New bag for the Thermos Shuttle Chef

We have just commissioned a new carry bag for the Thermos Shuttle Chef. These are being made in UK and should be available within four to five weeks. The bag is thermal insulated and is made from the highest quality materials. The carry handle also acts to secure the lid during transport.

Due to it's design it is ideal for use on a boat where it can be hung from the handle thus making it gimballed.

The bag will turn the Shuttle Chef KPY-4500 in to a truly portable unit.
The price of the bag will be £19.95 plus delivery and is exclusive to Mr D's Kitchen.

Wrights cake mixes and the Shuttle Chef

Last weekend I did some experiments with Wrights cake and bread mixes using the Shuttle Chef. As you can see the cakes turned out very well.


Method:


All you need to do is to add water and vegetable oil to the dry mix, put it in a cake tin, cover the tin with foil or the lid (if using a Mr D's cookware cake tin). Then fill the shuttle chef inner pot (in which you have put a trivet or a Mr D's cookware pot cradle) with enough water to come ¾ way up the side of the cake tin and bring it to the boil. Don't put the cake tin in while you are bringing the water to the boil.

Once the water is boiling carefully put the cake tin in the inner pot and bring back to the boil. Once boiling turn down to a simmer and leave for 40 minutes with the lid on. After 40 minutes turn off the heat and put the inner pot into the outer insulated outer pot and leave to cook for a minimum of 4 hours.

When using the Shuttle Chef for baking bread or cakes, the cooking time is often longer than using an oven but remember, the amount of fuel used by Shuttle Chef cooking is a lot less than that used by an oven (which must be good for your pocket and the environment) and if you are camping, caravaning or on your boat you may not have an oven but still would like a nice freshly cooked cake.

Wrights do a selection of cake mixes and we have so far tried the Madeira and Ginger cakes. Both of these were great. If you are using the Mr D's cookware bread tin I would suggest ¾ of the packet mix is used.


I will do some tests on the bread mixes and report on those.

For more information on Wrights go to Wrights Home Baking

New Accessories for Shuttle Chef

Mr D's Kitchen now have available a bread tin, cake tin, Pot Cradle and the top pot all for the Thermos Shuttle Chef.

Theses are all available as separate items from Mr D's Kitchen and form part of a complete exclusive range of thermal cooking items.

For more details go to Mr D's Kitchen Shop.

Mr D's Thermal Cookbook - Now Ready

Mr D's Kitchen - Thermal Cookbook

On the 1st of September, Mr D's Thermal Cookbook will be released. Initially in the UK, it will only be available free with a Shuttle Chef bought from Mr D's Kitchen. Customers who have bought a Shuttle Chef from from us in the past will be entitled to a copy for just the cost of the package & postage. If you own a Shuttle Chef bought from us and would like a recipe book please contact Mr D's Kitchen on 023 8084 2190.

In Australia the cookbook will be exclusively available through Thermal Cookware.

Other countries will be able to buy it contacting Mr D's Kitchen.

Mr D's Thermal Cookbook contains over 80 recipes and has a very useful section which contains information on how to use a thermal cooker.

The recipe book has taken over a year to write and has envolved many testers. I would like to take this opertunity to thank all of them.

Writing a recipe book for a thermal cooker is not as easy as I had though. Developing a way to make something like a Lemon Drizzle Cake meant making around 30 cakes to get the quantities and cooking times correct. At home 95% of all our meals over the last 6 months have come from the Shuttle Chef. Friends have come to dinner and ended up testing thermal cooked meals. As we cook by gas, using the Shuttle Chef has meant a considerable saving in our gas bill.

When things have gone wrong like sinking cakes, Lindi and Allan Rush from 'Thermal Cookware' in Australia have always been there on the end of the phone to give help and support. My good friend Mike Redcar has been a main tester using his Shuttle Chef most evenings to try out new ideas to see if they are working. Jenny my wife has been very involved developing many recipes such as the very popular 'Lamb Biryani'.

The recipes are divided into 11 sections.

• Soups
• Mains Poultry
• Mains Seafood
• Mains Lamb
• Mains Beef
• Mains Pork
• Mains Vegetarian
• Puddings
• Cakes
• Bread
• Basic Recipes

Among the recipes we have enjoyed are 'Lamb Shanks on Couscous' which are the best lamb shanks ever, Spiced Beef and 'Lemon Drizzle Cake' which is always a favourite and 'Lamb Biryani' which was the first recipe we ever made in a thermal cooker.

I do hope you enyoy the book I have enjoyed writing it.
Mr D

Netley Marsh Steam Rally and the New Pot

A little late, but last weekend we had a stand at the Netley Marsh Steam Rally in Hampshire. The weather looked as though it was not going to be kind to us but Saturday and Sunday turned out to be OK.

The steam rally started in 1971 when they needed to raise funds for urgent repairs to St Matthews church. Among the attractions was Billy the owl, start of the latest Harry Potter film. The steam rally has up to 10,000 visitors and many of them stay the weekend in their caravans or motor homes.

We had a 30 foot stand and the Thermos Shuttle Chef was our main item for sale. Just before the show we received our first shipment of pots from Australia. These hang from the top of the Shuttle Chef inner pot and means that you can cook accompaniments such as rice or vegetables in this pot while cooking the main meal underneath. This make the whole cooker so much more versatile. We were selling it for £24.99 or £20.00 if you buy it with a Shuttle Chef.

We had a lots of interest, and questions over the weekend. As usual the cake was the biggest talking point. We had made a lemon drizzle cake for Saturday and this was very popular. Each day I demonstrated the making of chilli con carne with rice. I used minced beef, a large onion, a packet of "Discovery" Mexican wicked chilli spice mix, a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tin of red kidney beans. I like to add a little chopped lemon (with skin) to give that slightly tart taste that contrasts with the heat of the chilli.

By the end of the weekend we had sold a number of Shuttle Chefs and all but one had included the new extra pot.

We will certainly be doing this show again next year.

Dave

The Thermos Shuttle Chef - how it works

Thermal Cooking with The THERMOS® Shuttle Chef









After preparing your ingredients, put them into the inner pot along with either stock or water. Bring the contents to the boil and turn down the heat to a simmer.





The advantages of thermal Cooking

. Safe: It is not a pressure cooker, there are no power cords, no switches or electrical hazards to worry about.

. Energy Saving: After the food has been boiled for a short time, the cooker needs no external energy while thermal cooking. Food stays warm automatically after it’s ready.

. Convenience: The thermal cooking process requires no further supervision or monitoring. Food can be cooked while you are traveling. You can cook with the pot anywhere, anytime and it’s safe to use indoors or out.

. Economical: Decreases fuel costs, economizes time and energy.

. Healthy: Entraps flavor, minerals and vitamins; generate less odor, grease and smoke in the kitchen.

. User friendly: Never over cooks and cleans up easily.

. Durable: Unlike foam insulation used in other brands, Thermos’s vacuum insulated outer pot is a technology that foam insulation can’t begin to touch. Thermos produces the most effective insulated container and is engineered to last.

To order your Shuttle Chef:
MrDsKitchen Shop

No Knead & No Oven Bread - cooked in a thermal cooker.

This recipe is adapted from the now famous no knead bread recipe developed by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery, Manhattan.
It was first published in the New York Times in November 2006 and has become one of the most talked about recipe on the Internet.

THE INGREDIENTS:

1½ cups of bread flour.
1 to 1½ tsp of salt (depending on your taste).
⅛ tsp of instant dried yeast.
1 cup of tepid water.

You also will need a tin to bake the bread in that will fit into the inner pot of the thermal cooker. A round cake tin will do fine. This tin needs to be greased.



THE METHOD:

1. Mix all the dried ingredients together in a bowl before mixing in the water. You don’t need to beat.
2. Cover the bowl with cling film. Leave it in a warm place for around 12 hours.
3. Sprinkle a good layer of flour onto a piece of parchment paper and flour your hands well before scooping the dough out of the bowl and putting it onto the parchment paper.
4. Spread the dough out a bit and simply fold the dough sides over each other. Then fold the bottom to the top.
5. Turn the dough over and shape it gently so it fits in the tin before placing it on a trivet in the inner pot and putting the lid on.
6. Put the inner pot into the outer pot. Shut the lid and leave for 2 hours to rise again.
7. After two hours remove the inner pot.
8. Remove the tin from the inner pot and make sure it has risen before covering it with either recycled aluminium foil (Eco care or similar) or baking parchment paper. Remember to make a handle to lift it out once cooked.
9. Put it back into the inner pot and fill with hot water to come ¾ up the side of the pan before putting on a heat source and bringing it to the boil.
10. Once boiling turn down to a simmer for 20 minutes.
11. Put the lid on the inner pot and put the pot into the outer pot for 2 hours.
12. When cooked remove and turn out onto a rack to cool.