Favorite Cooking Toy

In fall of 2007 I found a beautiful clay pot, much like the attached picture, at the back of a dusty shelf in a Home Goods store. It had been marked down a number of times and at $3.00 I couldn't resist buying it. Until about February of 2008 when I decided to try and cook with the thing it too collected dust on a shelf in my kitchen. I had relatives that had used them, but they, my relatives, were long gone by the time I decided to experiment. In order to use it properly I researched how to cook with clay pots on the net and in library books. I found a well of information but preferred trying, with tweaks, family recipes instead of those suggested by the sites and books I found. Intergrating new items into my existing habits is really important to me because it often means I will truly begin to "change".

Cooking in a clay pot is actually simpler than it appears. The pot is submerged in cool water for 15-20 minutes, longer if the vessel is larger, so that the clay absorbs water. The ingredients for the recipe at hand are placed in it, the top put in place before the clay pot is placed into a low temperature preheated oven for the duration of time the recipe calls for. I did refer to a number of recipes using similiar ingredients to those I was using for suggested cooking time and oven temps to avoid under or over cooking. As the water logged clay pot dries out the steam and heat cook the items inside leaving them juicy and flavorful.

This item is now a big part of my cooking, especially on the weekends during the winter months when slow cooked one pot preparations make any meal homey. I have used this toy to make all in one rice dishes, which usually include veggies, chicken or pork. It has baked a fish stuffed with herbs, spices and stick sliced veggies, corn bread confetti'd with kernels of corn, a cake with wine soaked plums and my great-grandmother's blueberry cobbler recipe. I love the preparation involved and the simplicity of using it. Now that spring has arrived and the welcome of fresh veggies and fruit is just moments away I am investigating using it at night when I sleep.