Cooking in the Van

[Ven]

In my Murvi, I have an extractor fan in the skylight over the kitchen area (I thought most had?) and just put that on slow while cooking and I have never suffered smell or condensation? ( sometimes forget to lift up the top flap but that an age thing )

We have but it’s not great for really steamy smelly stuff that I cook for hours, the turbo van over the kitchen probably works better.

 

[cliffanger]

DDJC id love your recipes please.

Me too please!

 

[robnchris]

In my Murvi, I have an extractor fan in the skylight over the kitchen area (I thought most had?) and just put that on slow while cooking and I have never suffered smell or condensation? ( sometimes forget to lift up the top flap but that an age thing )

Hey each to there own, yes we could cook in the motorhome use the extractor fan in the roof, open all the windows etc etc but why bother when we can cook in the awning, no need to worry about splashes or smells in the living area, soft furnishing etc and have so much more room.

 

[DDJC]

For Mousy, orridge, Essgeebee, Dangermousy, cliffanger

 

[PaddyM]

Yes in the kitchen and not the lounge, with a big extractor fan over the cooker hob!!!!!!!!!

So you do cook in your house

Our motorhome is our house on wheels , we live the same life mobile as we do at home , smells and all !
p.s my cooking smells are as fabulous as my food .

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[Wabs]

Nothing wrong with a tin of baked beans

 

[PaddyM]

Nothing wrong with a tin of baked beans

Agreed , or mushy peas !

 

[Essgeebee]

For Mousy, orridge, Essgeebee, Dangermousy, cliffanger

You are a star. Mouth watering just reading them. Thank you very much.

 

[orridge]

For Mousy, orridge, Essgeebee, Dangermousy, cliffanger

They look great are most of the receipes for 4 people ?

Love the disclaimer and think the pork souvlaki will be first.

 

[Shrimp]

We just cook the same as we do at home - because we full time .

Snap!

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[DDJC]

They look great are most of the receipes for 4 people ?

Love the disclaimer and think the pork souvlaki will be first.

Good choice! Souvlaki is great, just make sure that it is crisp enough. If too moist, pat them with kitchen towel a bit.

Some recipes are for 2, some 4, some more. I should have said I suppose, but then Mrs DDJC eats like a sparrow, and I eat as if famine is imminent. If you've been on the road for six hours straight, then you'll want a tad more!!

 

[DDJC]

Nothing wrong with a tin of baked beans

Yeah, why not? Shift the strong smells from the kitchen to the bed area!

 

[cliffanger]

Good choice! Souvlaki is great, just make sure that it is crisp enough. If too moist, pat them with kitchen towel a bit.

Some recipes are for 2, some 4, some more. I should have said I suppose, but then Mrs DDJC eats like a sparrow, and I eat as if famine is imminent. If you've been on the road for six hours straight, then you'll want a tad more!!

Thanks for the recipes - I’m starting today - I may put up a stand outside our local McDonalds

 

[L' Hobo]

Thanks for the recipes - I’m starting today - I may put up a stand outside our local McDonalds

perhaps you could start at some of the Fun rallies first.
As it part of honing your skills, the price would only be for the ingredients of course?

 

[Stonemags76]

DDJC you mention your vacuum packer, & now you’ve got me interested! How long does stuff last in the fridge please (we have only a small freezer compartment in the van)? I’m wondering if you could also store stuff in a cupboard for a short time after it’s vacuum packed? The fridge is also small! Thanks! Ooh, what make is your sealer?

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[Richard n Ann]

DDJC you mention your vacuum packer, & now you’ve got me interested! How long does stuff last in the fridge please (we have only a small freezer compartment in the van)? I’m wondering if you could also store stuff in a cupboard for a short time after it’s vacuum packed? The fridge is also small! Thanks! Ooh, what make is your sealer?

Our vacuum sealer is a Bonsenkitchen VS3000. Very good, doesn't half suck the air out, it collapses soft food

PS there's a stop button for if it gets too much.

 

[DDJC]

DDJC you mention your vacuum packer, & now you’ve got me interested! How long does stuff last in the fridge please (we have only a small freezer compartment in the van)? I’m wondering if you could also store stuff in a cupboard for a short time after it’s vacuum packed? The fridge is also small! Thanks! Ooh, what make is your sealer?

Our vacuum sealer is made by someone called Audew. It was on cheap from Amazon. But you can get perfectly serviceable home sealers for twenty quid. All you have to have as a minimum is that it has, a moist/dry option, an option for gentle vacuum and the ability to seal only, so that you can use tubes as well as bags.

Broadly, we have found that whether in a cupboard of the fridge, vacuuming doubles the life of food, but that it does depend on what is being stored and how fresh it was in the first place. For instance. A vegetarian Chimichanga, cooked and vacuumed will last four days in a cupboard and possibly two weeks in the fridge. A vacuumed Chorizo Chimichanga would last a couple of days in a cupboard and a week in the fridge. Meats should always be in the fridge, even vacuumed. But yes, if properly vacuum packed, it will last about twice as long in the fridge.

If you need to vacuum pack bread, you need the soft or gentle option and you need to watch it carefully. The vacuum will squash bread, so remove enough air to slightly constrict the plastic, then stop and seal. The reason you do this is because the vacuum will still squash the bread, unless you leave little in there. What makes bread go off is more air getting in. The air still inside a vacuum bag will still cause staleness, but much more slowly.

 

[Stonemags76]

Thanks! I feel a purchase coming on! I will refer my husband to you if he complains!

 

[Gina M]

Thanks! I feel a purchase coming on! I will refer my husband to you if he complains!

Same here

 

[Richard n Ann]

They aren't just for food. I vac sealed some epoxy filler the other day. Seal anything you don't want to get wet like phones too

The 100 bag sellers on ebay are better value than the 6m rolls, also you're not waring the sealer out twice as fast because one side is already sealed. Ours has got an external port too so you can evacuate huge bags.

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[Peter and Julie]

View attachment 597810
Saturday night is pizza night in our van. Anybody else got a foodie ritual?

Chicken Curry! New years Day for the last 4 years

 

[bexleyjohn]

Curry - on the BBQ outside!!!!! The Curry sauces available these days are so good - just add meat!!!!
Pre-cooked chilli and Jacket Potatoes - helps keep the MH warm too!
Meat pies from Sainsbury's - Taste the Difference
Cooked at home Lasagne - heated up.
Spag -bol coked while drinking gallons of wine!!!!

In fact - everything with gallons of wine.....

 

[Lillibob]

I usually cook a Sunday dinner. I put a whole chicken into the Remoska and cook roasties/stuffing balls in the air fryer. Then do two or three veg on the hob.

We have a foreign van, without one of those useless gas ovens.

We have 3 burner hob that's it! Can be very challenging, been to Spain and Portugal for nearly 2 mths haven't been able to cook on cadac outside too frigging cold at night

 

[L' Hobo]

Spag -bol coked while drinking gallons of wine!!!!

No need to get 'coked', just keep drinking the wine.

 

[ljbarber]

As I cook every day at home I like to cheat as much as I can so we have easy meals when away. I am a retied chef so I know a few simple dishes that can be knocked up pdq. I do mince my own beef and I portion it up and freeze it as flat as I can to use what little space I do have.
2 pans only as we only have 2 gas rings

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[bexleyjohn]

I bought an Instant Pot for the home a year ago. So impressed was I that I bought a small one for the MH (yet to be used) and then I bought the Air Fryer version - I know, a bit overkill - but the system is superb - chuck it in, turn it on, walk away and forget it........well something like that! BUT I have to admit the Air Fryer version is so good.....such a pity that like so many things that are good for easy living in a MH are so b****y heavy!

 

[frenchie 79]

View attachment 597810
Saturday night is pizza night in our van. Anybody else got a foodie ritual?

I pre cook most of our dinners before we go.chilli,cottage pie,fish pie,spaghetti Bol & sausage casserole etc.Freeze them in pyrex dishes with lids on.Just have to defrost & put straight in oven.Also have taken slow cooker & cooked a lamb joint in it

 

[Minnie]

Me thinks you don't understand how foreigners cook.
Don't use our oven very often apart from par-baked bread for brekkies.

Our friends in Spain don’t have an oven, in winter in the mountains they make everything on the hob or on the fire in the house and in summer use outside cooking facilities and hob very rarely.

 

[Minnie]

I usually make a tartiflette at least once on every trip. It's easy and very yummy. I cook it in the oven although I guess it might be be made on a stove top if the pan was cast iron. Probably could be done in a Remorska too.

I’ve done it easily in the hob in a metal casserole dish. Works really well

 

[Gillygrim]

You all put me to shame ! I hate messing up my kitchen at home so cook as little as possible, in spite of having nearly every gadget known to man. In the van I do even less and what I do cook is only done outside. Until Lockdown we spent three months every summer in the South of France so the weather was always reliable. We'll hopefully be doing that again this year - fingers tightly crossed ! I take a slow cooker for an occasional spag bol (jar of sauce, onion, turkey mince), George Foreman for cheese toasties or an occasional sausage sandwich. Other meals are salads, boiled egg (done in egg boiler) ham and cheese, raw mushrooms plenty of mayonnaise and crusty bread. Every day we eat out at least one meal. Conversely, at Christmas and Easter I make a seven course lunch for up to about eight people and I really enjoy doing it !!

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