By Request Betty Shimabukuro

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Mere mortals can rely upon these recipes

BECAUSE of the type of work I do, people tend to think my family eats very well. This is wrong. My family mainly gets experimented on.

For one period last spring, for example, I was testing recipes for oatcakes. While this is a noble concern, oatcakes are just not cookies. My daughter asked if we were ever going to bake anything good again.

On the other hand, the experimental coconut chiffon cake was a big hit.

When it comes to everyday meals, I am a reality cook. Nothing complicated, nothing involving expensive ingredients, nothing that requires stovetop fussing. If it can be made in 15 minutes, that's my kind of dish.

Like most regular folk, I rotate through a few faithful recipes and make fried rice out of the leftovers. Take-out pizza fills in the gaps.

What this job does provide is access to lots of cookbooks and cooking magazines, plus I get paid to hunt around for recipes online. This means the family does eat well on occasion.

Compiled here are the best recipes collected last year, from a reality-cooking standpoint. These are the dishes I've added to that recipe rotation in my kitchen.

Best dish from a cookbook:

Most times, cookbooks by chefs -- and Jacques Pepin is one of the great ones -- are full of beautiful recipes that are just too difficult. "Fast Food My Way" (Houghton Mifflin, 2004, $30) is designed for mere mortals.

Pepin's suggestion for roasting thin slices of eggplant until crisp around the edges has become my favorite way of preparing this particular veggie.

One of my reality-cooking concepts is to roast a lot of vegetables at one time, then parcel them out through the week. This fits right in. It's also an attractive party dish, with the slices rolled up or folded over and served over a bed of spicy greens.

The cookbook calls for round eggplants, but I use long Japanese eggplants, the largest I can find.

Asian Eggplant

1-1/4 pounds Japanese eggplant
2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel eggplant and cut into 1/4-inch slices. Brush cookie sheet with oil. Arrange eggplant in single layer on cookie sheet (you may need 2 sheets). Press into oil, then turn to coat other side. Sprinkle with salt. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until eggplant is soft and lightly brown. Serves 4.

Serve alone, as part of a roasted vegetable platter or on top of a bed of watercress, arugula or greens. For a nice presentation, fold slices over or roll them up.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 100 calories, 7 g total fat, no saturated fat or cholesterol, 270 mg sodium, 9 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 5 g sugar, 1 g protein.

Best recipe from a magazine:

This one is adapted from the April edition of Sunset, a very practical source of cooking ideas.

It calls for brining pork chops, which makes them moist and flavorful, especially in this case, as the brine is made with beer.

The original called for an onion "marmalade" -- essentially a bed of caramelized red onions -- which I've adapted through the year to include mushrooms.

Beer-Brined Pork Chops

4 bone-in center-cut pork loin chops (about 1 inch thick)
3 tablespoons olive oil

» Brine:
3 cups (2 12-ounce bottles) beer
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard or coriander seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

» Onion-Mushroom Marmalade:
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
8-ounce package button mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar

Combine brine ingredients and stir to dissolve sugar. Place pork chops in brine and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, or overnight.

Remove pork chops from brine; discard brine.

Heat olive oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chops and brown well on both sides, turning once, about 6 minutes total. Remove chops to a plate.

Add onions and mushrooms to pan. Stirring frequently, cook until onions are soft and brown, 10 to 15 minutes (lower heat if onions begin to scorch).

Stir in vinegar and brown sugar. Stir, scraping bottom of pan to loosen any browned bits, until liquid is nearly evaporated.

Return chops to pan, on top of onion mixture. Cover and cook until barely pink in center (cut to test), about 8 minutes. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 430 calories, 21 g total fat, 5 g saturated fat, 70 mg cholesterol, greater than 2,500 mg sodium, 28 g carbohydrate, g 2 fiber, 25 g sugar, 25 g protein.

Best recipe off the Internet:

Someone gifted us with a bag full of homemade caramels this Christmas. They were lovely, but consuming 80 of them was daunting.

So I Googled "caramel cookie" and out of many hits were a few versions of this bar cookie that conveniently used up most of the caramels. And they got rave reviews.

This was adapted from the version posted on chef2chef.net.

Caramel Bar Cookies

» Crust:
1 cup flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar

» Topping:
14 ounces caramel pieces
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13-by-9-inch baking pan.

Combine flour, oats, salt and soda.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in oat mixture. Do not overbeat.

Set aside 1 cup of crust mixture. Press remainder into baking pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat evaporated milk in saucepan over low heat. Stir in caramels until melted and smooth. Pour over baked crust. Sprinkle chocolate chips over caramel mixture, then sprinkle reserved crust batter over chips. Return to oven and bake 20 minutes more, until topping is light brown.

Cool in pan on a rack, then cut into bars.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Best recipe out of my own brain:

If you've never used okara, that odd-looking byproduct of tofu-making, don't be afraid. It doesn't have a give-away tofu taste, but does pack soy protein into a meal.

These patties are easily assembled and can be served many ways: Over salad greens, inside a bun or alongside rice or potatoes. Dress them up with salsa or just put the ketchup bottle on the table.

Okara-Salmon Burgers

2 7.5-ounce cans salmon
1 12-ounce package okara (soybean meal)
1 egg
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

Preheat broiler.

Place salmon, with oil from can, into mixing bowl. Pick out bones. Add okara and egg. Mix gently by hand until well-combined. Form into 2-inch patties and roll in panko. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and broil until brown, 10 to 15 minutes.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per burger: 200 calories, 7 g total fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, 45 mg cholesterol, 220 mg sodium, 15 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, no sugar, 22 g protein.