Smoky Ham Hock, Lentil and Vegetable Soup, One Pot Meal cooked by cheekyricho cooking youtube channel in the Tefal Cook4Me

Its Pouring rain outside, falling straight down, thick and heavy, so heavy my lovely big river outside my window looks like the surface is boiling and I can barely see the trees on the other side. Everything feels cold and damp, we're rugged up like the Michelin Man and the heaters on, working hard and not making much of a difference to the temperature inside the house.
I've done all I can to make us more comfortable from the outside, time to warm us from the inside. Yep, its soup time. Smoky Ham Hock with Lentils and Vegetables, a massive pot enough for tea tonight and hearty leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Our vegetarian visitors hardly made a dent in the huge vegetable haul I ordered in for them on the weekend so I'd better set to and put all this fresh produce to good use. Soup is a good start so I bought this large smoked Ham Hock with a thick brown soft chewy skin over rich dark gelatinous meat full of tendons and sinew, this will need a lot of long slow moist cooking to release all of that sticky succulent meat from the bone to flavour my soup, slow cooker will do it but you will need a long time, all the nutrients in the vegetables will have gone the way of the dodo bird by the time the meat is ready, which really negates the purpose of eating something healthy. Now, because I'm a 'want it now' kind of girl, the only sensible option is our Tefal Cook4Me, ridiculously quick, energy efficient, nutritionally sound, flavour enhancing, spectacularly simple and unbelievably easy to use and clean bench top appliance made just for this job. I don't even put it away in the cupboard in this weather, it happily sits on the bench waiting for another daily task to help me with. Help me it does, it bloops away making risottos in a wink, tenderising the most inexpensive, toughest cuts of meat and poultry to a succulent spoon tender consistency turns itself to the keep warm function, keeping my meal safely hot and ready to eat until everybody has come home from work, school or sport and even the stay cool handles help you decant the left over contents into a storage container for the fridge or freezer. Then is just a quick wipe out before its ready for its next job. Nothing sticks to the non stick surface and its light enough to handle easily. You probably could put it in the dish washer but its a large family sized vessel that would take up so much room on the rack, There wouldn't be much room for anything else. Being so easy to clean I've got the inner pot back in the Cook4Me before I can get the dishwasher open to load it in there.

My soup was so delicious, in our video recipe we give you hints on how to stop your Tomato paste from going mouldy, how to peel a tomato in seconds without blanching and potentially burning yourself and of course how to prepare the star of the show, the Smoked Ham Hock, so everybody gets a decent portion of its smoky goodness in every serving. 

Its comfort food in a bowl, we serve it as a meal with crusty parmesan, garlic, herb bread, all on the one slice (because its a compromise for everybody, saves arguments, we load it all on top and everyone gets their favourite, along with everyone elses favourite. LOL) and warmed to toasty perfection in the Tefal Actifry in about 4 minutes, which is about a quarter of the time it takes for my wall oven to get hot enough to heat it without even cooking it yet. This is fast, slow food at its best and we are delighted to share our recipe with you on our cheekyricho cooking channel.
https://youtu.be/JUze6SRA0tU

Beef Stroganoff cooked in the Tefal Cook4Me by Cheekyricho Cooking Youtube Channel

Winter is here, the dogs won't get out of bed, its dark early and our afternoon walk is brisk because of the cold and the failing light. The beef strips I had thawing on the sink, stayed frozen solid for hours.
I was left scrambling to make a quick dinner, with frozen meat, a jiffy blast in the nucolator while I roughly chopped onions and mushrooms and a delicious warming meal for at least six frozen starving adults was only 30 minutes away. I kid you not. Slash into those veges, dust your meat in seasoned flour, brown it for five or so minutes in oil and butter with a handful of smoky bacon, veges in, bathed in beef stock, lid on 10 minutes on the quick cook function in the Tefal cook4me and its done. Loosen and cream up the already stunningly tasty sauce with as much sour cream or natural yoghurt as you like and you're good to go. Gives you enough time to whack together some rustic garlic bread with my fresh home grown herbs (including the trip to the herb garden) and crust that bread up in the Tefal Actifry for 4 minutes and you are eating a fabulicious winter warmer inside half an hour. Bottle of spicy red Cab Sav and you won't need the heater on anymore.
My favourite part of winter is the wholesome, healthy stews and casseroles. Old fashioned favourites and of course some new trendy jobbies to keep the menu fresh and alive.
This recipe is so worth the tiny amount of effort it takes to make and it makes an unbelievably large amount of food, which makes it a very economical family feed. Left overs can stuff a spud or a crepe or top a toast for breakie with an egg. It is winter after all. Fill a pie or jaffle or sandwich maker snack, the possibilities really are endless.
Forget that slow cooker, I have, mine dropped dead and I haven't missed it or replaced it. No running the power hungry oven for hours to tenderise meat. This cooks so quick you'd better get the kids to set the table, you won't have time for that job.
Check it out and our ever growing Tefal Cook4Me playlist on our cheekyricho cooking channel, you'll be so glad you did.
https://youtu.be/kSeQje_zWX8