Romertopf anyone?

[Rouge]

I'm thinking this might be my next kitchen purchase...

There's a french slow cooked chicken recipe cooked in a "clay pot" that I'm *dying* to try.

Anyone have one? If so what sort of dishes do you use it for? I don't want to buy something purely for one dish (although it is tempting), so I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience in Clay Pot, specifically Romertopf, cooking.

[Lucy]

Cai, my Mum had one and my brother has one.........I don't own one sadly, but I know that I am not much fussed by a roast chicken UNLESS it is cooked in a terractotta/clay chicken brick. (That is what we used to call it as kids...."the chicken brick", LOL!) (Very conrnily, my Mum's old one was in the shape of a roosting chicken.)

I think, from memory, the trick is to soak the whole pot & lid in water first, so that when you are cooking with it, the food gets steamed very slowly in the Romertopf.

My Mum loved using it as it means that the oven stays clean despite cooking a roast!

Also from memory we weren't allowed to wash it up in detergant....lemon juice and hot water only...(to stop the soap soaking into the clay?)

In terms of other recipes, Mum used it to always cook roast chicken, roast duck, coq au vin, beef casserole........you name it, if it needed slow cooking to tenderise meat or veggies, she used it.......

She also had a fish shaped one that she cooked who fish in.........but it never got the workout the chicken brick got!

[Rouge]

Awwwww I wanna chicken brick LMAO! I have a house voucher sitting here from my birthday, and its screaming out Romertopf.... but my poor kitchen is crying "NOOOOOO... where will you put it?"

Oh well... what do you do!

[Junglemum]

Cailin, i don't have that particulalar dish, but i do have a tajine. i bought a moroccon tajine cookbook as well as a claypot and one-pot cookbook, i have cooked a couple of yummy curries, but looking through my cookbook, you can do heaps of things from all your vegies:
Spinach braised with sweet potato
New potatoes with thyme and lemon
to;
Claypot beef with red peppers "Using a claypot keeps lean meat moist and juicy" So the recipe says!
Lamb shanks with beans and herbs- slow cooked in claypot
Chicken gumbo with okra, ham, tomatoes and prawns. (Looks yummo!) Creole dish
Guinea fowl with beans and curly Kale
Cassoulet- yummy looking french dish with duck , mmmmmm
Monkfish with rocket pesto, peppers and onions.. (Secifies a fish claypot......not sure?!)
Baked seabass with lemongrass and red onions.
Swordfish steaks with mango and avocado salsa.
Moroccan shellfish tagine.

Let me know if you want any of these recipes!

All this food is making me hungry!