Eco Cooking Bag – The way of the future

Save electricity – use an eco cooking bag

I recently received a gift of an eco cooking bag from an old friend of ours, Dave, who has become obsessed about the cost of electricity in South Africa. On that score, I’m with him. It has become frightfully expensive to run even a modest home. I also need to mention that Dave is a chilli nut, great cook and curry officionado to boot. It was easy he said. Just make a curry, bring it to boil and pop it into the bag. Leave for four to five hours and violla! Just tuck in and enjoy. He does make it sound so easy.

Now I’m not a bad cook myself(although Tina would love me to spend more time in the kitchen cooking), but I do like to slavishly stick to a recipe. I’ll spend hours pouring over the ingredients and then swatting up on the technique before heading off the supermarket and guying enough ingredients to make three dishes. So, for once I decided to just get on with it. I popped down to the local super, got the butcher to chop up some fresh lamb knuckle, and then hea

ded for the spice isle. I grabbed a ready made Rogan Josh curry paste off the shelf and headed home. I have previously followed Jamie Oliver’s wonderfull and simple recipe for making your own curry paste, which turned out to be very tasty, but this time, it was gonna be quick and easy. No grinding up spices and herbs for me. Just a couple of spoonfuls of paste and Bobs your whatsit.

I sealed the meat in a bit of veggie oil, then browned some onions and garlic, chucked in the lamb along with three heaped spoonfuls of very aromatic Rogan Josh curry paste, in goes a tin of tomatoes, some chopped spuds, carrots and baby marrow. Salt and pepper to taste, a glug of good red wine and half a tin of water. I brought the pot to the boil and let it simmer as Dave had instructed. The idea was to let the potatoes and carrots heat through thoroughly before putting the pot into the bag.

OK, so once the curry had been gently simmering for about 15 minutes, I turned off the gas, removed the bags lid, opened the bags drawstring, popped the pot into the cavity, put the lid back on and pulled the drawstring up tight. This ensures that the bag fits tightly around the pot and minimizes any cavities or gaps where the warmth can escape.

Now the eco cooking bag seems to have been around for years. When I chatted to our housekeeper, Mirriam, about it, she remembered her teacher demonstrating the concept in her sixth grade(that’s standard four in old money). So that means that the eco bag must have been around for over thirty years, and I’m going like, WOW! What a great idea. Its basically several pockets filled with polystyrene beads, that gives the great thermal properties to the eco bag. As long as there are no aforementioned gaps, it will retain the heat. Incidently, it also acts as a cooler bag in exactly the same way stopping cold air from escaping and keeping the contents super cool.

The one thing that Dave mentioned was… “NO PEAKING” he warned. “Not even once. You will be tempted to just lift the lid and take a peak. BUT DON’T” . So I headed his words of wisdom. After all, Dave was the eco cooking bag king and I but a mere novice. So, there the bag sat. In full view on the counter. I could see it from my workstation. It whispered to me… “John. John, just take one little peak” I glanced at the clock, two hours gone, focused on my work and shut out the pleas. Some time later, the whisper had now become a loud command… “Just a small peak… Dave will never know. Common, just one!” Nope. I was resolved to see this through. One more hour to go.

Finally, the clock ticked to five hours. It was supper time. NO, It was curry time. I couldn’t wait to open the bag and check the results of my effort. I bustled about the kitchen getting plates and cutlery ready for the feast. Eventually the moment had arrived. I gently untied the drawstring and opened the lit. The waft of rich aromatic aroma of Rogan Josh curry wafted over me and filled the air. I peered into the still steaming pot. The colour was amazingly mouthwatering. Yummy. Curry.

That was one of the easiest and tastiest meals I have made for a long time. I’m pleased to report that it was also dinner the next night. And lunch the following day. This has got to be a must have in every home. The meager price pales into insignificance compared to the time and energy it saves. The eco cooking bag is definitely the first thing that’s getting loaded into the motorhome. Just imagine coming home after a long day out adventuring, to find that the few minutes invested earlier in the day yields a piping hot meal at very little cost. It gets my vote.