Our overhead lines aren't 100% reliable either. So we kept an open fireplace and have a calor gas cooker (and there is a camping stove in the garage)

I have never used my oven in the 20 years that I have been here. I can do all I want on the gas hob, the grill, and the microwave. I did have a slow cooker when I was working. That was useful, load it up in the morning and a hot meal when I arrive home. I gave it away, don't need it now.
A lot of my meals are made in one pan, or from food straight from the fridge, no cooking needed.
ilona

I do have one more kitchen gadget which I have used a lot in the past, and that is a Food dehydrator which avoided heating up the big oven. I've had it over 12 years and it isn't that sophisticated to the ones you see these days - there are about 5 trays (each tray bottom is like an open mesh to stop food dropping down but allows circulation of air), and the "lid" is like a hair drier fan which blows luke warm air down which passes through all the trays. After a few hours, you just turned the trays around as often the fruits on the top or bottom tray dried quicker than the rest. Mine doesn't come with a timer but I could run it overnight (low wattage) and benefit from Economy 7 electricity.
The main reason I got the food dehydrator was to extend my food storage (most had ended up in the freezer which was running out of space), in particular, drying apple and pear slices as well as chillies and peppers (you can do tomato slices but that looked a little too messy for me but I suppose whole tomatoes could be used to make a more concentrated flavour like a sun dried tomato) The dried fruits made useful lunch box additions and whenever I needed some fruit to add to a curry or whatever, it was quick and easy to pop the dried slices into the cooking pot than have to start peeling and chopping an apple from scratch.
You can also use it to dry herbs, sliced mushrooms, banana chips and other fruits (such as cherries, berries and currants) and meat or fish (to make jerky) I haven't used it for everything but apparently can also be used to re-crisp stale foods like bread or biscuits, or make your own vegetable crisps or biscuits / granola.

lancashire lass wrote: ↑ 06 Mar 2023, 15:25 I do have one more kitchen gadget which I have used a lot in the past, and that is a Food dehydrator

Now we are talking! Food preservation. We should open another topic on this. We freeze, water bath, pressure can, sun dry and dehydrate what we grow.
We have have three dehydrators (how that happened is a story in itself) which during harvesting are in constant use. A selection of meats, fruits, vegetables and herbs are all loaded up and dried then put into storage. Some are blended to make flavourings so we no longer require stock cubes. You can make lovely fruit leathers in them and our favourite are dried large heritage Bulgarian tomatoes place them straight from the jar into any dish, on top of a pizza or even in a toasty and they are lovely.
Every year any fruit/veg in the freezer that has not been used is dehydrated to make room for its freshly grown replacements.
There is always a jar of dried fruit on hand to eat (apple and cinnamon are one of my favourites).
Oh yes, the dehydrator, any person that grows their own food and wishes to store it should have one.

Trev62 wrote: ↑ 03 Mar 2023, 20:59 Kozunak bread

I had never heard of Kozunak bread before and had to Google it.
I can see it a very enriched dough bread that sounds amazing and I will certainly have a go at making it when we get back to UK.
It reminds me of 'Christmas Bread' I make from time to time. Here's a link to a post and a picture:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=54301&p=750422&hil ... ge#p750422

Trev62 wrote: ↑ 06 Mar 2023, 20:43 Now we are talking! Food preservation. We should open another topic on this. We freeze, water bath, pressure can, sun dry and dehydrate what we grow.

Funny enough, PK mentioned it in the Growing Your Own to Lower Food Costs :

PK wrote: ↑ 04 Jan 2023, 21:54 In terms of growing your own to keep food costs down, I would emphasise the importance of preserving harvests so that they can be consumed over the year as well as avoiding wasting inevitable gluts: storing, freezing, dehydrating, pickling and fermenting, preserve making etc. We do a lot of this, but it take time and attention. Perhaps you will go more into this later in the sequence.

So that might be an idea to link the 2 topics (or broken up into various topics such as Freezing or Pickling) together (and something for me to refer to in the Food section from GYO topic)
I don't like pickles (whether it be pickling onions, gherkins, Piccalilli sauce, chutneys and so on - I like a hint of vinegar on my chips but have never liked pickles. Even my first attempts made my house reek of vinegar ...) so that would be great if people could share their recipes!

lancashire lass wrote: ↑ 07 Mar 2023, 09:23 I don't like pickles (whether it be pickling onions, gherkins, Piccalilli sauce, chutneys and so on - I like a hint of vinegar on my chips but have never liked pickles. Even my first attempts made my house reek of vinegar ...) so that would be great if people could share their recipes!

We enjoy pickles especially when eating outside, my partner does the pickling of all the usual things and she makes a mean Piccalilli. She also makes her own apple cider vinegar which, not only do we use but it is good to add few drops to the animals water/feed.

fabindia wrote: ↑ 07 Mar 2023, 08:13 It reminds me of 'Christmas Bread' I make from time to time. Here's a link to a post and a picture:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=54301&p=750422&hil ... ge#p750422

Looks tasty, unfortunately the River cottage site has been taken down.
They call Kozunak Easter bread here and over the Christian Orthodox Easter everyone makes it and sells it. The smells from the Easter market bread stalls are lovely and it is worth walking around them just for the aroma!

I'll see if I actually wrote down the recipe for Christmas bread down when I get back to UK and post it here if I do find it.

fabindia wrote: ↑ 09 Mar 2023, 01:10 I'll see if I actually wrote down the recipe for Christmas bread down when I get back to UK and post it here if I do find it.

Excellent, I would not mind giving this a go.