Slow Cook Your Way To Bowl Of Comfort Food
(SHNS Photo)
HOMEMADE DINNER: Pork Stew with apples and turnips in cider, served over noodles, makes a delicious slow-cooked fall dinner.
By AMY MCCONNELL SCHAARSMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This time of year, when you come in from raking leaves or picking apples or working at the office, there's nothing better than the scent of stew wafting around the inside of the house. Well, maybe the scent of stew and baking bread and pumpkin pie wafting around, but that's another story.
Fall is the perfect time of year for hearty stews and braises, with root vegetables still young and tender, fresh locally grown greens still available and apples - when you're cooking pork or chicken, a bright-tasting, sweet-tart counterpoint to heavier meat and vegetable flavors - having been just picked and brought to local farmers markets and farm stands.
And while summer cooking focuses on grilling and light preparation - types of cooking that require tender cuts such as tenderloins and steaks - stews and other slow-cooked meals not only allow, but require, more muscular (and typically, cheaper) meats that can stand up to long periods in a Dutch oven or slow cooker. These cuts sometimes do contain more fat, however, so be sure to trim away as much as possible before cooking and skim off any excess before serving.
Braising, or cooking meat with moist heat, was a popular cooking method on the farms of Europe, according to Lydie Marshall, a cooking instructor and author of "Slow-Cooked Comfort" (HarperCollins Publishers, $26.95), which focuses on French and Mediterranean braises, casseroles and stews.
"A brasier, a culinary word of French origin, described a bed of coals (les braises) in which a crockery or cast-iron pot was tightly closed and buried in the large fireplace of a farm kitchen," she writes. "The pot was usually left in the fireplace overnight to achieve a long tenderizing process for tough cuts of meat like beef rump or shank. Game was also very popular and needed long braising to make it tender and flavorful."
Which brings us to the modern-day slow-cooker debate about leaving an electrical appliance turned on in the house while you're away, and further about leaving cooked food sitting for periods of time until you get home (assuming you have one of the new-fangled models with an automatic shut-off, and that you can't be home all day to tend the coals of a large farmhouse fireplace).
In my younger, more carefree (some might say foolhardy) days, I blithely left my Crockpot bubbling away on the stove while I went off to work, trusting that it wouldn't burn the house down before I got back. I came home to various bubbling, fragrant stews, chilis and soups, and all was well in the world.
But that was when I still rented. Now I am a more mature (and probably more anxious) person with a home of my own and actual non-secondhand furniture to protect from catastrophe, and I use my slow cooker only when someone is going to be home - say, overnight or on the weekends when we're going only as far as the yard or briefly to the supermarket. This newfound caution was bolstered by the fact that my slow cooker, an aluminum-bodied Rival with a stoneware insert, has several times overheated to the point that ultimately, the plastic handles cracked and fell off. Not a confidence-inspiring quality in a slow cooker. (I have since found out that my particular type of slow cooker has been recalled because of that very problem. Now they tell me.)
As for automatic shut-off types of slow cookers, they are supposed to keep food hot enough after cooking is complete to prevent bacterial growth for a few hours. (Food is not supposed to be kept in temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees for any longer than two hours, according to food-safety experts.) So if you feel confident in your slow cooker's fireproof qualities, don't let food safety keep you from using it while you're away at work, as long as your appliance has a "warmer" feature that keeps the food above 140 degrees or as long as you'll be home sooner than two hours after it shuts off.
If you're a worrier like me, though, and want to use your slow cooker only when you're home anyway, you might want to consider using the Dutch oven instead. It operates on the same basic braising principle- include a bit of liquid such as stock, wine, tomato juice or even water among the ingredients - cover tightly and let cook in the oven for several hours.
The Dutch-oven method of slow cooking knocks several hours off the average slow-cooker cooking time, however, making it easier to produce dinner with less advance planning.
PROVENCAL BEEF STEW
4 pounds boned beef shank (shin or beef), cut into 2-inch pieces
2 large carrots, cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 small onions, quartered
4 garlic cloves, chopped
Olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 bottle red wine, Cotes du Rhone or zinfandel
3 tablespoons flour
6 ounces bacon or pancetta
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 large strip orange peel
1/2 pound macaroni
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
Combine meat, carrots, onions and garlic in large mixing bowl. Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil over them and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add wine. Cover and marinate for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Turn the meat and vegetables in the marinade several times. Strain meat and vegetables in a large colander over a bowl and reserve the marinade; set aside the carrots and onions in medium mixing bowl. Pat the meat dry with paper towels.
Put flour on a plate and season with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. A few pieces at a time, dip the meat in the flour, and brown it in the oil. Transfer browned meat to a 7-1/4-quart Dutch oven or to slow cooker's ceramic insert. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Lightly saute reserved vegetables in skillet, adding oil if necessary, over medium-high heat; add to the meat.
In a small pan, cover bacon or pancetta with cold water. Bring water to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and cut into 1/3-inch cubes. Add to the meat.
Pour reserved marinade over meat and add thyme, bay leaf and orange peel to the meat. Over low heat, bring meat and marinade to light boil. Place a piece of parchment paper directly over the meat and cover tightly with the lid. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 3 hours in Dutch oven, or about 6 hours in a slow cooker. Now and then, peek under the parchment paper and check the meat, skimming off any fat that rises to the top. Transfer meat to a heated platter, cover and reserve in a warm place. Skim off any additional fat that may surface.
Meanwhile, boil 4 quarts of salted water in a stockpot.
Add macaroni and bring back to boil. It will take about 12 minutes for the macaroni to cook (follow package instructions). Drain. In a heated mixing bowl, toss macaroni with 1/2 cup of the cooking juices and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Ladle some of the sauce over the stew. Serve the remaining sauce in a sauceboat, with the macaroni and a bowl of freshly grated parmesan cheese on the side. (If the stew is prepared ahead of time, refrigerate the meat and sauce separately.
When you are nearly ready to eat, remove the fat, if any, congealed on top of the sauce, bring it back to room temperature, and reheat.) Serves 6.
_ Adapted from "Slow-Cooked Comfort"
PORK STEW WITH APPLES AND TURNIPS IN CIDER
3 pounds boned pork shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut into 2-inch cubes
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
4 ounces pork rind (substitute 2 slices bacon if necessary)
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
2-1/2 cups hard cider
3 cups tart apples, peeled, cored and cut into eighths
3 cups small white turnips, peeled and cut into eighths
4 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
Place meat in a mixing bowl, and sprinkle with salt, freshly ground pepper and rosemary. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
Roll up the pork rind or fold bacon in half, tie with kitchen string, and cover with cold water in a 2-quart pan. Bring to a light boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and cool under cold running water. Set aside.
Pat meat dry with paper towels. On a plate, season flour with large pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, if using Dutch oven.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dip a few pieces of pork at a time in the flour, place in the skillet and brown evenly. As each batch is done, transfer meat to a 5-1/2-quart Dutch oven or a slow cooker. Pour cider into the skillet. Over high heat, scrape the bottom of the pan for 1 minute or so to incorporate all the residue. (If oil and flour are burned, skip this step and pour cider directly into Dutch oven or slow cooker.
Strain the cider over the meat; add apples, turnips and garlic to the pork; and bury pork rind or bacon in the meat. Season with salt and pepper and cover. Seal the pot, if desired (method described above). If you'd rather not, just be sure to check on the pork and add 1/4 cup water at a time, if necessary, to prevent the meat or vegetables from burning.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 1-1/2 hours, or in the slow cooker for about 6 hours, stirring meat, turnips and apples once or twice if possible to ensure even cooking. Break the seal, if you used one. Discard the pork rind or bacon, put the stew with the apples and turnips in a heated serving bowl, and skim off the fat. Mash some of the apples and turnips into the juices, pour over meat and serve immediately with egg noodles, rice, mashed potatoes or bread to sop up the juices. Serves 4 to 6.
Adapted from "Slow-Cooked Comfort" by Lydie Marshall
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This time of year, when you come in from raking leaves or picking apples or working at the office, there's nothing better than the scent of stew wafting around the inside of the house. Well, maybe the scent of stew and baking bread and pumpkin pie wafting around, but that's another story.
Fall is the perfect time of year for hearty stews and braises, with root vegetables still young and tender, fresh locally grown greens still available and apples - when you're cooking pork or chicken, a bright-tasting, sweet-tart counterpoint to heavier meat and vegetable flavors - having been just picked and brought to local farmers markets and farm stands.
And while summer cooking focuses on grilling and light preparation - types of cooking that require tender cuts such as tenderloins and steaks - stews and other slow-cooked meals not only allow, but require, more muscular (and typically, cheaper) meats that can stand up to long periods in a Dutch oven or slow cooker. These cuts sometimes do contain more fat, however, so be sure to trim away as much as possible before cooking and skim off any excess before serving.
Braising, or cooking meat with moist heat, was a popular cooking method on the farms of Europe, according to Lydie Marshall, a cooking instructor and author of "Slow-Cooked Comfort" (HarperCollins Publishers, $26.95), which focuses on French and Mediterranean braises, casseroles and stews.
"A brasier, a culinary word of French origin, described a bed of coals (les braises) in which a crockery or cast-iron pot was tightly closed and buried in the large fireplace of a farm kitchen," she writes. "The pot was usually left in the fireplace overnight to achieve a long tenderizing process for tough cuts of meat like beef rump or shank. Game was also very popular and needed long braising to make it tender and flavorful."
Which brings us to the modern-day slow-cooker debate about leaving an electrical appliance turned on in the house while you're away, and further about leaving cooked food sitting for periods of time until you get home (assuming you have one of the new-fangled models with an automatic shut-off, and that you can't be home all day to tend the coals of a large farmhouse fireplace).
In my younger, more carefree (some might say foolhardy) days, I blithely left my Crockpot bubbling away on the stove while I went off to work, trusting that it wouldn't burn the house down before I got back. I came home to various bubbling, fragrant stews, chilis and soups, and all was well in the world.
But that was when I still rented. Now I am a more mature (and probably more anxious) person with a home of my own and actual non-secondhand furniture to protect from catastrophe, and I use my slow cooker only when someone is going to be home - say, overnight or on the weekends when we're going only as far as the yard or briefly to the supermarket. This newfound caution was bolstered by the fact that my slow cooker, an aluminum-bodied Rival with a stoneware insert, has several times overheated to the point that ultimately, the plastic handles cracked and fell off. Not a confidence-inspiring quality in a slow cooker. (I have since found out that my particular type of slow cooker has been recalled because of that very problem. Now they tell me.)
As for automatic shut-off types of slow cookers, they are supposed to keep food hot enough after cooking is complete to prevent bacterial growth for a few hours. (Food is not supposed to be kept in temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees for any longer than two hours, according to food-safety experts.) So if you feel confident in your slow cooker's fireproof qualities, don't let food safety keep you from using it while you're away at work, as long as your appliance has a "warmer" feature that keeps the food above 140 degrees or as long as you'll be home sooner than two hours after it shuts off.
If you're a worrier like me, though, and want to use your slow cooker only when you're home anyway, you might want to consider using the Dutch oven instead. It operates on the same basic braising principle- include a bit of liquid such as stock, wine, tomato juice or even water among the ingredients - cover tightly and let cook in the oven for several hours.
The Dutch-oven method of slow cooking knocks several hours off the average slow-cooker cooking time, however, making it easier to produce dinner with less advance planning.
PROVENCAL BEEF STEW
4 pounds boned beef shank (shin or beef), cut into 2-inch pieces
2 large carrots, cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 small onions, quartered
4 garlic cloves, chopped
Olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 bottle red wine, Cotes du Rhone or zinfandel
3 tablespoons flour
6 ounces bacon or pancetta
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 large strip orange peel
1/2 pound macaroni
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
Combine meat, carrots, onions and garlic in large mixing bowl. Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil over them and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add wine. Cover and marinate for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Turn the meat and vegetables in the marinade several times. Strain meat and vegetables in a large colander over a bowl and reserve the marinade; set aside the carrots and onions in medium mixing bowl. Pat the meat dry with paper towels.
Put flour on a plate and season with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. A few pieces at a time, dip the meat in the flour, and brown it in the oil. Transfer browned meat to a 7-1/4-quart Dutch oven or to slow cooker's ceramic insert. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Lightly saute reserved vegetables in skillet, adding oil if necessary, over medium-high heat; add to the meat.
In a small pan, cover bacon or pancetta with cold water. Bring water to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and cut into 1/3-inch cubes. Add to the meat.
Pour reserved marinade over meat and add thyme, bay leaf and orange peel to the meat. Over low heat, bring meat and marinade to light boil. Place a piece of parchment paper directly over the meat and cover tightly with the lid. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 3 hours in Dutch oven, or about 6 hours in a slow cooker. Now and then, peek under the parchment paper and check the meat, skimming off any fat that rises to the top. Transfer meat to a heated platter, cover and reserve in a warm place. Skim off any additional fat that may surface.
Meanwhile, boil 4 quarts of salted water in a stockpot.
Add macaroni and bring back to boil. It will take about 12 minutes for the macaroni to cook (follow package instructions). Drain. In a heated mixing bowl, toss macaroni with 1/2 cup of the cooking juices and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Ladle some of the sauce over the stew. Serve the remaining sauce in a sauceboat, with the macaroni and a bowl of freshly grated parmesan cheese on the side. (If the stew is prepared ahead of time, refrigerate the meat and sauce separately.
When you are nearly ready to eat, remove the fat, if any, congealed on top of the sauce, bring it back to room temperature, and reheat.) Serves 6.
_ Adapted from "Slow-Cooked Comfort"
PORK STEW WITH APPLES AND TURNIPS IN CIDER
3 pounds boned pork shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut into 2-inch cubes
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
4 ounces pork rind (substitute 2 slices bacon if necessary)
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
2-1/2 cups hard cider
3 cups tart apples, peeled, cored and cut into eighths
3 cups small white turnips, peeled and cut into eighths
4 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
Place meat in a mixing bowl, and sprinkle with salt, freshly ground pepper and rosemary. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
Roll up the pork rind or fold bacon in half, tie with kitchen string, and cover with cold water in a 2-quart pan. Bring to a light boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and cool under cold running water. Set aside.
Pat meat dry with paper towels. On a plate, season flour with large pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, if using Dutch oven.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dip a few pieces of pork at a time in the flour, place in the skillet and brown evenly. As each batch is done, transfer meat to a 5-1/2-quart Dutch oven or a slow cooker. Pour cider into the skillet. Over high heat, scrape the bottom of the pan for 1 minute or so to incorporate all the residue. (If oil and flour are burned, skip this step and pour cider directly into Dutch oven or slow cooker.
Strain the cider over the meat; add apples, turnips and garlic to the pork; and bury pork rind or bacon in the meat. Season with salt and pepper and cover. Seal the pot, if desired (method described above). If you'd rather not, just be sure to check on the pork and add 1/4 cup water at a time, if necessary, to prevent the meat or vegetables from burning.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 1-1/2 hours, or in the slow cooker for about 6 hours, stirring meat, turnips and apples once or twice if possible to ensure even cooking. Break the seal, if you used one. Discard the pork rind or bacon, put the stew with the apples and turnips in a heated serving bowl, and skim off the fat. Mash some of the apples and turnips into the juices, pour over meat and serve immediately with egg noodles, rice, mashed potatoes or bread to sop up the juices. Serves 4 to 6.
Adapted from "Slow-Cooked Comfort" by Lydie Marshall
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