Going slow

In an increasingly gourmet world, it’s easy to forget about that homey gadget tucked away in the dark recesses of your cupboard, yearning to cook.

You’d be hard pressed to find a kitchen without a slow cooker. After all, Rival, maker of the best-selling Crock-Pot slow cooker, has sold more than 130 million of them since 1971. While some cooks seem at a loss about how to use their slow cookers beyond chili and stew, others have enthusiastically embraced the machine.

Benita Galland of Rockford Bay, on Lake Coeur d’Alene, is one of them. She got her slow cooker from her mother-in-law as a wedding present 32 years ago. Both the slow cooker and the marriage still work just fine.

That crockpot came in handy when Galland was working; she retired as principal of Progress Elementary School last year.

“Thank God for the crockpot,” she said. “Having a good dinner ready after a long commute is a stress reducer.”

Even though Galland and her husband, Bob, are both retired now, the crockpot still comes in handy, she said. Especially on ski days.

“We head off to the mountain and come back tired and cold,” she said. “It’s great to have something warm waiting for you.”

Linda Waud of Spokane is another longtime slow-cooking enthusiast. As a working wife and mother, she came to rely on her crockpot.

“As any working-outside-the-home woman knows, serving nutritious meals on a regular basis can be tricky,” she said. “But that is exactly why you need to get out the crockpot and actually use it.”

A battle with cancer took her out of the workforce. She’s healthy now, and even though she no longer works outside the home – she cares for her grandchildren and is a volunteer doula – she still uses her slow cooker once or twice a week.

“It gives me more time to enjoy life, which is where I am right now after I had cancer twice,” she said. “I’m really enjoying every day and making the most of the time.”

Several Spokesman-Review readers were quick to dispel the idea that slow cooking is for cold-weather months only.

“Summertime cooking done in the slow cooker keeps your home cooler,” said Laura Estes of Odessa, Wash. “If you happen to have a secure place in your garage or on your patio, you can move the heat right outdoors.”

Shelly Johnson, extension educator with the University of Idaho Extension Service in Kootenai County, can attest to the timesaving benefits of the slow cooker.

“Most reports I see say it cuts your time in half in preparing dinner,” she said. “To be able to come home and have dinner on the table in 15 minutes is not bad.”

Simplicity – prepare ingredients, combine, cover and cook – is one plus of slow cooking.

Johnson points to a couple others: economy and nutrition.

“There is a health benefit when it comes to the crockpot,” Johnson said. “You can get away with lower-fat cuts of meat.”

Turning tough, low-fat and generally cheaper cuts of meat into mouthwatering meals is the slow cooker’s specialty. A slow cooker provides low, even heat, which over a lengthy cooking time will cause even the leanest pot roast to fall apart.

That low, even heating also results in another cost efficiency – electricity use, Johnson said. It takes less juice to run your crockpot than it does to fire up your oven or stove.

Johnson also likes the slow cooker because it can help people have a more balanced diet.

“I think the crockpot allows you to prepare some vegetables as well,” she said. “A lot of times in our diet today, we forget about those.”

Not just vegetables. The slow cooker can be used to make soups, stews, fondues, marinara sauce, oatmeal, casseroles and entrees. There are recipes for slow-cooker bread and slow-cooker risotto.

Galland loves the slow cooker’s versatility.

“You can do anything in a crockpot. I’ve seen recipes for Spanish rice,” she said. “You could probably make an omelet.”

You can certainly make dessert.

Susan Dillard of Oldtown, Idaho, shared her recipe for Triple Chocolate Mess, a confection she whips up in her 4-quart crockpot. But she admits that she doesn’t make other desserts. In fact, she doesn’t use her slow cooker as much as she could.

“Well, I guess the reason I don’t use it more is that I only have found a few really good recipes that I like. Sometimes I find that food tastes ‘overcooked’ and I don’t care for that,” she said. “I really don’t know of any drawbacks; I should use it more.”

Sara Habein of Rockford hasn’t had great luck making slow cooker soups; the flavors aren’t strong enough for her, she said. But beef recipes work like a charm, she’s found.

“The recipes I usually stay away from are the ones that involve a bunch of cooking before you put the ingredients in the slow cooker. For me, the whole point of using the slow cooker is the ease, you just throw everything in and forget about it,” she said. “Sometimes, if I’m really thinking ahead, I’ll have what I can chop up ready the night before so it saves me a lot of time in the morning.”

We asked readers to send in their favorite slow cooker recipes. The response was enthusiastic; we received more recipes than we could print. But here are a few that caught our eye.

Pulled Pork

Submitted by Linda Waud, Spokane

1 (3-pound) pork butt

Salt

Black pepper

1 bottle prepared barbecue sauce

Chopped sweet onions

Soft rolls or buns

Place the pork in the slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the pot and cook on high heat for about 5 1/2 hours, or all day on low heat.

Remove the meat and set aside to cool. When the meat is cool enough to handle, trim off and discard the fat. Chop the meat coarsely with two knives or pull it with two forks. Refrigerate overnight.

Two or three hours before serving time, return the pork to the crockpot. Cover with a high-quality barbecue sauce. Cover and heat on high.

Serve on soft rolls or buns. Top with sweet onions and coleslaw if desired.

Note: Waud has been known to put in two bottles of barbecue sauce, if she’s cooking a bigger piece of meat and wants the filling to be succulent.

Yield: 8 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 424 calories, 15.5 grams fat (5 grams saturated, 34 percent fat calories), 38 grams protein, 30 grams carbohydrate, 113 milligrams cholesterol, 2 grams dietary fiber, 962 milligrams sodium.

Pork Chop Dandy

Submitted by Benita and Bob Galland, Rockford Bay

3 or 4 cans cream of mushroom soup (see note)

8 ounces cream cheese, cubed

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, sliced or chopped

6 to 8 cloves of garlic, whole or chopped

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sherry or white wine

1 cup uncooked rice

4 thick pork chops or country-style ribs

Mix soup, cubed cream cheese, onion, green pepper, garlic, red pepper, salt and sherry or wine in crockpot. Toss in the uncooked rice and stir. Place the pork chops on top and swirl a little soup mix over the top of the chops. Cook all day on low.

Note: Sometimes Bob Galland adds a can of cream of mushroom with roasted garlic soup along with the cream of mushroom. Also, you can cook the rice separately and pour the meat and sauce over the rice to serve. If you wish to brown the pork first, feel free.

Yield: 4 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 507 calories, 24 grams fat (10 grams saturated, 43 percent fat calories), 16 grams protein, 51 grams carbohydrate, 58 milligrams cholesterol, 2 grams dietary fiber, 1,480 milligrams sodium.

Chili

Submitted by Ron Weidman, Spokane Valley

2 pounds ground chuck

2 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce

2 (15-ounce) cans stewed tomatoes

2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and diced

Dash or two of Worcestershire sauce

1-2 bay leaves

Brown ground chuck until it is almost cooked through and drain. Combine beef and remaining ingredients in crockpot and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 448 calories, 16 grams fat (7 grams saturated, 32 percent fat calories), 33 grams protein, 41 grams carbohydrate, 73 milligrams cholesterol, 13 grams dietary fiber, 795 milligrams sodium.

Beef Curry Stew

Submitted by Sara Habein, adapted from http://beef.allrecipes.com/az/74788.asp1 onion, sliced and quartered

1 pound top round steak, cut into strips

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

1 cup beef broth

1/2 tablespoon roasted red chili paste

1/2 tablespoon red curry paste

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger

Place onions at the bottom of the slow cooker and top with the meat. In a bowl, stir together tomatoes, beef broth, chili and curry pastes, garlic and ginger and pour into the slow cooker. Cook for 8 hours on low.

About 30 minutes before you’re ready to eat, cook up some basmati rice according to directions. Serve stew mixture over rice.

Yield: 4 generous servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.

Slow-Cooked Coq au Vin

Submitted by Patricia Franks, Valleyford

3 pounds skinless chicken thighs

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 medium potato, cut into 6 chunks

2 cups fresh mushroom, sliced

1/2 cup cooked bacon bits

1 1/2 cups red wine, divided

1/2 cup cold water

3 tablespoons flour

Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine soup mix, flour, Italian seasoning and pepper in plastic bag. Add chicken and coat with flour mixture.

Place potato in bottom of slow cooker; layer in order over potatoes, mushrooms, coated chicken and bacon bits. Add 1 cup of wine and cover.

Cook on low 8 to 10 hours or high for 4 hours.

Remove chicken and vegetables from cooker to serving platter. Pour juices into sauce pan; skim off fat and discard. Whisk together cold water and flour and add to pan juices; add remaining 1/2 cup wine and bring to a boil, stirring until thickened.

Adjust seasonings if desired. Pour over chicken and vegetables. Serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 419 calories, 11 grams fat (3 grams saturated, 24 percent fat calories), 51 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrate, 195 milligrams cholesterol, 2 grams dietary fiber, 1,080 milligrams sodium.

Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce

From “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook,” by Julie Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.

1 (2-pound) boneless pork loin, trimmed of fat and cut into four pieces

2 large red bell peppers, seeded and cut into strips

1/3 cup teriyaki sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

For serving:

1/2 cup chopped green onion (white part and some of the green)

1/4 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts

2 limes, cut into 8 to 12 wedges

Hot jasmine rice

Coat a 3 to 4 1/2-quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Put the pork, bell peppers, teriyaki sauce, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes and garlic in the cooker. Cover and cook on low until the pork is fork-tender, 8 to 9 hours.

Remove pork from the cooker and coarsely chop. Add the peanut butter to the liquid in the cooker; stir well to dissolve the peanut butter and blend with the liquid to make the sauce. Return the pork to the sauce and toss to coat the meat evenly.

Serve in shallow bowls over hot rice, and sprinkle each serving with some of the green onions and peanuts. Pass the lime wedges.

Note: This recipe is a perfect example of why it’s good to pay attention to slow cooker sizes. I first tried this recipe in my 5 1/2-quart oval crockpot and cooked it as instructed. I ended up with practically no sauce. The next time I made it, I cooked it in my 3-quart round slow cooker and it turned out perfectly. If you have a large slow cooker and want to try this recipe, try doubling it and adding 90 minutes to 2 hours to the cooking time.

Yield: 4 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 474 calories, 23 grams fat (7 grams saturated, 45 percent fat calories), 53 grams protein, 11 grams carbohydrate, 134 milligrams cholesterol, 2 grams dietary fiber, 828 milligrams sodium.

Chicken Stock

From Mark Bittman. Bittman, a cookbook author and food columnist for the New York Times, detailed his love of the crockpot ot in a 2003 article. Here’s his recipe for easy chicken stock. If you want to deepen the flavor, trying browning the chicken first, deglazing the pan and adding the deglazing liquid to the crockpot along with the water.

3 to 4 pounds chicken parts (not breasts)

2 carrots, peeled and trimmed

1 large unpeeled onion, quartered

Several unpeeled garlic cloves

2 celery stalks

1/2 bunch parsley

Combine all ingredients in a large slow cooker and add water to cover by about 3 inches. Cover and cook until meat is falling off the bone, 4 hours or more on high heat, 6 hours or more on low.

Cool mixture, then strain, pressing on solids to extract juice. Chill stock; skim off fat if desired. Refrigerate up to three days or freeze.

Yield: About 3 quarts

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate due to recipe variables.

Triple Chocolate Mess

Submitted by Susan Dillard, Oldtown, Idaho

1 box devil’s food cake mix

1 small box chocolate instant pudding

1 pint sour cream

1 small bag chocolate chips

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 cup water

Spray crockpot with nonstick cooking spray. Mix all ingredients until smooth and pour into crockpot. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Serve in a bowl with vanilla ice cream.

Yield: 12 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.