Dutch Oven Recipes Gravesend

Easy Dutch Oven Recipes for Delicious Meals

Try these easy Dutch oven recipes - they work for slow cookers, too.

Dutch ovens are wonderful for cooking simple stews and casseroles and can even be used for baking and roasting. These easy Dutch oven recipes may also be suitable for making in a slow cooker, or in a traditional casserole dish.

Whether you are cooking on a camp fire somewhere in the wilderness or you are wanting something easy to cook while you catch up on the X Factor, these Dutch oven recipes should offer you something to go on!

Oxtail soup

Oxtail soup will cook over a long period - ideal for Dutch oven and slow cookers.

Take a kilo (2 lbs approx) of best organic oxtail. Ideally, get your butcher to chop it into suitable chunks.

Roll the pieces of oxtail in a little seasoned organic wheat flour.

Put a knob of butter and a little olive oil into the bottom of the oven. (Olive oil stops the butter from burning - you can use either or neither, replacing the butter with margarine or shortening, as you prefer.)

Rattle the oxtail around in the melting fat until the meat is a little seared and browned. Add some onion, well chopped (2 medium onions is a good amount). You can also add garlic if you like. Give everything two or three minutes to cook and keep things moving so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the oven.

Now add water sufficient to cover the meat and some. If you have some quality meat stock available - or vegetable stock, use that in preference to plain water. Add a bay leaf if you like.

Give everything a good stir and leave to cook for around two hours.

After two hours you might want to remove some of the fat which has floated to the surface. I always think this is unnecessary, as fat adds flavour but if you are thinking of your waistline, then removing some of the fat is good. Take the Dutch oven off the heat source to do this and let the fat rise for a few minutes.

Add fresh chopped veg, according to what is in season. Don't put in too many or too many different types of vegetable. You want the flavours to stay distinct. I like to add fresh tomatoes and a stick or two of celery and maybe some carrot. Top up the water level, if needed so that the meat is not tending to get too sticky. The ox tails do tend to become quite glutinous.

If you want to produce a soup, rather than a stew, take out the oxtail pieces and remove all the meat from the bones. Return the meat to the dish. Your family dog will thank you for the bones! You may want to add more water or stock for a soup and perhaps purée the final brew - if you are not too far from kitchen gadgets, that is!

You can make venison, beef or lamb stew in much the same way. Serve with generous hunks of fresh bread.

If you have your own easy Dutch oven recipes which you would like to add, please use the contact page.

Dutch ovens are a wonderful aid to cooking and should be durable - lasting for generations, even. You can buy cast iron D...

Click here to read more from Green Footsteps