Chicken Cacciatore cooked in Mr D's Thermal Cooker

This classic Italian dish, also known as hunter’s stew was originally designed as an easy dish that could be cooked outside. The dish was adapted by individual hunters and was sometimes made from rabbit or sometimes chicken.
Chicken cacciatore is an ideal meal to make in Mr D's Thermal Cooker as it is easy to prepare and benefits from slow long cooking.
This dish should be served with rice or pasta and some crusty bread to mop up the wonderfully rich sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 2-3 tbsp olive oil


• 1.5 kg chicken portions, legs and thighs


• 40 g seasoned flour


• 1 onion sliced


• 2 garlic cloves, crushed


• 125 ml white wine


• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar


• 125 ml chicken stock


• 400g tin chopped tomatoes


• 2 tbsp tomato puree


• 1 tsp brown sugar


• 100 g stoned black olives


• 4 anchovy fillets


• salt & pepper to season

METHOD

1. Rinse chicken, pat dry and dust with the seasoned flour.


2. Heat the olive oil in the inner pot on medium heat, add the onions and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally.


3. Remove the onions to keep for later.


4. Add the garlic and ½ the chicken pieces, skin-side down. Cook until the chicken skin is golden brown, then turn pieces over and brown on the other side.


5. Once brown, remove and keep for later while you cook the remaining chicken pieces until they also are golden brown on both sides.


6. Add the first batch of chicken pieces back into the inner pot.


7. Add the onions you cooked earlier.


8. Add the white wine, white wine vinegar, chicken stock, the tin of chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, brown sugar, stoned black olives and anchovy fillets.


9. Mix everything and bring to the boil.


10. Turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes with the lid on.


11. Turn off the heat and put the inner pot into the insulated outer container.


12. Shut the lid and thermal cook without power for a minimum of 2 hours.


13. Before serving check the seasoning adding salt and pepper if necessary.


14. Serve with pasta and crusty bread.

Serves 4-6.

Lemon Drizzle Cake cooked in Mr D's Thermal Cooker for Mothers Day

For afternoon tea on Mother Day what could be better than a lemon drizzle cake. This is a wonderful cake gets eaten very quickly and is loved by everyone.
Using a thermal cooker this cake can be cooked anywhere and does not need an oven. All you need is a thermal cooker and a heat source to get the cake started. The main cooking is done without power.
The cake is cooked in a stainless steel cake/pudding tin with a lid to stop water from dripping on the cake.

INGREDIENTS

• 150g margarine, softened


• 150g caster sugar


• 3 large eggs, beaten


• 150g self-raising flour


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 lemon zest, finely grated


• 30ml milk

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DRIZZLE

• juice and finely grated zest of 1½ lemons


• 90g caster sugar


• 2 tbs honey

Lining the tin: Cut two circles of baking paper to fit a cake tin (one for the base and one for the top) that will fit in your thermal cooker. Grease the tin and line the base with one circle.

METHOD

1. Prepare the cake/pudding tin as described above.


2. Whisk the eggs in a bowl.


3. In another bowl cream the margarine and sugar until it becomes pale in colour.


4. Whisk in the flour, baking powder and milk.


5. Slowly add the eggs bit by bit and continue to beat until well combined.


6. Mix in the lemon zest.


7. Spoon the mixture into a cake/pudding tin and spread it out evenly.


8. Put the lid onto the cake/pudding tin and clip down (If using another cake tin without a lid, cover with foil and tie securely with string).


9. Place the cake/pudding tin inside the inner pot on a trivet.


10. Add enough boiling water to come ¾ the way up the side of the cake/pudding tin. If you are using a Mr D's Thermal Cooker and trivet you need the water 2cm above the trivet.


11. Bring back to the boil and then turn down the heat to a low simmer. Simmer gently with the lid on for 20 minutes.


12. Turn off the heat and transfer the inner pot into the vacuum-insulated outer container.


13. Close the lid and leave to cook for a minimum of 2 hours. It can be left overnight.


14. Once cooked, allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes.


15. Remove from the cake/pudding tin and place on a wire rack.


16. Put all the ingredients of the lemon drizzle mix into a saucepan and heat until the sugar has melted.


17. Put the cake on a plate and prick it in several places with a wooden skewer.


18. Pour the hot sugar/lemon syrup over the warm cake.


19. Decorate with some lemon zest and a little icing sugar when cool before serving.

New Thermal Cooker Now Available

Yesterday we picked up the our first batch of Mr D's eco-friendly Thermal Cooker. This cooker is to replace the Shuttle Chef which is no longer available in UK. Like the Shuttle Chef it has a 4.5L inner pot and the outer container uses a vacuum for insulation. We have done number of test on the cooker and find its heat retention is very similar to the Shuttle Chef. Two advantages of Mr D's Thermal Cooker is that it has a glass lid to the inner pot and the lid clips down for carrying.
If you want to order or learn more about our new thermal cooker please either phone 023 8084 7834 or go to buy Mr D's Thermal Cooker .

Beaulieu Static Caravan Show

This weekend we had a stand at the Beaulieu Static Caravan Show. The weather was perfect.

The sun shone every day as we talked thermal cooking to many of the visitors to the show. One couple left the show and later decided to come back in to buy one.

Each day we took a cake and a main course to show what can be cooked in the thermal cooker. The steak and kidney pudding that we made for Sunday certainly was a hit with the male visitors who all seem to love this dish.

In the afternoon I did a demonstration of how to prepare a meal. This not only showed how quick it is to prepare a meal but meant we had a hot supper when we got home.

Fridays recipe: Chilli con carne - serves 8 people (use half the contents for 4 people): from Olive Magazine

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil


• 2 onions, finely chopped


• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely


• bunch of coriander, leaves picked, stalks chopped up finely


• 2 green chillies, diced finely


• 1 tsp of chilli flakes


• 2 tsp ground cumin


• 2 tsp ground cinnamon


• 2 tsp dried oregano


• 1 kg good-quality beef mince


• 2 tbsp tomato puree


• 200ml red wine


• 1 tsp of salt


• 1 tsp of fresh ground pepper


• 600g canned chopped tomatoes


• 2 tbsp black treacle


• 1 litre beef stock


• 2 red peppers diced


• 400g tin kidney beans


• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Method:

1. Heat the olive oil in the inner pot and gently fry the onions, garlic, coriander stalks and chillies on a medium heat for 5 minutes until softened.


2. Stir in the spices and oregano and cook for 2 minutes.


3. Turn up the heat to medium-high, add the beef mince and brown it.


4. Turn down the heat to medium and add the tomato puree and cook for 2 minutes.


5. Add the salt, pepper and red wine. Cook it for 2 minutes to let it reduce.


6. Stir in the canned tomatoes, peppers, kidney beans and black treacle.


7. Put the lid on the inner pot and turn of the heat.


8. Put the inner pot into the insulated outer pot and shut the lid.


9. Leave to cook in the thermal cooker for a minimum of 2 hours.


10. Before serving check the seasoning and adjust.


11. Serve with rice and garnish with the coriander leaves.
    

Energy savings using Thermal Cooker, Cobb and Ghillie Kettle.

I was sent this email the other day from Ian Knox who uses every day his Thermal Cooker, Cobb and Ghillie Kettle for cooking. He lives near Southampton in UK and as you can see is certainly do his bit towards trying to Helping Mother Earth.
The figures are for savings made between January to August 2009 compare to the same period 2008.

Ian's emails (all of these are published with Ian's permission)

---

22/04/2009:

As discussed my energy bills have been reduced from 76 GBP per month to as you can see 49GBP per month this reduction has been achieved by using the Cobb rather than our conventional oven.

From Ian's energy company:

Some good news: we are reducing your monthly Direct Debit to £49

We have reviewed your payments including your current credit balance of £2.63, and have calculated that we can reduce your monthly Direct Debit to £49.00.

You do not need to do anything as we'll start taking the new amount on 1 May 2009.

---

16/09/2009:

Hello Dave
Just a quick update on things.
Firstly you will be pleased to know that my energy tracker with Eon shows that we have made a saving of 8.7% on electricity and 32.8%on gas by using Cobb,Shuttle chef and Ghillie Kettle which amounts to 111KWH of energy saved which is enough to light an average house for seven weeks on energy saving light bulbs.

---

18/09/2009

Hello Dave

This is taken from our eon on line account, please feel free to use the information as you wish.

Regards

Your Energy Consumption Summary:

111 kWh energy saved = enough energy to light an average house* for 7 weeks using energy saving light bulbs the current year, your energy usage has:

Overall - Electricity plus Gas
gone down by 26.9%

Electricity - gone down by 8.7%
Gas - gone down by 32.8%


2009 - 3.139 Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide

or

* 9,659 Miles travelled in an average sized car.**

Your CO2 emissions have gone down - a reduction of 0.651 tonnes on 2008

The Beaulieu Autojumble 12th & 13th Sept. 2009

Last weekend we had a stall at the International Beaulieu Autojumble. I had tried for a couple of years to get a stall at this mammoth event in Hampshire and at last was allocated one for this year. The vent covers 30 acres and has over 2,00 stands. People come from all over the world to buy car bits old and new.

We demonstrated the Thermal cooker over the two days and had a considerable amount of interest. On show was our new Shuttle Chef Traveller (a KPY-4500 Shuttle Chef complete with the carry bag made for us). Most people chose to buy a top pot with their Shuttle Chef and for a limited period we were giving away a copy of our new thermal cook book.

Each day I demonstrated preparing a meal mid afternoon which meant we had a meal when we got home.

Visitors to our stand were offered chocolate chip cake made the previous night. This went down very well.

The second sale we made Saturday morning was to a lady who went of with her Shuttle Chef and made an evening meal of chicken casserole. The following morning she came to visit us saying how great the meal was and the fact she left it to cook in the afternoon in her caravan without the worry of power being on was so good.

The weather stayed fine for the whole weekend and by the time we came to clear up late Sunday afternoon we were pleased with the response and there were a number of new Thermal cooks.

Spiced Beef - from Mr D's Thermal cookbook

This is a great recipe. I regularly make it for it makes a wonderful lunch with salad or in a sandwich made with fresh bread.

Sometimes referred to as 'huntsman's beef' and at one time a popular dish all over Britain. The longer the beef is cured, the longer it will keep.

Cooked Spiced Beef will keep for 3-4 weeks in a fridge. Make sure it is well wrapped in foil to prevent it drying out.

Ingredients

• 1.5kg piece of boned and rolled brisket, topside, or thick flank
• 80g sea salt
• 10g saltpetre
• 15g coarsely ground black peppercorns
• 15g ground all spice
• 15g ground juniper berries
• 50g dark brown sugar, such as muscovado

NOTE: Saltpetre is used in commercial charcuterie and meat curing . If it's difficult to get hold of in small quantities, try the Natural Casing Company in Farnham, Surrey (01252 713545 http://www.naturalcasingco.co.uk/).

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together and rub well into the beef. Cover and leave in the fridge for 10-12 days, turning it once or twice a day.
2. After 10 to 12 days, wipe off the bits of marinade from the meat, put into a boil in the bag* and seal the bag with a tie.
3. Put the bag containing the meat into the inner pot of the thermal cooker.
4. Fill the pot with water up to about 3cms from the top.
5. Put the pot on the heat and bring to the boil.
6. Once boiling, turn down the heat and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat and transfer the inner pot into the vacuum-insulated outer container.
8. Close the lid and leave to cook for 4 to 8 hours.
9. Once cooked, remove the bag containing the meat from the pot and leave to cool. This will take about 3 hours.
10. Remove the beef from the bag. Wrap the beef in cling film. Put it in a dish and cover with a weighted plate.
11. Refrigerate for 24 hours.
12. Re-wrap, and keep in the fridge and use for up to 3 weeks.
13. Serve cold thinly sliced.

* Only use bags that are designed for boil in the bag cooking. Other plastic food bags must not be used.
Contact mail@MrDsKichen.co.uk if you have problems.