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cover and cook for an additional 1 hour, until the cakes are tender. Carefully remove the cakes to a serving platter.

strain the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a saucepan. Bring the sauce to a boil and reduce by half.

serve the sauce over the cakes, or serve on the side.

serves 6

Pacifica Sweet-Hot Salmon

This sweet and spicy salmon is a terrific dish to serve for dinner any night of the week. Serve it hot or cold—the flavor is a real wake-up call, with hot English mustard pairing with honey and dill. Serve on a bed of rice pilaf or with a fennel gratin.

3 pounds salmon fillets

½ cup Colman’s English mustard

¼ cup honey

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

place the salmon in the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker. Put the mustard, honey, and dill in a small bowl and stir to combine.

pour the mixture over the salmon, spreading evenly.

cover and cook on high for 1½ hours, until the salmon is cooked through.

serve the salmon from the slow cooker topped with some of the sauce.

serves 6

Potato-Crusted Sea Bass

Thin slices of Creole-spiced Yukon gold potatoes surround sea bass in the slow cooker to create a terrific dinner to serve with your favorite green vegetable. The lemon-butter sauce is a nice contrast with the somewhat spicy potatoes.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

½ cup fresh lemon juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning

2 to 3 pounds sea bass fillets, cut to fit the slow-cooker insert (see savvy)

6 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices

stir the butter, lemon juice, zest, garlic, and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil together in a small bowl. Combine the remaining 6 tablespoons oil and the seasoning in a large mixing bowl.

paint the sea bass with some of the butter sauce and set aside. Toss the potatoes in the seasoned oil. Pour half the butter sauce in the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker.

place half the potatoes in the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the sea bass on top of the potatoes and pour half the remaining butter sauce over the sea bass. Place the remaining potatoes on top of the sea bass and drizzle with the remaining butter sauce.

cover and cook on high for 1½ hours, until the potatoes begin to turn golden and the sea bass is cooked through and opaque in the middle. Remove the cover and cook for an additional 15 to 20 minutes.

serve immediately.

serves 6

* * *

slow-cooker savvy

This recipe only worked with sea bass, which has a different protein structure than other fish. If you would like to use a different fish, I recommend you use two 16-ounce packages frozen and defrosted shredded hash browns instead of fresh potatoes, and proceed as directed.

Chapter 5

Let’s Beef It Up

Most cooks think that beef stew or pot roast are the only beef dishes that can be prepared using a slow cooker. Sadly, they haven’t tried beef braciole, Italian-style braised beef in red wine, or stuffed flank steak in a savory sauce. This chapter will take you through the cuts of meat that are best to use in the slow cooker as well as some of the most flavorful recipes you’ll ever make.

Slow-cooked beef is a miracle in many ways. A slow cooker can take a tough, sinewy piece of meat, melt away all the fat and connective tissue, and give you a melt-in-your-mouth entrée. The sauce that comes from the slow cooker is concentrated not only with the beefy flavor, but also with the flavors that have been added to the pan before the lid is put on. Tough cuts, such as chuck, short ribs, bottom and top round, and rump all become fork-tender when they are braised in the slow cooker. Using these cuts, beef for dinner is a bargain, with short ribs, chuck, and rump all in the $4.00 per pound and under range. If you are able to get them on sale, your dinners can be even cheaper. Round and flank cuts make delicious meals in the slow cooker and, although they can be more expensive, they are virtually fat-free meats and can