DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STAR-BULLETIN.COM After a day at work and a long commute, arriving home to a dinner all ready to serve is a gift. In most cases, though, this requires crock pot recipes that call for more than eight hours cooking time. One good bet is a traditional St. Patrick's Day meal of corned beef and cabbage.

Cooking
in slow motion

Do it right and you'll have
a great meal to come home to

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By Betty Shimabukuro
bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

For the last year, I have been trying to develop a meaningful relationship with my crock pot. He has betrayed me often, though, leaving me disappointed and broken-hearted, my stews overcooked, my vegetables an unattractive shade of beige.

Some of my friends have cast their crocks out of the house, unable to deal with their unpredictability.

But I remain committed, because there is nothing better to come home to than a nice, hot meal ready to scoop out of the pot. No reheating, no stopping for take-out, no hassles. And the only way to get this, short of a private chef or a very cooperative older child, is a crock pot.

I am not interested in typical slow-cooker recipes that average five or six hours of cooking time. That requires someone to be home to turn off the pot in the middle of the afternoon.

I want dishes that can be started when I go out the door and won't reach their peak until I get home nine or 10 hours later. I want my life made easier.

So began a search, which led me to a selection of dependable, longtime recipes that ensure a long-term relationship with Mr. Pot. They include roasts, beans and even laulau.

The crock pot is great to have around St. Patrick's Day for that corned beef dinner, seeing as a big hunk o' meat is one of the most reliable slow-cooker ingredients. Instead of using the stove top, where you must tend to your pot to prevent boil-over, let the crock pot simmer for 10 hours or so, while you ignore it.

STERLING PUBLISHING Don't expect the apples and sweet potatoes in your Heritage Pork Roast to resemble this colorful, crisp-looking tableau. After hours of cooking, they'll be quite soft and dull, but the flavors will merge nicely.

Carol Heding Munson, author of "The Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook," has been with one slow cooker or another for 20 years, taking hers out for a fling about twice a month. She agrees, though, that results can be discouraging. "Like anyone, I've had failures."

The trick is to pick the right recipes. For long-term cooking, she suggests roasts and soups, with meat in large pieces and root vegetables.

Stews are a possibility, but often smaller cuts of meats will cook in less time than their recipes state, Munson said. Leaving them for eight hours-plus could result in overdone, chewy meats.

"I'd probably characterize the pieces as 'stewed,' more than dried out," she said. "In recent years, we've tended to move away from stewing as a cooking technique, preferring to grill and quickly sauté meats. Meats and poultry have been bred to meet those demands. For example, 'stewing chicken' is now a rare bird."

Before leaving a stew to cook all day, try it first when you're home and can check on the meat. Start two hours prior to the recipe's stated cooking time. It may well be done already.

The variations in cooking time have to do with type of pot, the fat content of the meat, how cold the ingredients were to start and more. If you find a stew that does hold up to nine hours of cooking, you can try it on a work day.

Cut meat into larger pieces, Munson said, "or use a cut, such as beef chuck, that stands up to lengthy cooking."

Before launching into the recipes, a word about safety. Slow cookers are designed to be left unattended for long periods of low-heat (200- to 300-degree) cooking. If you're the type to unplug the toaster before you leave home, though, this appliance is not for you.

Warnings are more often issued about food safety: Don't let raw food sit in the pot for a long time before turning it on. Don't let cooked food sit in the pot too long after turning it off. Don't try to thaw frozen food in a crock pot, and don't use it for reheating.

In 20 years, Munson said she's only had one problem with a crock pot. It was an older pot, and the heating coils simply burned out. There was no fire, no shorted-out fuse; the pot simply stopped working and dinner was ruined.

That said, here are some tested recipes that will give you something warm and tasty to come home to.

This is a great one-pot meal. The cabbage does take an extra half-hour, but that's time you can be using to change clothes, open a bottle of wine (or pour green food coloring in the beer), slice the meat and set the table. The nice thing is the cabbage doesn't come out all mushy.

Crock Pot Corned Beef

"Slow Cooker Recipes" (Pillsbury, 2002)

4 medium red potatoes
4 medium carrots, in 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, in 6 wedges
1 corned beef brisket (about 2-1/2 pounds) with seasoning packet
1 12-ounce can beer
Water
8 thin wedges cabbage
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Place potatoes, carrots and onion in bottom of a 4- to 6-quart crock pot. Top with corned beef and sprinkle with seasonings from packet. Add beer and enough water to cover brisket. Cover and cook on low 9 to 11 hours.

Remove corned beef. Place cabbage in pot and turn heat to high; cook 30 minutes or until cabbage is crisp-tender.

Meanwhile, combine applesauce and mustard to make a sauce; slice beef. Serve beef with sauce and vegetables with juices in the crock pot. Serves 8.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 370 calories, 20 g total fat, 6 g saturated fat, 100 mg cholesterol, 1,260 mg sodium, 25 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 21 g protein.

Idea credit for this laulau recipe goes to Marilyn Ige, a former copy editor at the Star-Bulletin who now experiments with her crock pot in her new home in Seattle.

It addresses one of the drawbacks of long-term crocking -- the limited selection of vegetables that will hold up to all that cooking. Carrots, potatoes and turnips get old fast.

Luau leaf, though, needs nine hours in the pot, stewing away, to break down the calcium oxalate crystals that cause an itch in the mouth. Undercooked luau leaf will bite you back. Makes you wonder how anyone figured out it was edible in the first place.

At any rate, this recipe calls for parboiling the leaves. Otherwise they take up too much space in the pot, plus you'll have to cook them even longer.

This is a basic mix with pork only, but you could experiment by substituting beef, chicken thighs or taro chunks for part of the pork. Salted fish also works, if you are able to add it to the pot in the last hour or two. Otherwise it really falls apart. Be sure the fish has no bones; it's very hard to pick them out afterward.

These ingredients will fill a 5-quart crock pot.

Slow Cooker Laulau

3 pounds luau leaves
3 pounds boneless pork, in 2-inch chunks
2-1/2 tablespoons Hawaiian salt
3/4 cup water

Wash luau leaves and remove stems and fibrous parts of veins. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and wilt leaves, boiling them about 3 minutes. Drain.

Rub pork with Hawaiian salt, kneading thoroughly.

Layer wilted luau leaf in crock pot with pork. Add water. Cook on low heat 9 to 10 hours, or until luau leaves are cooked. Serves 8.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 460 calories, 29 g total fat, 10 g saturated fat, 115 mg cholesterol, greater than 2,000 mg sodium, 11 g carbohydrate, 40 g protein.*

The apples, sage and mustard in this dish give the roast an intriguing semi-sweet taste.

This recipe calls for a typical crockery technique of stirring a cornstarch slurry into the juices in the pot to make a sauce. I have never had luck with this and would suggest instead the quicker route of straining the juices and thickening the sauce on the stove. This also gives you a chance to remove some of the fat.

Browning the meat does provide extra color and flavor, but isn't essential to the recipe if you can't be bothered with such things early in the morning.

Heritage Pork Roast

"The Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Carol Heding Munson (Sterling Publishing, 2001)

1/2 cup apple juice or cider
1-1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1-inch thick
1 large onion, sliced 1/2-inch thick
4 medium apples, peeled and sliced
2-pound boneless pork roast
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 fresh sage leaves, snipped, or 1/8 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 cup cold water
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Pour apple juice into a 4- to 6-quart crock pot. Layer sweet potatoes, onions and apples in pot.

In a nonstick skillet, brown pork on all sides over medium-high heat. Place on top of potato mixture in pot. Brush mustard over roast and sprinkle with sage. Cover and cook on low 7 to 9 hours, or until pork reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

Remove pork and potato mixture. Combine water, sugar and cornstarch and stir into juices in crock pot. Turn heat to high and cook until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with roast. Serves 6.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 426 calories, 11.8 g total fat, 3.5 g saturated, 88 mg cholesterol, 179 mg sodium, 4.4 g fiber.

These intensely flavored beans would be a great dish for late in the week. You could serve them with the leftover roast that you made in your slow cooker on Monday. Or paired with bread and a salad, they make a hearty vegetarian meal.

Another idea: If you're invited to an after-work potluck, let these cook all day and just carry the whole pot off to the party.

Don't skip the overnight soak. Beans tend to get tough if cooked with sweeteners unless they are softened first.

Sweet-Hot Bean Casserole

"The Crockery Cook" by Mable Hoffman (Fisher books, 1998)

1 pound great northern beans, rinsed
6 cups water
1 cup crushed gingersnaps
2 tablespoons sweet-hot mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup molasses
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Combine beans with water; let soak at least 8 hours. Drain, reserving 2-1/2 cups liquid.

Combine beans, reserved liquid and remaining ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low about 10 hours, if possible stirring once during cooking. Serves 6.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 339 calories, 7 g fat, 8 mg cholesterol, 345 mg sodium, 58 g carbohydrate, 12 g protein.

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