Its been a wet miserable day in the New Englands, and with the temperature struggling around 14 deg. the sensible thing seemed to be fire up the Pot Belly.
And with it nicely warming things up it seemed to make even more sense to cook tonights dinner on it too.
Only took a couple of beers to decide on a nice lamb curry, pretty basic but with a Thai influence.
Starting to look nice and edible, the rice with fresh coriander will go alongside in about an hour for a slow absorbtion cooking.
Just wondering how it will go with the Coopers Pale ale.
Will find out soon enough, its going down ok at this stage.
mikel

Oh Yum, can I come to dinner

Cheers

G'day mikel, the name on the front of your potbelly just about sums me up, I've been indulging in too many camp oven meals lately, rosettes, shanks, roast pork washed down with lambrusco and a port or three.  Ain't no good for the figure lemme tell you.
I cook on a covered patio using heat beads in a "Camp Oven Mate" .

pd

The contrast on my monitor made it hard to read the name on the stove.

My daily wet weather inside cooking is on an electric range, vintage 1978.  Cast iron is my regular utensil.  The best there is.

But, sheesh Mike, you need to put on heat in 14'C.  Just HUH!!!!!!   Real HUH??????????????????????

Like man, do you own a sweater?

Or like your house really cools off thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattt much?

I don't think it's that I'm used to cooler temps, it's more like good ole Canuck insulation.



Oh, idea for inside cast iron cooking that's easy on the belt.  Sizzle servers.

You take one of these:  http://www.rvingoutpost.com/specs.php?prodnum=1918&title=Skookie%20Cast%20Iron%2...

or one of these

http://www.rvingoutpost.com/specs.php?prodnum=1918&title=Skookie%20Cast%20Iron%2...

take a teensy bit of olive oil and cover cast iron pan with same, about as much as you would use for seasoning.

Slice meat really thin.  1/8th "  x 1" or less.  Spread over base of pan.  Dice onions.  spread around.  Into oven @ 300' F 

Take mushrooms, cucumber/zuccini, capsicum, or other nice crunchy moist green veggies and dice into a bowl.  Add less than 1 tsp. olive oil.  Toss with hands. 

Take sizzle server out of oven.  Mound veggies over steak and onions.  Put back in oven for 20 min or until you're happy.  The Cucs will make a lovely thick gravy. 

Note,  try this without salt.  The best taste is a la naturelle.

See, healthy oil.  Cast iron cooking

Of course, it you have many to cook for, it will take time.

Hey LK
whats wrong with being warm anyway

beautiful Queensland

Mikel 15o is cold enough eor curry just dont put the fan at the end of the bed you could get your own back

Mikel

you eat what I eat it seems but to me plonk is plonk I dont care what it is if it tastes alright

cheers Furphy

Mikel

years ago around the Inglewood - Texas area  tobacco growing territory things were tight and we couldn't afford much so we used to buy what was known in those days as "Soury" it was the staple wine that the Italian growers used to drink with their meals and mate I gotta tell you that you drank a glass of this stuff (it had to be cold) gefore you could even have a go at it but you would down a glass and it was that dry and sour that every and I mean every part of your body tightened up. It was that dry that a sip would cure the worst case of the trots you could ever have but it cost 10 cents for 4 litres and if you were drunk enough and it was cold enough you could get it down one of the benifit was that when you woke up after a night drinking this stuff a drink of water was enough to get you pissed again
even after all these years I can still recall the taste and mate nobody wanted to be crook the next day course it would tear the bark off an ironbark tree when it came back up

All in all quite a good drop if you needed vinegar for a salad

When we arrived in Au.,1949 we stayed a couple of months with some distant relies in Hampton, a Melbourne (in those days) outer suberb.
Over the road from the house was a large market garden block, mainly melons, and tended to by a group of "Eyeties" as my old man called them.
Well it wasn't long before us kids noticed that every so often the gardeners would gather around a spot then began passing round and "drinking" a melon.
We all know about curiosity, and it was very soon that after the fellows had gone home for the day we discovered one of these drinkable melons. (they conveniently marked them with a stick poked in the ground)
What a turnout? The juice was warm and sweet but bang, the effect was instant. Everything began to rotate and go out of focus at the same time. Home was only over the road but have no idea how long it took to get there.
Uncle Harry was the first to spot us (his 2 sons and myself) and being wise to the ways of boys knew what we had been up to.
My old man was not so tolerant, I received a pretty good touch up for my misdemeaners. Probably not surprising seeing he was teetotal.
It must have had a lasting effect though, of uncle Harry's sons, one became a ships captain in the navy, the other a musician in the Vic. symphony orchestra.
It was years later I learned that the recipe was to make a hole in the melon, scoop out the flesh, put a handfull of sultanas in, fill with water and let the sun do the rest.
Oh, and me? Well its nearly 60 years later and I still like a drop of that sweet warm stuff made from muscatel grapes.
mikel

Hey Muzz,
I like that idea, and as a believer in the Supernatural I could come back as a "min min light".
mikel

They will have to change his name from Mick to Wick

Mikel, I think you may have made me see a wood stove as an advantage.  Cooking with an oven may give me more occasions to use the stove in my place to be (next spring and after).



Kind of looks like it's just about right, eh?

Ah yes, sounds like good introduction.  Excellent sampling.

Believe it or not I have never read Enid Blyton.  Passages in the walls, well!!!  Sounds like murder mystery stuff.  Or escape routes during UK civil wars, IMHO.


When you were in that pub, did it have a fireplace?  Where did you learn about black pot cooking and start filling up that shed?

A mate that was in the navy for years, showed me there trick for home made plonk.
They punched out one eye of a coconut, poured in some suger, jammed a stick in the hole & left it the sun for a week.
Then you pull out the stick & drink the milk, pow, goodbye, then if your still standing you smash the nut open & eat the flesh for another hit
Trev
Aus