After cooking daily for the family for 35 years and never really enjoying it, the idea of cooking whilst travelling, with what I thought would be limited resources, held little appeal.

When we started planning our adventures, George, desperate for me to embrace the idea of motorhoming around Australia in our TALVOR Murana, offered to do the majority of the cooking. However, I soon realised that after driving for extended periods, he would not feel like preparing and cooking meals. I envisaged barbecued sausages and steak every day, considering this is pretty much the extent of his cooking repertoire. I suspected I would soon tire of such limited fare. Wait, stop the press! George has just reminded me that he can also prepare chicken cacciatore using a barbecue chicken and some canned ingredients, so that would be three things we could have. Not convinced!

At our first CMCA Rally in Sale, we came across a stall that featured a thermo cooker. The concept of thermal cooking sounded ingenious, appealing, and more importantly, different. Something different was just what I needed; a new way of cooking. We purchased a thermo cooker and before long I had tried all the recipes in the small cookbook that came with it, so I eagerly sought out a larger, more comprehensive recipe book.

Thermal cooking involves boiling food on the stove for a short time and then transferring the inner pot with the food into the thermal outer pot. You then lock the lid of the outer pot, which allows the food to continue cooking using its own heat. No stirring or checking is required once the outer pot is locked.

Suddenly I became a reasonable cook. Everything turned out so well. All the dishes were delicious and what’s more, nutritious. There are similarities with a slow cooker, in that full flavour is achieved with the extended ‘cooking’ period, but the fact that you don’t need a power source (after the initial short cooking time on the stove) makes it more suitable for travelling. Food doesn’t dry out if left too long; it doesn’t overcook and spoil, and it doesn’t need to be watched once in the thermal pot. If the meal is prepared in the morning, it will easily be ready by lunchtime or could be left until the evening. The recipe  books explain the safe amount of time a meal can be left without a heat source. So, if you do prepare a dish early in the morning, but didn’t want to eat until late at night, it may require a quick reheat.

As this method of cooking is new to me, I haven’t yet tried to adjust any of the recipes and most of the ones in the recipe book make enough food for about four serves. This means there is usually some left to store in the freezer, so I really only need to cook about three times a week.

Thermo cooking is also such a forgiving and easy method of meal preparation that it is hard to mess anything up. You can even do an omelette in the thermal pot without having to flip it or watch it.

There are so many thermal recipes that our weekly meals are now very varied and interesting. George enjoys the meals so much that he reminds me of the Australia movie, The Castle, where the husband praises the wife’s simple cooking and declares the meals fit for the ‘trophy room’.

The novelty of the method and unfamiliarity of the recipes means I need to decide which delights are to be featured on my menu for the week, so we can shop accordingly. This means I am  organised ahead of time and don’t need to think about what on earth to cook each day, as mealtime approaches.

Although I have cooked some mug cakes and loaves in the pot, things like bread and scones turn out differently to what we are used to, so I still use an oven for such things. We are very fortunate to have a good oven in our RV so if I need a baked item to be crisp or crusty we use the oven. However, the thermal pot makes wonderful baked custard and other delightful desserts, which can be cooked in the top pot simultaneously to a casserole being cooked in the lower part of the pot.

So, instead of being limited in regards to cooking, it turns out we have a range of ways and methods for food preparation at our disposal and an infinite variety of dishes to enjoy. Furthermore, when we catch up with friends along the way nowadays, I offer to do the cooking, where previously, cooking for others was something that I would dread and worry about. And, even though we are enjoying our food more than ever, we have been losing weight and becoming healthier by the day. Delicious meals don’t necessarily mean weight gain as a result, but that’s another story.

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Written: Fri 01 Nov 2013
Printed: November, 2013
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