After a chilly walk with Merlin (our cocker spaniel) this afternoon in the New Forest I was looking for a nice meal to warm us up.

This recipe has been on my list of meals to try for some time and today seemed to be the right day.

It originally was published in Delicious Magazine and I have adapted it to work with a thermal cooker.  If I had been more organised I would have prepared it before our walk and it would have been thermal cooking while we are out. 

It is very easy to make and ideally should be served with mashed potatoes and cabbage.

For the recipe goto The Thermal Cook

Hmm, delicious steak and kidney pudding – after 3 hours of cooking without fuel! This steak and kidney pudding recipe is easy, but always a show stopper when I am demonstrating Mr D’s Thermal Cooker.  This one we made at the weekend and is large enough for six servings.

This is part of The Thermal Cooks TheThermalCook.co.uk recipes to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2010. These Chinese spareribs are slowly simmered in soy sauce, rice wine and seasonings in the thermal cooker. I blanch the spareribs first in a pot of boiling water and drain before cooking.

This is part of The Thermal Cooks (at www.TheThermalCook.co.uk) recipes to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2010. Steam-pot chicken is a local speciality of Yunnan and I have adapted this recipe for a thermal cooker.  The steam pot that is normally used has a hollow tube fixed in the centre, up to the height of the pot. Food is put around the tube and the pot is placed on a stand surrounded by boiling water. Steam comes up from the small hole in the middle of the pot to heat the food. If cooking this recipe it would be ready in about three or four hours.

This is part of The Thermal Cooks (at www.TheThermalCook.co.uk) recipes to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2010. In the harsh climate of central-western China food like this is common. The thermal cooking allows cheaper cuts of meat that are often used in this part of China to be transformed into tasty tender meals.