Make It Fast, Cook It Slow (28 page)

CRANBERRY PORK ROAST

serves
4
to
6

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the meat in a plastic ziplock bag with the ginger, mustard, salt, pepper, and cornstarch. Shake to coat. Pour the contents into your stoneware. Add the cranberries, sugars, raisins, and garlic. Pour in cranberry juice, and top with the lemon slices. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for about 4 hours. Serve with rice or pasta.

The Verdict

One of my Web site readers wrote “this is hands down our family’s favorite slow cooker recipe.” My friend who tried it liked it a lot, and her husband said the meat was perfectly cooked and juicy. Her nine-year-old, Austin, reported “I didn’t really like the cranberries so much, but I thought they really brought out the flavor of the pork.” Oh my. He’s adorable.

FAJITAS

serves
4

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put meat in crock with onion and bell peppers. Sprinkle in seasoning, and add water. Stir. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours, or on high for 6 hours. The meat is done when it reaches desired tenderness. I like to cook on low for as long as possible, because I don’t like to chew forever. Serve with your favorite fajita fixins’. We really like squeezing some fresh lime over the top of the meat before doctoring it up.

The Verdict

My family adores Mexican food. My kids will eat anything with cheese and sour cream on it, and avocado was their very first food. Fajitas are fun to make (I like the name—they sound much fancier than tacos for some reason), and are easy to prepare with the help of the slow cooker. I get the meat going in the morning, and then head out for fresh ingredients at some point during the day, or ask Adam to stop on his way home from work.

FLANK STEAK STUFFED WITH APPLE, FETA, AND ALMONDS

serves
4

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the flank steak in a plastic ziplock bag with the honey and soy sauce and marinate overnight.

In the morning, combine the feta cheese, garlic, green apple, and chopped almonds in a mixing bowl. Pour the flank steak and marinade into the stoneware. Remove the meat from the marinade, and put it on a cutting board. Put a handful or two of the cheese filling in the middle of the flank, and roll it up. Return the meat to the crock, seam-side down. If you’d like to secure the meat with twine or skewers, go for it. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. Slice carefully, and serve. If the meat unrolls a bit, you can stick it back together with toothpicks to present nicely. Or don’t worry about it—it’s just going to get eaten anyway. If you are left with extra garlic, feta, apple, and almond mixture, it makes a great salad topping.

The Verdict

This is a good meal. A very good meal. A meal that I never in a gazillion years would have ever attempted to make (or think up) without a wild and crazy slow-cooking challenge. Each one of us cleaned our plates.

FRENCH DIP SANDWICHES

serves
4

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the butter into the bottom of the stoneware and turn the cooker to high. Add the meat, garlic, and onion, and swirl around in the butter. Pour in the broth, beer, and sherry. Add the black pepper, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. Serve on rolls. I made rolls from a gluten-free bread mix, and added cheddar cheese to the sandwiches. (Traditionally, Gruyère is used.)

Serve the sandwiches on plates with a small bowl of broth. Dip the sandwich into the broth before each bite for a nice juicy flavor and consistency.

GINGER BEEF WITH ONIONS AND GARLIC

serves
4

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the olive oil into the stoneware, and toss with the meat. Add the onion, and whole garlic cloves. Put in the ginger and black pepper. Pour in the chicken broth. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours. Serve over pasta. I chose brown rice fusilli. This will give you stinky breath. Consider yourself warned.

HAGGIS

serves
8

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. In a large mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients, except the cooking spray and the broth, the same way you’d make a meatloaf. Spray the stoneware with cooking spray, and place the meat blob inside. Shape with your hands into a round lump. Pour in the broth. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. The haggis is fully cooked when it has browned on the edges and is beginning to brown on top. Don’t overcook it and risk having it dry out. Use large spatulas to carefully remove it from the cooker and set it on a cutting board. Let rest for a full 30 minutes before slicing.

The Verdict

Haggis is pretty much a Scottish meatloaf, which is traditionally cooked in a sheep’s stomach, or pluck, to keep it all together. The pluck isn’t eaten—it’s just used as a casing. I actually bought a pluck from our local butcher to try it out, but after 45 minutes of fiddling around with the box of innards, I still couldn’t figure out which part was the stomach—the butcher had given me all the entrails. So this is an Americanized version—no pluck needed. I loved the flavors of the clove and nutmeg, and liked the kick of the cayenne. It was salty, but not too salty, and it reminded me of the haggis I ate in Scotland when I was twelve. This was served at a family party, and all who tasted really enjoyed it.

HAMBURGER PATTIES

serves
2

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 6-quart oval slow cooker. Insert a wire rack into the stoneware, or make a rack out of aluminum foil by weaving foil “worms” together. Place the frozen meat on top of the rack. Sprinkle the seasoned salt on top. Cover and cook on high for 60 to 90 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through. Add the sliced cheese, if desired, 15 minutes prior to serving. Drain on paper towels, and serve on a bun or a rice cake with desired toppings.

The Verdict

School was out for the summer when I prepared these burgers, which meant many more meals at home for me and the kids. Usually the “cooked” lunches around here are canned chili or soup, but I thought I’d give hamburgers in the slow cooker a whirl to see what happened. The result was a fun lunch the kids gobbled down without grease splatters on my stovetop, or me needing to learn how to turn on the barbecue. That thing scares me.

HICKORY-SMOKED BRISKET

serves
6

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the meat into the stoneware, and rub the spices on all sides. Add the A-1 sauce and liquid smoke. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, or on high for 4 to 6 hours. Slow and low is better; the meat will shred nicely when cooked for a long period of time. Serve over mashed potatoes or polenta.

The Verdict

It tastes like wet beef jerky—which is a good thing. Our house smelled like we were in the middle of a national forest (one that allows campfires) while the meat was cooking.

HIRINO PSITO

serves
6

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Put the meat into the stoneware, and sprinkle on the sage, rosemary, salt, pepper, and brown sugar. Flip the meat over a few times in the stoneware so the herbs and spices are kind of stuck to all sides. Peel the garlic cloves and add whole. Add the Worcestershire sauce, mustard, honey, and cranberries. Top with the bay leaves. Pour in the beer (drink the rest). Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, or until meat shreds easily with a fork. Serve over rice or pasta, or on your favorite sandwich rolls.

The Verdict

Adam declared this recipe the “winner.” I didn’t know we were actually conducting a contest, but whatever. He happily ate the meat for lunch for almost a whole week.

JALAPEÑO POT ROAST

serves
6

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put meat into crock, and add the cream-of soup, jalapeño slices, black beans, and onion rings. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

After cooking, remove the meat with tongs. Scoop out a cup of the liquid, and put it into a mixing bowl with yogurt or sour cream. Mix well. Pour the mixture back into the cooker, and stir until the yogurt or sour cream has dissolved completely. Slice the meat, and return it to the crock.

The Verdict

It’s up to you how spicy you’d like this meal to be. I used 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) of the sliced jalapeños, and then used 2 cups of plain yogurt to mellow the flavor. I liked it like that, and so did my family. There was definitely a kick, but it wasn’t too crazy. If you’re worried about the heat, stick with 2 tablespoons sliced jalapeños, and then slowly add yogurt at the end to taste.