Poppy Cooks reveals her favourite slow cooker meals and shares roast potato hacks

Virgin Radio

9 Sep 2024, 11:18

Professional chef and TikTok star Poppy O'Toole (better known as Poppy Cooks) joined The Chris Evans Breakfast Show talk about the mouthwatering dishes in her third recipe book, and to dish out some roast potato tips.

The Sunday Times bestselling author’s new offering, called The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook, is released this Thursday, 12th September.

It features 90 recipes for the slow cooker which focus on ease and convenience, and each recipe is elevated further with hacks and flavour ideas.

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Speaking about her journey to this point, the internet sensation said: “I used to be a chef. I was a chef for about ten years or so, working in Michelin-starred  restaurants, working in London, all that jazz. And then because of Covid, I lost my job. So purely a little bit of boredom, a little bit out of wanting to impress my little brother and sister, I started doing TikToks, and that was it.

“We just did some recipe videos, and people started to enjoy them, and the ball just started rolling from there. And I kind of was like, ‘Oh, this could be a career. Maybe? I don't know,’ I just kept saying yes to everything. And eventually we got to here.”

Her new book follows 'Poppy Cooks: The Food You Need’ (2021), ‘Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook’ (2023), and offers delicious, easy slow cooker delights, such as Ramen, ‘Marry Me’ Chicken, Chilli Con Carne, Confit Potato, Hot Chocolate and Banana Bread (which Poppy brought in for Chris and the team to enjoy).

When Chris asked for her three favourite recipes in the book, she replied: “I would say it's got to be Jack Daniel's Pork. I'd actually say the Roasted Tomato Soup with the cheesy, toasty as well.

“And then I think in terms of potatoes, it's the Confit Potatoes. So, it's new potatoes in butter in the slow cooker for X amount of hours, I can't remember off top of my head. And then you cut them in half, and then you fry them so they go like golden, but they've just been cooked in butter for hours.” 

Speaking of potatoes, Poppy added: “Roast potatoes are one of my favorite ever ways to eat potatoes, and especially you've got a bit of lamb fat in there. 

On how to make the perfect roasties, she said: “Quarter the potatoes if they're big, and halve them if they're small. Cook them…  start in cold water. Loads of salt. It has to taste like the sea. You could float in it. 

“Bring them up to the boil, and then I boil them for about 10 to 15 minutes, a longer time boiling, so they're quite soft. So there's a danger zone where it becomes mash. Then you tip them into colander, put the colander back into the pan that you just used, and then put a tea towel over it, and put it back onto the space on the hob, but turn it off, and then let that residual heat steam everything up, and that dries them out. The drier the better.

"So, I'll leave them for about another five to ten minutes to get dry, and then there's hot fat in the oven… just a vegetable oil… if it's something special, there will be maybe an animal fat, goose fat, bit of beef fat, bit of duck fat. And then tip them in. I get the oven to about 220 first.”

She added: “Get it super hot. Do about 10 minutes of them super, super hot. And then bring the oven down. So you get that first, like, full on fire of heat.

“I'm so passionate about roast potatoes!”

Talking more about her new cookbook, Poppy told Chris: “There's a whole big veggie section... I definitely wanted to kind of bring in some more veggie options, because I felt a lot of my content and recipes are quite fat and meat heavy, which is very on brand for me.

"So, I really wanted to push myself and do some really delicious veggie ones as well.”

The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook is out this Thursday 12th September.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.