Christmas lunch with no oven...

[penguinwithasuitcase]

DP and I live separately, and while last year we had Christmas at my house, this year he's said he and DSS would like to do it at their flat.

(it's smaller and not as comfortable as my place, but they're perfectly entitled to a Christmas at theirs so I'm keeping my trap shut )

Only thing that's niggling me is that they don't have an oven, so I'm trying to plan ahead and think about what we can do for Christmas lunch that requires only a stovetop....?

Any ideas?

[quote Oftenithinkaboutit]@kowari

Do you have children?[/quote]
I have a teenager, yes. I don't see why that matters?

@DahliaMacNamara

Buy him a mini oven as his Christmas present. Then you won't have to think about it.

This is an extraordinary thing to suggest.

Has the partner spent their time and money kitting out the OP’s home???

Because I was just curious not to have an oven and to have children. Must make life sometimes a bit tricky

No roasts, no traditional al children’s meals like chicken Kievs, pizza etc

Necessity? Absolutely not
But rare with children? Yes

The only useful suggestion I can give is to NOT cook it on some kind of grill set up such as a George Foreman. The first house DH and I lived in had no oven when we moved into it, so DH decided to cook everything he could on the George Foreman, including a block of stuffing. The house stank of stuffing for days afterwards and the whole process ultimately murdered our grill. We got an oven in after that!

@kowari

And your teenager - no pizza? No roasts? No chips? No pizza? No pasta bakes? No chicken kievs etc

I’m not judging! In genuinEly curious

I join the airfryer chorus. I've been without an oven for a year and I can cook anything in it. It does amazing pork crackling, better than any oven I've had, and perfect roasties.
Get one of the benchtop oven ones, not those fiddly spaceship ones with the drawer. The space isn't much different but the utility is incomparable.

@Oftenithinkaboutit
I have an oven but rarely use it. I use the grill for cheese on toast (prefer it to pizza) but if I didn't have it I'd just use a sandwich toaster and do toasties instead. It's easy to pan fry salmon or chicken, we have chilli, soups, curries, stir fry..

Is there a (good) reason why he is bringing up his son with no access to an oven?

What, like most of China?

[quote kowari]**@Oftenithinkaboutit
I have an oven but rarely use it. I use the grill for cheese on toast (prefer it to pizza) but if I didn't have it I'd just use a sandwich toaster and do toasties instead. It's easy to pan fry salmon or chicken, we have chilli, soups, curries, stir fry..[/quote]
Oh you have an oven!!! Ignore my question then. Completely irrelevant. You have an oven!

Could do pot roast beef or slow cooked gammon. I do gammon on the stove top anyway, cooked in coke or cider. Serve with mashed potatoes, plenty of steamed veg, maybe some cauliflower cheese or slow cooked red cabbage.

Could he get an air fryer or halogen oven?

So he wants Christmas in his own place which is not very comfortable and has no oven and you are trying to solve this by working out what food you can have? That is his lookout. Personally I would stay in my own comfortable home and have a lovely dinner!

You can roast a chicken on a stove top. People use Dutch Pots on campfires to do this all the time:
www.myrecipes.com/recipe/angelas-stovetop-chicken

A Le Creuset type casserole, anything cast iron, will work.

However, a fantastic feast can come in many forms. A lovely casserole of venison in red wine, anything!

Personally would much rather have something different than slices of meat reheated in gravy.

Good lord – I wasn't expecting this!

A bit of projection going on in these comments, clearly, but let me put you all at ease:

We don't live in the UK. It's perfectly common here not to have an oven.

I'm not planning Christmas and the cooking, WE'RE planning Christmas and the cooking, but he's not on mumsnet so I'm the one posting.

And his son (as well as thousands upon thousands of children and young people here across multiple generations) has grown up perfectly fine. No abuse or neglect here, just no oven-cooked foods... but thank you @LiterallyKnowsBest for your concern.

And finally, he's not HOSTING me –I'm his partner of 5 years, not a distant visiting relative.

"What are you planning to serve?" 😂If I said that to him, he'd do exactly what I would do if he said it to me: burst out laughing and ask if I'd been drinking.

Christ on a bicycle...

Thanks to those of you who are offering actual practical suggestions. A big paella sounds like fun, @herecomesthsun, and @Sprogonthetyne slow cooked beef sounds epic! Would never have thought of that!

@femfemlicious and @Grayskelly I've been so suspicious of air-fryers –DP's actually suggested it a few times and I always dismissed it as a fad –but reading your posts maybe we'll give it a go!

@Oftenithinkaboutit
Why does it matter if I have an oven or not? If I was saying that a dishwasher is not a necessity would my opinion not count because I have one I don't use?

Or could you cook the meat in your oven and take that and just warm it up before you serve it ?

Slow cooker for the meat or we cooked our turkey in the ninja foodi last year and it was amazing.

Veg on hob

Infact you barely need an oven.. only thing I can't think to resolve is roasties and stuff.. but cook at home and take with you. Can you get microwaveable yorkies?

What, like most of China?

But we don’t live in China.

The cooking implements of any country evolve to suit the food habitually cooked there. My half a century of eating in the UK would have been completely different if there had been no oven in which to create a whole raft of ‘traditional’ meals. So, to me it seems a pity to grow up here without experiencing the ritual of those meals. Whether communally or alone - Christmas roast or late night pizza for one - so much of my memory bank is stuffed with this … stuff. From tiny Brevilles in student digs, or on a houseboat, to years with an Aga and all the triumphs and challenges in between (including trying to replicate dishes from family heritage, that would, on other continents, be roasted outside).

Obviously if finances prevent possession of one, that’s understandable, but I wouldn’t choose to live without one.

And (this thread has riled me more than expected), let me clear one last thing up: @HollowTalk his place is NOT very comfortable compared to mine but he lives in it so he can be close to his son –after 18 months of very little income due to his line of work being impacted by COVID, he's doing the best he bloody can.

So @GiltEdges no he's not insisting on Christmas at his place, he's requested it and I've agreed – because we operate our relationship based on balance and mutual respect, not the size of our sofas.

OP you were perfectly free to point out - in your first post - that you don’t live in the UK, but you chose not to do so.

Pointless waste of time.

@LiterallyKnowsBest

OP you were perfectly free to point out - in your first post - that you don’t live in the UK, but you chose not to do so.

Pointless waste of time.

Why would I need to?

I was asking for cooking ideas, not your judgments.

Wow! Some PA responses here!

Op I'd go for a slow cooker meat and then cook the rest on the rings.

Nothing to do with judgements. I have family on pretty much every continent - I’d make suggestions based on where they live. I discussed ownership of ovens because they are the basis of a lot of cooking here - as your OP apparently indicated.

If you had said you were in Egypt or Barbados, for example, my comments would have been entirely different.

@NightmareSlashDelightful

This one’s got ‘pub’ all over it tbh

This is spot on.

Aside from that, if he’s insisting it’s at his house and you’re keeping quiet about the logistics, he needs to work it out himself.

@LiterallyKnowsBest

Nothing to do with judgements. I have family on pretty much every continent - I’d make suggestions based on where they live. I discussed ownership of ovens because they are the basis of a lot of cooking here - as your OP apparently indicated.

If you had said you were in Egypt or Barbados, for example, my comments would have been entirely different.

You mean you'd have answered my question instead of questioning how he's raising his son?

That would have been nice

I didn't need a continent-specific suggestion, I needed a suggestion for something to cook for Christmas that didn't involve an oven.

Our location while we eat the output is totally irrelevant.

But since you think it's a 'pointless waste of time' to have the discussion I actually aimed to start, perhaps it's time for you to pop off elsewhere?