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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Cook it low and slow

Editor's note: Today we introduce a few twists on the Taste theme. Each week, the newly formatted Quick Bites column will include ideas for places to go and things to do related to food and wine, and a tip for home cooks. 7 or Less is an easy-to-prepare recipe with no more than seven ingredients. On the first Wednesday of each month, the How to Cook feature will offer basic instruction in a dish, a technique or a kitchen tool. Food editor Wanda Adams' Food for Thought column will continue to explore food issues, helpful ideas, useful cookbooks and other topics. Inside you'll find the Recipe Doctor column, offering ways to reduce the fat, salt and sugar in favorite recipes. And we've got more new features to roll out later. Watch for them.

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Deidre Todd of Macy's prepares kalua pig in a Rival Crock-Pot. The new generation of slow cookers boasts thoughtful features such as timers and automatic shut-off.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Wesleen Smith is finding her secondhand slow cooker handy while her kitchen is being remodeled. At Compleat Kitchen at Ala Moana, where she works, others piped up with their slow cooker stories, telling of easy chili and no-fuss soups.

The slow cooker, a popular countertop appliance in the 1970s, is back.

The first slow cookers, dating to pre-electricity times, were crockery vessels filled with ingredients that were brought to a boil, then nestled in beds of hay. Modern slow cookers aren't much more complicated: a plug-in heating element, a metal outside sheath, a removable crockery liner.

Deidre Todd of Macy's at Ala Moana Center said the new generation of pots offers more options. Rival's Smart Pot allows you to program the cooking time so that it turns itself off. Dual slow-cookers have side-by-side crocks, so you can prepare two items at once; these are popular for keeping kalua pig and laulau warm at lu'au, she said. Oval cookers accommodate chickens and roasts.

The cookers also partner effectively with popular vacuum packers; pouches of food can steam atop roasting meats.

Swanton, Ohio, cookbook writer Dawn Hall recommends buying the common 3.5-quart size; 5- or 6-quart cookers are for larger families or gatherings.

Hall has found only one brand of pasta that doesn't melt or go pasty in the slow cooker (Meuller's, which is not available here). However, she sometimes "melts" pasta in a recipe on purpose, allowing it to thicken the gravy.

• • •

Slow cooking is perfect for Island favorites

Two local-style favorites and two recipes from a homey, convenience-driven cookbook illustrate the diversity of the slow cooker.

Kalua pork has an affinity for the slow cooker. Cooking instructor Deidre Todd of Honolulu says many people use one to keep the pork warm on a buffet line. In her recipe below, the slow cooker offers the same steamy atmosphere as an 'imu — and no need make fire!

Local-style Kalua Pork or Chicken

  • 3-4 pounds pork butt or shoulder, or chicken thighs
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons Hawaiian rock salt
  • 2 tablespoons liquid smoke
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 4 washed ti leaves

Line bottom of slow cooker with 2 ti leaves. Rub pork or chicken generously with salt and liquid smoke and place on ti leaves. Add water. Fit remaining ti leaves around outer edge of crockpot. Cover and cook on low setting 8-10 hours. Serves 6.

Todd calls this a "canna, canna, canna" recipe: You just open the tomato sauce, pour it into a bowl, then use the can to measure the shoyu, sake and sugar.

When I tested this recipe, I used slightly less sugar (it was still quite sweet) and a somewhat smaller roast (3 1/2 pounds) and it was done in a little over six hours. It was judged "very 'ono."

If you like, you can use a little slurry of cornstarch and water to thicken the juices in the last half-hour of cooking. As an alternative to the typical meat-and-rice meal, Todd recommends serving this meat with the Chinese steamed buns often served with kau yuk.

Okinawan Shoyu Pork

  • 4 pounds pork butt
  • 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
  • 1 can shoyu
  • 1 can sake
  • 1 can sugar

Blend flavoring ingredients. Place pork butt in slow cooker. Pour mixture over. Cover and cook on low heat 8-10 hours. Serves 8.

Dawn Hall's "Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook" (Rutledge Hill Press, spiral-bound, $16.99) is full of low-fat slow cooker dishes that employ plenty of shortcuts (canned and packaged goods and even frozen foods).

The Swanton, Ohio, cookbook writer also tries to allow some flexibility: The following pork roast supper, for example, can be cooked on low if you're going to be gone 6 to 8 hours, or on high in 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Lemon Pepper Pork Tenderloin with Lemon-Kissed Potatoes

  • 2 pounds pork tenderloin, all visible fat removed
  • 2 medium lemons cut into quarters, discarding seeds
  • 1 teaspoon ground pepper
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 8 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley

Spray the slow cooker with nonfat cooking spray.

With a knife, cut the pork tenderloin down the center lengthwise to divide in half. Make 1/2-inch deep cuts all over the pork. Squeeze lemon juice on the tenderloin and sprinkle lightly with pepper and garlic salt. Place the meat in the slow cooker.

Place the diced potatoes in a bowl with the water and cream of tartar. Soak for 1 minute (this keeps potatoes from turning brown during cooking).

Put the potatoes on top of the meat in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with parsley. Arrange any remaining lemon quarters on top.

Cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Remove the lemons before serving. Arrange on platter, sprinkle potatoes lightly with salt and more parsley.

Makes 8 serving.

Reading about baking cakes in Hall's book, I was skeptical. But Hall assured me in a phone interview that I'd change my mind if I tried Lemon Spoon Cake with Lemon Sauce — a recipe that came about as the result of a failure. She was trying to make an upside-down cake in which the lemon sauce would ooze down the side once the cake was flipped out of the pot, but she couldn't get the sauce to jell correctly. But the cake/pudding sauce combo, served up like pudding with a spoon right from the slow cooker, tasted great. So she made others using similar principles, and they have become family favorites. If you have a large slow cooker and are serving a group, you can double the recipe.

Lemon Spoon Cake with Lemon Sauce

  • 1 (4.5 ounce) box lemon cook-and-serve pudding
  • 2 1/2 cups water
  • 3/4 cup sugar or Splenda sweetener
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 (18.25-ounce box) white cake mix
  • 1 (3-ounce) box lemon-flavored gelatin
  • 1/3 cup applesauce
  • 1 1/4 cups water

Preheat slow cooker to high.

Spray with nonfat cooking spray.

Stir the pudding mix, 2 1/2 cups water and sugar or Splenda together in slow cooker until dissolved.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites 2 minutes, or until foamy. Stir in the cake mix, gelatin, applesauce and remaining 1¥ cups water. Gently stir 2 minutes. The batter will be lumpy.

Pour the cake batter into the pudding mixture in the slow cooker. Do not stir.

Place a paper towel on top of the slow cooker and cover, using the lid to secure the paper towel in place.

Cook on high for 2 hours.

Remove the lid and paper towel.

Unplug slow cooker, and if possible, carefully remove crock using oven mitts. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Serve directly from the slow cooker, with ice cream is nice.

Makes 12 servings.

• • •

The slow cooker is NOT for you if:

  • You like to fuss with food while it's cooking.
  • You have no storage space left in the kitchen.
  • You don't like appliances that heat up the kitchen.

Slow-cooker uses

  • Keep food warm on a buffet line.
  • Make and serve warm punch or toddy.
  • Reduce work in a labor-intensive meal, i.e., mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving.

Slow-cooker meat and potatoes

Author Dawn Hall has learned to "layer" a whole meal in a slow cooker: meats and liquids on the bottom, folded foil packets or vacuum-seal pouches of vegetables and potatoes on top. For dense vegetables, place an ice cube in the packet. Dot with butter, add herbs or spices, onion strips or sliced mushrooms to packet as desired. Cook according to meat directions.

Slow cooker books

Two new releases take radically different approaches:

  • "The Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Dawn Hall (Rutledge Hill Press, spiral bound, $16.99) employs convenience foods, cuts steps whenever possible, emphasizes ease of cleanup, focuses on low-fat options.
  • "The Gourmet Slow Cooker," by Lynn Alley (10 Speed Press, paper, $18.95) interprets dishes from around the world for the slow cooker; starts from scratch; employs herbs, spices and wine in cooking; uses out-of-slow-cooker techniques for pre- or post-preparation.

• • •

Slow-cooker tips for easy meals

  • Avoid the "high" setting; food boils, becomes mushy.
  • Brown food on stove top, then place in slow cooker.
  • For cakes: Butter or oil inside, cover with waxed paper, oil the waxed paper. Place paper towel just under lid to retain moisture in baking.
  • In converting from standard recipes, use half the liquid.
  • Wipe down meats; trim fats to avoid excess moisture.
  • If starting with frozen food, use warm liquid.
  • To evaporate liquid toward end of cooking, leave lid slightly ajar.
  • Never fill more than three-quarters full.
  • Older cookers have hot spots; turn the inserted pot to promote even cooking.
  • Many slow-cooker recipes taste better the next day; prepare ahead.
  • Lifting the lid adds 20 or so minutes to cooking time.
  • Avoid drowning food; limit liquids.
  • Never touch insert without hot pads during cooking.

Source: "The Gourmet Slow Cooker," Lynn Alley; "Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook," Dawn Hall; Honolulu cooking teacher Deidre Todd