Always taste for salt, sour, sweet, fresh and rich before you serve. The last and crucial pitstop for flavour – herbs, nuts, acids, cooling yoghurts and creams, or mounds of cheese – are not simply garnishes to dress up your dish and add a final flourish, but bona fide components in their own right. Heat your slow cooker before you start, always use a stock as your liquid base (rarely water) and make sure you sear meat until it has a nice caramelised crust. If you take an extra 10 minutes to cook down your aromatics, the finished dish will have a deeper flavour and a better texture. Include freshly ground spices where possible, which tend to be stronger in flavour than the pre-ground versions, and always thoroughly cook a mirepoix (that’s the carrot, celery and onion base). It is important that you don’t rush this step onions need time to soften, lose their moisture and break down their fibres so they melt into the dish. There are a few golden rules to get maximum flavour out of your slow cooker. The flavours in a dish need to be layered and then heightened by the use of strong spices, herbs and acid. Slow cooking works by building on a base flavour. Long, slow cooking mellows flavours and this, combined with the lack of evaporation, means that your food has the potential to be bland. The adage of throwing everything in the pot and walking away is not your friend when it comes to flavour. ‘The more you use your slow cooker, the more you will understand how it behaves.’ Photograph: Hardie Grant Books Flavour rules
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