow cook something,’ said the doubters when I took on this second book of over 100 recipes. Little did they know! Such is the versatility of the slow cooker I had loads of ideas up my sleeve for book two! I hope you enjoy this collection of 130 new recipes, just as lovingly written, tested and devoured as those in book one.

This book is designed to be really simple to use. If you fancy a curry or something spicy then look in the curries section, or maybe rich braises and stews are the reason for your slow cooker’s presence in your kitchen, so take a look at that chapter. In my kitchen my slow cookers (cookers are plural because at the last count I had eight!) are a godsend for midweek meals, but particularly when entertaining. I love to have large gatherings and parties, and it is at these times I could not live without a slow cooker. This New Year’s Eve we had a house full of guests, so we filled a slow cooker with mulled wine and left it ticking over on the warming function, ready to take the chill off when the guests arrived. There was also a buffet table with two slow cookers – one containing Beef with whole spices and the other with Fruity Moroccan spiced shanks. They had been thrown together 8 hours before and then left to their own devices while I relaxed and did my nails(!). Both dishes were smart enough to be left in situ ready for guests to serve themselves. Entertaining for a large number has never been easier, so if that’s your thing, you’ll also find a chapter for feasts and celebrations.

One of the areas that I was most excited about experimenting with in this book was ‘super slow’ cooking. All the top chefs seem to be doing it at the moment with laudable results, so why shouldn’t we at home? Well, often we can’t, as the temperature on most domestic ovens makes it impossible – many don’t go low enough. I guess there’s also an element of concern for food safety and waste when ‘experimenting’ like this at home. With your best interests at heart (and admittedly many of my own) I went about creating a ‘super slow’ chapter where I would do the experimenting for you – what would happen to the ingredients, would they still taste good and more intense in flavour or would the flavour begin to diminish? Would super slow cooking really, honestly, make a better dish out of an ingredient than if I had just thrown it all in a conventional oven for 2 hours? The unbelievably tasty, gorgeous and sumptuous dishes within this chapter will, I hope, convince you that over a long period of time some ingredients evolve into something even more spectacular than would be achieved with conventional cooking, often with significantly less time-consuming attention and hassle.

There are also yummy chapters on roasts, light and easy dishes, chillies and pasta sauces as well as puddings and cakes. So, whatever your penchant and requirements, whether after-work suppers, make-ahead meals or those days when you just don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, there should be a chapter for you!

A note on slow cooker sizes

All the recipes in this book have been cooked and tested in a 5.7 litre (10 pint) slow cooker. If your slow cooker is a different size then you will need to adjust the ingredients and cooking times accordingly. If you find that recipes requiring tins or dishes to be placed inside the slow cooker are difficult to follow (because of the size of your slow cooker), then try using individual ramekins or ovenproof dishes instead, and adjust the cooking times accordingly. Please remember that every brand of slow cooker is different, so it’s critical to follow the individual manufacturer’s instructions.