Do-ahead dinners in the slow-cooker

The Orange County Register (MCT) - Armed with a stack of down-to-earth cookbooks, my daughter Alexis Thomas Harcharic and I started cooking together once a week. My goal was to help her establish a repertoire of uncomplicated recipes for one-pot dishes that could be prepared ahead without much fuss. And in the process, the slow cooker won Alexis' heart.

I still have my original slow cooker from the early '70s, a trusty harvest-gold beauty streaked with ancient bean-juice stains. We used Alexis' snazzy new model, a 6-quart oval with a brushed stainless steel exterior. It has a timer that automatically shuts off the cooker and keeps the contents warm.

We started cooking our way through "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann (Harvard Common Press, $16.95). I found that the slow cooker's improved appearance and functionality was only the start. The recipes have changed dramatically, too. Old-style recipes often had too much liquid, creating watered-down flavor and an unappetizing soupy consistency. New recipes use less liquid and often showcase more alluring international flavor profiles by adding a wide variety of herbs and spices. Delicate ingredients, like soft vegetables (such as peas or fresh spinach) or delicate seafood, are added to the mixture a few minutes before serving to preserve their flavor and texture.

Thai Pork

We tried the Thai Pork With Peanut Sauce, a sweet-sour-spicy concoction that showed off the flavors of Southeast Asian cuisine. Alexis served it with rice and thought it was perfect. A week later we tried a beef stew filled with fresh vegetables _ carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, mushrooms and peas. She complimented the flavor of the sauce, appreciating the taste that soy sauce, red wine vinegar and tomato sauce gave to the mixture. She said that next time she would triple the amount of carrots and probably leave out the celery, which she felt lost flavor after hours of cooking.

Overnight rules

After the first two attempts with the slow cooker, Alexis found that she preferred to cook overnight. Most cooks like to load up the slow cooker in the morning and return from their day away to a bubbling pot of food. She likes the cook-while-you-sleep approach so she can get an early start for work accompanied by a warm, inviting sample for lunch. Meanwhile, once the dish has partially cooled, you transfer it to the refrigerator.

The upside to this approach is that if there is fat in the dish, chilling congeals it so that it can be easily removed. The downside is that it requires reheating.

Judith Finlayson's book "The Healthy Slow Cooker" (Robert Rose, $22.95) offered a wide variety of recipes with ingredients that Alexis loved, such as an Indian-Style Chicken with Pureed Spinach, as well as Chili con Carne garnished with sour cream, roasted red bell pepper strips and chopped cilantro. And a Two-Bean Soup With Pistou (pistou is a smooth mixture of fresh basil, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese that is dolloped on top of each serving).

Veracuzana victory

I thought we'd hit the highest peaks of slow cookery until we tried Chicken a la Veracruzana in Rick Bayless' "Mexican Everyday" (Norton, $29.95). The book isn't exclusively slow cook, but includes some braised dishes, as well as bean dishes, that use the technique. The dish is a mixture of skinned chicken legs and thighs, red or Yukon Gold potatoes, diced tomatoes, garlic and pickled jalapenos, accented with a very appealing combination of herbs and spices. After the chicken and vegetables are slow cooked and wrestled onto dinner plates, a blend of chopped green olives and Italian parsley is mixed with the sauce in the slow cooker. After the sauce is sampled to see if it needs more seasoning, it's ladled over the chicken. Delicious.

Alexis liked it so much that she served it at a birthday party for her mother-in-law. Before dinner, she cooked a pot of fresh green beans and made a mixed green salad. Voila!

That sounds like do-ahead, relaxed entertaining at its best.

THAI PORK WITH PEANUT SAUCE

Serve this slow cooker pork over cooked rice and garnish with green onions and a wedge of lime.

Yield: 4 servings

Nonstick cooking spray

1 (2-pound) boneless pork loin, trimmed of fat and cut into 4 pieces

2 large red bell peppers, cored, seeded, cut into strips

1/3 cup prepared teriyaki sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

2 cloves garlic, minced

Ľ cup creamy peanut butter

For serving:

Cooked rice

˝ cup chopped green onions (white part and half of dark-green stalks)

Ľ cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts

2 limes, cut into 8 to 12 wedges

Procedure:

1. Coat inside of slow cooker with nonstick spray. Place pork, bell peppers, teriyaki sauce, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes and garlic in cooker. Cover and cook on low setting until pork is fork tender, 8 to 9 hours.

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

3. Serve in shallow bowls over hot rice. Sprinkle with green onions and peanuts. Pass lime wedges.

Nutritional information (per serving without rice): Calories 692 (62 percent from fat), fat 47.6 g, protein 60.7 g, carbohydrates 5.1 g, fiber 1.3 g, sodium 1,281 mg, calcium 24 mg

Source: "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook," by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann (Harvard Common Press, $16.95)

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CHICKEN A LA VERACRUZANA

This slow cooker entree is so good it can be a centerpiece party dish.

Yield: 6 servings

4 medium (about 1 pound total) red potatoes or Yukon Gold potatoes, each cut into 6 wedges

6 (about 3 pounds total) chicken leg-and-thigh quarters, skin pulled off and discarded

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice, drained

4 to 6 canned pickled jalapenos, stemmed, seeded and cut into strips

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/8 teaspoon dried thyme

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Ľ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Salt Ľ to ˝ cup coarsely chopped green olives (Manzanilla olives preferred)

Ľ cup (loosely packed) roughly chopped Italian parsley

Cook's notes: The mixture can be used as a soft-taco filling. Cook as directed through Step 2. When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred meat, discarding bones. Remove potatoes and roughly mash. Return chicken and potatoes to sauce. Stir in olives and parsley. Serve with a dozen warm tortillas.

Procedure:

1. Spread potatoes over bottom of slow cooker and top with chicken.

2. In a medium bowl, mix tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, Worcestershire, thyme, cloves, cinnamon and scant 2 teaspoons salt. Pour evenly over chicken. Cover and cook on low setting for 6 hours (the dish can be held in the slow cooker's "keep warm" function for 2 additional hours).

3. Using a large slotted spoon, carefully transfer a portion of chicken and vegetables to each of 6 dinner plates, leaving as much sauce behind as possible. Mix olives and parsley into sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Spoon sauce over chicken.

Nutritional information (per serving): Calories 602 (53 percent from fat), fat 35.4 g, protein 61.7 g, carbohydrates 10.2 g, fiber 1.5 g, sodium 1,699 mg, calcium 19 mg

Source: "Mexican Everyday," by Rick Bayless (Norton, $29.95)

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SLOW COOKER TWO-BEAN VEGETABLE SOUP WITH PISTOU

Delectable soup is topped with a dollop of pesto-like pizzazz.

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 medium onions, finely chopped

3 carrots, peeled and diced

1 bulb fresh fennel, base and feathery leaves discarded, cut in half lengthwise, cored, thinly sliced crosswise; see cook's notes

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted; see cook's notes

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including juice

6 cups chicken broth

2 baking potatoes, peeled, finely diced 2 (14 to 19 ounces each) cans white beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups frozen sliced green beans; see cook's notes

2 teaspoons paprika dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

Salt, if needed

Freshly ground black pepper

For pistou:

4 cloves garlic, peeled 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves ˝ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese Ľ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Cook's notes: If fresh fennel isn't available, substitute 6 stalks of celery, diced. To toast fennel seeds, place seeds in small, dry skillet. Place on medium heat and shake handle frequently to lightly brown evenly, about 2 to 3 minutes. If you prefer to use fresh green beans, cut them into 2-inch lengths and blanch them in boiling water for about 4 minutes or until cooked tender-crisp. Add them to slow cooker after stirring in the paprika. For a tasty variation, add 2 cups of cooked small pasta, such as elbow macaroni, along with the paprika.

Procedure:

1. In large, deep skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots and sliced fennel bulb. Stirring frequently, cook until vegetables start to soften, about 7 minutes. Add toasted fennel seeds and cook, stirring frequently, for 1 minute. Add tomatoes with juice and bring to boil. Transfer to large slow cooker.

2. Add broth, potatoes, white beans and green beans. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours, or until vegetables are tender. Stir in paprika solution and season to taste with salt (if using) and pepper. Cover and cook on high setting for 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, prepare pistou: In food processor fitted with the metal blade, drop in garlic through the feed tube with motor running. Process until garlic is minced. Stop and remove lid. Add basil and cheese; return lid and process until smooth. With motor running, add oil in thin stream through feed tube.

4. Ladle soup into bowls and top each with a dollop of pistou.

Nutritional information (per serving): Calories 498 (48 percent from fat), fat 26.5 g, protein 29.5 g, carbohydrates 31.7 g, fiber 2.2 g, sodium 1,583 mg, calcium 22 mg

Source: "The Healthy Slow Cooker," by Judith Finlayson (Robert Rose, $22.95)

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© 2008, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).