Clay pot

Rice night, and I'm not going anywhere near Asia for inspiration for dinner. It's just too close to the curry rut. Instead, I dug out my Römertopf and put it to work.

With slow cookers all the rage, these relics of the sixties are poised for a comeback. Indeed, any recipe that works in a slow cooker will work in a Römertopf equally well: soak it, put the ingredients in, put it in a cold oven. Set the start/stop time (you do remember how, don't you?), and the oven does the rest.

The premise is simple: Romans used to "wrap" their meat in clay before they threw it in the fire, then break it open when done. The meat inside was tender, juicy and flavorful, as the clay both insulates against extreme temperatures and keeps all the moisture in. This modern take is a two-part shell that you soak in water and put in the oven--a slow cooker without the cord.

When I was a girl, my mother bought one of these odd clay bakers, with its poorly translated recipe book. We thought she was nuts (hey, we were teenagers). But after one meal, we were sold. Mom used it a lot, especially when she had some activity that would keep her from being home in time to cook dinner. I bought my own when I was a student in Germany, and used it extensively: it was perfect for days when I was writing and didn't want to stop to fix dinner. I could throw stuff together and leave it in the oven until we felt like eating.

So, last night, I filled my Römertopf with water, rice, garlic, dill, lamb and tomatoes and baked it for an hour and a half. Our dinner of Umqua Valley lamb and tomato dill risotto was quite tasty.