One pot cooking

[Oola]

One pot cooking is my absolute favourite way to cook. I'm a really uncomplicated cook, I like my dishes easy to prepare but tasty, and don't really go for intricate or fragile presentation! Rustic is how I like to describe it.

I've just bought BBC Good Food magazine as it has an article on one pot cooking, should give me some ideas as I seem to live on a variety of soups and stews at the moment! I do need some fresh new ideas for my cooking, but will always have a love for one pot meals - they're always so tasty!

Does anyone else like one pot cooking? If so, what's your favourite recipe? I always find it's great for autumn and winter cooking, but not so much with spring and summer produce - that's when I really struggle to eat seasonally as I'm a potato and root vegetable fiend at heart.

Ooo..just seen a recipe for Cheesey potato puff pies....yummy...

[Katelb]

Yes Oola,I love it quite apart from it saving on the washing up!

[Sparrow]

Thanks for the Heads Up Oola on the BBC magazine. I will try to get hold of a copy whilst I am in the UK. I have a lovely slow cooker, but am rather unimaginative with it. I love lentils and veggies in soups, but would like to be able to do some other things. Could you post some recipes you enjoy Katelb? I'm sure there are more than just me out there who would like to do something with their slow cookers. Thanks

[Redstart]

I like one pot cookery and my favourite has to be a tasty stew with meat (or beans), carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes, maybe also peas, celeriac, leeks and other vegetables - a nice tasty mixture. Cook for one to two hours and then top with egg or suet dumplings. Mmmmmmm.

There's a similar traditional Swiss dish but without the dumplings (Stunggis) and I suspect most cultures have similar one-pot meals. We're not the only generation wanting an easy but substantial meal!

[Crocus]

Hubby loves OPD's as he cal one pot dishes. Or stews. Especially in winter. We've got a flat bottomed black iron cast pot, and sometimes we put that on the fire with meat and veggies. Wednesday evening we used deboned pork neck combined with some lambs ribs I had in the freezer, for extra flavour. It works very well if you combine two kinds of meat. We then just add potatoes, carrots, onions, baby marrows, and allow it cook slowly. Yum.;)

[jazzactivist]

I love one pot meals too, Oola, and my favourite is Jambalaya, with chicken, sausage, and / or prawns, with rice in a spicy sauce. You can make a vegetarian version too substituting different types of beans for the meat.

[Katelb]

Hi Sparrow,I have a 'One pot recipes' book which is a duplicate and which you are more than welcome to if you let me know where to send it through the internal message system.As for the slow cooker,I only have the one book which came with mine but as a guide line,a boned leg of lamb weighing 4 and a half pounds with the usual veges,would take 8-10 hours on LOW having preheated the cooker for 15 minutes on high,the last instruction applies to all recipes.3-4and a half pound pot roast of pork should be cooked on high for 5-6 hours,a beef goulash using 2 and a quarter pounds stewing beef with onion etc,and a tin of tomato's you would cook on low for 8-10 hours,or4 hours on high.I guess if you have a look in a second-hand bookshop,you might find a 'slow cookbook' that is where I got my other one but I have n't got it any more,someone else took a fancy to it!!
I should have said I don't know if you are vegetarian,if you are then forgive me for including the above recipes.

[sunflower]

I'm not a one pot cook. Rather, I'm a one roasting dish cook. This is because one of my ovens are on all the time to heat the house. I love to put everything, meat, veg, potatoes into the dish, put it in the oven and forget about it for an hour. I'm also into simple food..to me it's the best food to have and taste.
I also love casseroles. All the veg into the pot, and 15 mins before serving, pop in some dumplings. Great for this time of year!

[Crocus]

Hi, I always wonder what exactly is the difference between a stew, casserole and a one pot dish. :confused: Or is it just different names a dish? Or am I thick?:eek:

[Oola]

Crocus this should help: http://www.blurtit.com/q534499.html

I use the phrase one pot cooking just to describe what it does - cooking in one pot! It can be a casserole, stew, soup, chilli, curry - basically anything can be cooked all together and served together.

[Crocus]

Hi, thanks for the site address. I also love cooking in one pot, especially during winter. Sometimes it's on the hob, sometimes in the oven, sometimes even in a flat bottomed black pot on the barbie. What goes in the pot, casserole or whatever usually consists of meat, veggies and potatoes. And as you say, curry (yum) meatball and tomato stew, etc. Which is what I'm going to cook tomorrow evening - meatball and tomato stew!

[Healing Hands]

Good Food magazine is excellent I have been buying it now since 2000 I take out the recipes I like and keep them in a folder. Although there a few that get repeated it is still good, the other good magazine is Country Kitcken, if you like good rustic meals then this is the one for you.

There was a recipe for Potted Pigeon which is quite yummy. I love doing one pots as I am on my own a lot I find it is an easier way to cook in the winter and then I can have it the next evening, so it works out quite cheap.

I sometimes cook A Potted Chicken Roast for Sunday with all the veggies in as well. So warming.

[SummerSkye]

Another good book is 'One Pot Italian Cooking' by Massimo Capra with soups mains and sweets all included. The following is a fast but wonderful meal.
Gamberi e gagioli Shrimp (prawn) and cannellini beans
3 tbsp oil
2 shallots chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds crushed
2lb/lkg pink shrimp/prawns
1/2 cup/125 ml white wine
1 tbsp/15ml white wine vinegar
1 and 1/2 cups 375ml cannelli beans(cooked)
1/2 cup/125ml chopped roasted red pepper (capsicum)
salt and pepper
2tbsp chopped fresh chervil or Italian parsley
Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and fennel seeds and cook for 1 minute. Add the shrimps, wine and vinegar. cook for 1 to 2 min.
Stir in the beans and peppers and season to taste. As soon as the shrimp and beans begins to saute, cover and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in chervil and serve at once.