You know all the hoopla that goes with planning a wedding? My future sister in law is knee deep in it right now. All the wedding sites and social pressure to have perfect tables with Martha Stewart-esque decorations. I said that we should have a hobo wedding and instead of round 8-seater tables with white linens, there would be scattered bonfires and long sticks for roasting marshmellows and instead of plates people would be given a tin pan to cook and eat in: beans and weiners. God, it would have been quite a spectacle. A bottle of gin or scotch at each fire circle and staying up late telling stories and cracking jokes. In a way; it is what I really wanted.
In the end , we borrowed the Christmas decorations in the middle of July from the hotel de ville (court house) and their assortment of orange folding chairs (imagine a circus themed wedding instead) and a Michelin starred chef catered an 8 course dinner, the meal of our lifetime under the stars and the trees at my husband's grandparents house which some day will be our house. It is not too far from the train tracks, so maybe I will get to do a Hobo Birthday party instead!
A new month brings on the end of the Hobo Cooking Challenge where I tried to make breakfast, lunch and dinner on top of our woodstove. For the month of November, I experimented with all kinds of things on the stove: lip balm, dog biscuits, even an entire duck l’orange! Most things worked except when I needed rapidly boiling water for pasta or extra hot heat for wok cooking or sautéing. We will continue to cook on the fire as long as we have the woodstove going, why not? It’s seems wasteful not to use it. At all times, we have a kettle of water. I did a bain marie for making truffles. Baked potatoes went on the inside with the hot coals and so did half a chicken. The very best is racks of ribs slow roasted all day long. Once in awhile I would put a live coal next to it and then close the top so that they were extra smoky. The meat would fall off the bone tender and flavorful. I don’t think that I will ever be able to eat them another way. I make my own deluxe rub with laposang sujong tea, black pepper corns, sugar and rock salt all ground up in the mortar and pestle. Sometimes I would add some homemade bbq sauce and others not.
Today, duck, feta and pumpkin raviolis with caramelized Swiss chard and onions. I’ll have to use the stove top for the boiling water, but the rest is made on the woodstove. The pasta: fresh. One egg and flour, blend, roll out, use a water glass to make circles. Stuff with filling: leftover duck l’orange, feta and roasted pumpkin. Make a sauce with onions and chard that have slowly sautéed in the duck pan, pumpkin squares that have become croutons and cream. Add some fresh sage from the garden and serve with side salad of arugula and carrots. Tonights dinner I have to start right now: roasted pintade (french guinea fowl) and stuffing! With a little planning ahead (ok, a lot) we can cook almost anything and heat the house at the same time. If I start jumping trains then you will know that I have really lost it!
6 comments:
Hi Riana,
Love this - your woodburner looks as though it's set up for cooking on - I'm just wanting to buy a woodburner with glass doors (all our others have solid doors, so there's nowhere in the house you can sit and LOOK at a fire), and with cooking facilities, preferably a small oven. What sort is yours? And do you find it good for cooking? I really want to be able to make bread and slow-cook casseroles ... would appreciate your thoughts
Joanna
Hi Joanna,
It is this one pictured here
http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/74/2453/1024/stove2.jpg
The mark is a no name, its a godin knock off (which might be more efficient). We recently put fire bricks inside so it holds the heat a lot better now.
We like that you can see the flames too. I really wanted a fireplace, but now I am glad to have this to cook on. The top opens up and has about four inches of depth to put in a saute pan and then close it.
The pintade is in there right now, I had to squish him down a bit, like I had to do with the duck.
It was the pipes that ended up being the big cost for us. We had to get the insulated ones for a few meters through the roof. The stove itself was pretty cheap (on sale in January!)
Hope that you find one that you like. look for Godin as a mark, one of the best.
Riana, what hobo dreams I had as a kid! Your wedding/b-day hobo bonfire is just what I crave so I spent the day re-installing my original Deville wood/coal stove on the barge and hope to cut my fuel-driven furnace in half. It doesn't have the cooking capacity your's has but the little mica glass windows are magical... stay warm.
Riana, you are absolutely amazing. I want to eat at your house. And your hobo wedding is probably the best idea for a wedding I've ever heard. No one would forget it, that's for sure!
So yesterday I read this and you inspired me to do more woodstove cooking. Then last night (not five hours later) our power went out... right as I was about to start making supper. No problem. Woodstove blazing, I made cumin meatballs with spicy tomato sauce. Now if only we'd remembered to stock up on candles...
Kate-- I know those stoves well. I love the Mica glass, so pretty. I hope that you will have room for at least a kettle at night and maybe a good stew during the day on there. My husband wants to live on a boat too.
Laurie, I'll send you an invite when we have the hobo party!
Rebecca- you are so prepared! How neat is that? Our in laws have a summer house seconds away with an old propane gas stove and I walked over there frying pan in hand to make curry when our power went out this summer.
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