Not your mother’s slow cooker recipe
Several years ago I did my newspaper column on funeral food and included a recipe for crock pot turkey. I received numerous calls from happy cooks who tried the recipe. Beginning on about October 15, people begin calling me for the recipe they invariably misplace.
I got this from my friend Kate Roberts who calls it her “sick dish” because she takes it to people who are under the weather or have experienced a death in the family.
The thing is, it takes the turkey breast straight from the freezer to the crock pot and onto the table in 12 hours without a bit of effort on the cook’s part.
Kate’s Effortless Crock Pot Turkey
Here’s what you do. Purchase turkey breast completely frozen - make an effort to find one where the giblets have been removed or are separate. Take off the wrapper (YES! - the only effort required) and chunk it in the crock pot - you will need an oval pot for this. Melt one stick of butter and pour over the frozen turkey breast. Douse it liberally with lemon pepper seasoning.
Turn the pot on high for two hours. Cut it down to low and go to bed. Ten hours later you will have the most moist, flavorful turkey you ever tasted. And don’t throw away the sauce, it makes a great gravy according to Kate. I haven’t tried that yet, since I don’t do gravy so well.
Remember it won’t brown up like your oven roasted version - but sliced and served on a platter no one will know how little effort you put into the dish! Your Thanksgiving guests will want to know your secret, and you’ll never again have to endure dry tasteless turkey.
All this talk about crock pots reminds me about a new cook book which I have added to my Christmas wish list for Santa. (Santa, are you listening?). It’s titled “Not your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes for Two.”
Since I don’t think my mother owned a slow cooker, that’s an easy claim. I do love my crock pot though. Not only does it save bundles on energy consumption, but I love returning to the house after its been perculating for hours. My house smells heavenly and I always wonder “What’s cooking?”
According to the authors, 80% of American households own a slow cooker. This new compilation is a good reason to unearth that Crock-Pot from the attic or invest in one of the new high-tech models.
The title, however, is a misnomer according one reviewer, and not just because the book includes a recipe for “Mom’s Beef Stew.” Much of what Hensperger (The Bread Bible) and Kaufmann (coauthor, with Hensperger, of The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook) present is exactly the kind of comfort food typically associated with childhood snow days or family gatherings.
To use the word “hearty” in describing these recipes is to state the obvious. There are more than a dozen oatmeals and porridges, ranging from Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal to Creamy Cornmeal Porridge. Soups include Vegetarian Split Pea, French Onion, and White Bean with Bacon.
Other reviews:
*A wide range of sound recipes and advice for every meal . . . A comprehensive and multicultural guide back to slow food. — San Francisco Chronicle
*Gives slow cooking a hip new twist. — Slow Cooking (Woman’s Day special)
All this jive crock pot talk reminds me I promised to pass along my crock pot turkey recipe.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
“…go to bed. Ten hours later….”
Okay, get real here. Does anyone out there who is over 50 actually SLEEP for ten hours straight???!!!! Oops! Just re-read, and that’s not actually what you said–you just said, “…ten hours later.” Whew–I was beginning to wonder about you.