Oh how I love my Römertopf!
Ha! Have I said that before? Pete told me a while back to lay off the “Römertopf evangelism”, but it would be remiss of me not to mention how much easier it makes my life at this busy time of year.
Case in point – last night I was desperate to do some exercise (I’ve been very slack of late!), but I hadn’t made any preparation for dinner other than to defrost six chicken drums. So…I dragged out the clay baker and stuck it in the sink to soak…
A rummage through the fridge and pantry produced the following ingredients:
- 6 free range chicken drumsticks
- two pink potatoes
- one large carrot
- a frozen box of cooked chick peas
- a frozen box of homemade chicken stock
- two medium sized onions
- two quarter slices of homemade preserved lemon
- Herbie’s Chermoula Spice Mix
- basil from the garden to garnish
The Herbie’s mix is our default house blend and it’s a great seasoning to keep on hand. I sprinkled a generous amount over the drumsticks and rubbed it in.
Pulling the wet clay base out of the sink, I threw in peeled and chopped potatoes, carrot and onions, then lay over the drumsticks (scraping in all the seasoning leftover in the bowl). The preserved lemon was sliced and scattered over the top, then the defrosted stock was added. All up, this took about ten minutes.
I put the lid on the pot and placed it into the cold oven. The heat was turned up to 200C with fan and I jumped onto the rowing machine for half an hour. Then I watched a bit of television. Then I had a shower.
By that stage the chicken had been in the oven for an hour, and I suddenly remembered that I’d forgotten the chick peas. I pulled the pot out and added them in, squidging them into the cooking liquid as much as I could. (Remember to never put the hot pot on a cold surface, or it could crack.)
All up the Romy had about an hour and a half in the oven – Pete took the lid off for the last ten minutes or so to let the drumsticks brown up a bit. The new season basil added a nice finishing touch…
Dinner was delicious and ludicrously easy…
Best of all, the dirty Römertopf went straight into our newly repaired dishwasher and came out spanking clean!
I’ve just looked through my archives and realised that I’ve written more than two dozen Römertopf posts. I’ve collated all the links onto the one page, which can also be accessed via the Savoury tab at the top of the homepage.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial Römertopf Posts
Do you own a Römertopf? If so, I’d love to hear about your experiences with it!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Darling Celia! had a Römertopf way ahead of you!! Simple – am way older than . . . :) ! Love it and it is still somewhere behind those other pots and pans!!OK – about three months ago saw this unreal on-line sale of Stanley Rogers’ stuff on oo.com.au! Cheap as chips and oh so wonderful!! One could put stuff into the oven at about 300 C!!! This dish would be absolutely ideal :) ! Adore Ian Hemphill of Herbies – but, horses for courses, have you tried ‘Gewürtzhaus’ ? Three stores in Melbourne – one just opened in Sydney . . . a case of ‘Quo Vadis’ ?
Eha, no, hadn’t heard of Gewurtzhaus, thanks for the headsup! Their website looks interesting! :)
You’ve just solved tonight’s dinner dilemma although mine’s going into a cast iron casserole not a beautiful Romertopf. I’m just too scared I’ll break it if I’m honest.
Nancy, given how well you did with the Romy pulled pork recipe, I have no doubt that you’d find this one a doddle in the cast iron as well! :)
Hooray for you! I don’t own one, but after reading all of your post I’m sold! You can’t beat convenience both in cooking and cleaning. :)
Make sure it’s glazed, hon. I’ve just noticed that they’ve started selling the German made versions with glazed bases in the US – http://romertopfusa.com/ – when I first started using them, the US ones were made in South America or Mexico and didn’t have a glazed base. The glazing makes cleaning up in the dishwasher a breeze! :) Here’s my before and after dishwasher photo…
Thanks for the tip! This is very good to know. xo
No, I don’t own one, but now I want to!.. anything that cooks easily and cleans up in the dishwasher is a winner in my book.. c
Celi, the older I get, the more important the ease of cleaning up becomes! I use mine a lot for roasting cuts of meat in too! :)
Celia, what a fabulous meal you’ve prepared there with some good ingredients (love Herbie’s), your Romi and shaking the fridge!
Thanks Liz, I adore Herbie’s spices, and they’re just around the corner in Rozelle!
I saw one in an op shop and now regret not snapping it up. I can’t remember – is the base of yours glazed and does this make a difference (I know I’ll find the answer in the old posts but haven’t gone through them yet)?
Jo, all of mine are glazed and that makes a huge difference. All the new ones you can buy these days from Peters of Kensington etc are glazed and it means the food just comes straight off them in the dishwasher! :)
You’re so good at whipping things up. This is a wonderful dinner and how great it is that you had a fridge and freezer so organised so you could whip something up in your favourite evangelistic tool – I’ll get one one day. Good luck with the exercise xx
Charlie, can’t wait to catch up tomorrow. I’m feeling a bit beached lately, but the exercise did help! :)
Wow, that was easy. Just the thing you need for this time of the year. Yes, I do own a Romertopf thanks to a certain lady who shall remain nameless. I have only used it for bread. Maybe iIshould experiment with some morrocan veggie things? Now I’ll look at your list.
Francesca, your Romy is glazed, right? I remember seeing the photo of your bread dough in it. It’s just so easy for a set and do other things while you wait meal! :)
I wrote some basic guidelines on how we use the pot here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/08/09/romertopf-chicken-and-mushroom-rice/
Yes, It is glazed and very handsome. Good link. I might give it a go with a pilaffy thing ( without the meat) and see what happens. There are always hungry ones about.
And best of all…it was $4! :D
I’ve never heard of a Romertopf but I definitely want one now! What an awesome baking dish! Somehow my sporadic reading has missed all of your Romertopf posts so far but I’m going to make a cuppa and have a read very soon! Herbie’s spice mixes are my default also. Such delicious blends and high quality spices. I can’t wait to try this Moroccan inspired dish Celia! Thanks x
Laura, I’m a bit obsessed with them! With all clay cookware actually, but the Romys were the ones that started me off.. :)
Where do you get them? I’ve looked but no luck..
Paula, in Sydney both Peters of Kensington and Everten Online have them in stock.
http://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Public/catalog/searchresults.aspx?brands=Romertopf&_view=40#
http://www.everten.com.au/romertopf.html
Thanks Celia
Celia Thank you for your love off the Romertopf i bought my one upon reading one of your early blogs this year,from Peters of Kensington. My adult children 20 and 23 love your pulled pork and other brilliant suggestions….
Hooray! Thanks for letting me know, Maddy! :)
It’s always good to hear how great a kitchen item is Celia- especially when backed up with such yummy recipes! Great flavours indeed, and good luck with the exercising sweetie xox
Thanks hon, I need the luck! I’m feeling completely beached of late, damn hormones.. :)
I have no idea how to pronounce that- but it looks delicious!
Hahaha…it IS a mouthful! :)
I feel the warmth and family orientation in this meal. Love the comfort it brings! Mmmm…!
Julie & Alesah
Gourmet Getaways xx
Thanks Julie! It was a big hit with the boys!
Never seen a clay baker before!
Great to see that you are fond of ‘free range chicken’ :) And those up-close chicken leg pictures are… um…provocative :)
Hahaha…like a floozy lifting her skirt.. :)
I think Romertopf should hire you. You certainly have gotten good use out of yours. You know when I looked at your first photo of the chicken, I did a double take because it reminded me of a meal my mother used to make often & it just brought back such vivid memories of that dish. The ingredients weren’t the same but there was something about the way the chicken was cooked that knocked me back decades remembering it.
Diane, I do wonder if we mothers are all connected somehow by a basic need to get food on the table with minimal effort. I don’t know why we don’t all make more “pop in the oven and bake” casserole style dishes! :)
So happy to find this post. I’m living in a house this year with one of these contraptions and I had no idea what to do with it. Can’t wait to try out some of your recipes. Thank you!
Most welcome! Have a look at this post for some basic guidelines on using the Romy…
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/08/09/romertopf-chicken-and-mushroom-rice/
I used the clay pot for the first time last night and made your chicken curry. Delicious! Thank you! Can’t wait to try out more recipes. Seems to be a lot like a slow cooker.
I think I know what to put on my Christmas wish list!! Love meals like this and it has reminded me to be organised about freezing cooked or at least soaked chick peas :)
Tanya, I think you’d love this – you and I seem to share a love of terracotta and clay cookware! It’s a wee bit more fragile to sudden temperature changes than the Spanish cazuelas, so it has to go into a cold oven and be soaked first. But once that’s all done, it just cooks magnificently on its own!
That’s it! I’m buying one of these next week when I go shopping!
You can order them from Peters of Kensington or Everten Online! :) (Peters is a bit cheaper, I think)
This looks amazing! I remember my mum having one of these pots in her kitchen, and it looked so old and dated … you’re really making me blush for ever thinking that!
Ah well, they are a bit old fashioned, but they do really work! :)
A lot of the old-fashioned stuff does – and many novelty stuff doesn’t ;-)
HI Celia, never have heard of a Romertopf before but it kind of reminds me of a tangine. It’s amazing how you can whip up a meal like you do, this looks delicious!
Cheri, I have a couple of Emile Henry tagines as well, which are great but they’re a bit tall for the oven. They do work brilliantly on the gas hob though!
What a gorgeous dish! I wish it weren’t late at night or I’d be trying to cook it!
Thank you! Hope you enjoy it if you get a chance to try it! :)
That Chermoula spice rub sounds fantastic, too! Thanks for the heads up on that! You’re so talented – to just come up with this off the fly!
You make it sound so perfect and I am so glad that your dishwasher is repaired :)
Tandy, the oven is fixed too! All just in time for Christmas! :) Thanks love, hope all is well! xx
Now I could kick myself!! I had one of those and never used it so when we moved 10 years ago I gave it away!! That was well before the days of blogging and just look at all the recipes I could be using now!! xx
Barb, we can all only store so much stuff! :) I gave away a slow cooker because I thought I’d never use it, and now I keep reading recipes for it too! x
You have made some delicious looking dishes in your Römertopf and this one is no exception.
Thank you, lovely Karen! It really is so well used in our kitchen! :)
Hi *C*, Your Römertopf looks and sounds fantastic.I am happy to have found your blog. I hope you, Pete and the kids are all doing well.
Best wishes from your friend in sorta the land of Laverne and Shirley. :-)
– Dave R.
Good grief, it’s been a lifetime! How are you, darling man? The “kids” are now 18 and nearly 22! :) Thanks so much for popping in to say hi, it’s been an age! xx
It has actually been more like 2 lifetimes in my case, *C*. :-) Your blog is wonderful and I appreciate you asking how I am doing but would bet your viewers would not want to listen to my response. Please contact me via e-mail if you would like so we can chat and catch up.:-) xx
– Dave
I found a clay pot (though not Romertopf) in a charity/op shop today! Needless to say that for a whole £5 I wasn’t going to leave it there. I am looking forward to trying out some of your recipes – particularly the Pulled Pork. Or this one. Frankly Celia, they all sound so good I’m sorted for weeks :)