It’s getting cooler, I’m hungry and I want to fill my tummy with comforting warmth. Don’t be put off if you don’t have a slow cooker (I don’t) because every recipe gives options for a slow cooker and the stovetop or oven, so you can choose according to your level of gadgetness. I’m happy to spend a bit of time in the kitchen slowly stirring a pan, or having the oven do the work while I do other things (I’d love to think I’d be curating a tasteful tablescape of foraged branches, gourds and winter roses, but most likely I’d be scrubbing out the wheelie bin). Not only hooking into winter comfort, the book also ticks the boxes for nutrition by using whole, unprocessed ingredients, and affordability since cheaper but more flavoursome cuts of meat yield tender results with extra time and gluts of winter vege come into their own. Soups, braises, curries and casseroles get the treatment and the repertoire runs from the family favourites such as pea and ham soup, chilli con carne and potato and prosciutto gratin to round-the-world flavours of Moroccan harira soup, beef short rib poutine, Sicilian roast beef with caponata and Spanish oxtail and chorizo stew. The curry and dahl chapter is my current go-to, with the Sri Lankan goat curry and beef and potato rendang already firm favourites. When you’re ready for a change of pace from the ‘15-minute meal’ genre, this is a good one for the slow lane. TRACY WHITMEY