So I got a Chick Brick for my Christmas and I AM LOVING IT. any recipes?

[Aitch]

today i made a kinda ratatouille by flinging some onion quarters, a pepper, some carrot and aubergine, then plonked some chicken pieces rubbed with harissa on top and put it in the oven for an hour and a half. the results were delicious and there was no cooking required whatsoever, just chop and plonk and into a cold oven set for high.

any other recipes? i think i am a convert.

Y-a-a-y can we have a Romertopf clique?.

I really like the look of the chicken in a pot. But Arfishy, just do a very plain roast chicken first of all (maybe some garlic, lemon and a slosh of wine). I guarantee that when you eat it you will think "Hmmm, chicken-y".

now i have romertopf envy...

Actually aitch - I've jsut looked at the page you linked to and they have changed the desgin again back to the very original one (like mine). My chicke brick is now black with use. Interesting, it is the top have that goes darker - the bottom half still shows a bit of terracottoa colour on the inside.

WHo needs a rumertopf? Chicken brick - basic but brilliant.

Yes to romertopf clique!

I will take your sage advice Anchovy and do a plain roasted chicken with garlic and a slosh of wine [any excuse to open a bottle of wine at lunchtime quite frankly].

I will report back after roasting today. DP excited in a manly way about this new discovery.

In the romertopf catalogue there is a special romertopf for fish ('we recommend the fish romertopf because the clay pores take the smell of the fish'), and excitingly a banana roaster too. Oooh Oooh and an apple one that sits on its own burner.

Now interestingly it says in my book that you should soak it before use every time for 10 minutes.

it's a giant garlic roaster!

i'm more in moony's camp, i still cook beans in my grandmother's clay beanpot and use one of the lids from her old wood stoves as a 'comal' for heating up tortillas.

I was inspired by this to have guinea fowl in the Romertopf yesterday evening

You must soak it: you need the steam.

HO-KAY. there's no coming back from this one, ponce-wise.

today i was cooking for a family get-together and conducted an experiment using my mum's brick (larger and thicker and altogether more robust, prettybird) and my own. hers, as i may have mentioned, is blackened with the souls of chickens long-dead.

anyhoo, i didn't soak hers (ahem, she wouldn't let me) and i did soak ours. hers had the same moistness, the same amount of liquor etc etc but it did have the edge on skin crispiness.

i cannot factor in the thickness, patina, robustness etc of the two bricks, unfortunately, but each chicken was replete with half a lemon and some sage up its arse and sat on a bed of garlic, onion and some heavenly carrots.

so where does that leave us?

Try doing yours again but not soaking it and see if the skin i scrispier. Then try it again with soaking it and see if there is any difference (to factor out the effect of the brick having become more seasoned).

A good excuse to have lots of roast chicken!

oh gosh it was lovely, though. really, er, chickeny. and i've not lost any of the juices to the sides of the oven so it's all goinig in the stock (well, what didn't go into the gravy). result.

i am behoven to bump this.

for some crazy reason, the chick brick seems a likeable object.

it is very friendly indeed.

I'm a veggie but bought a Chick brick from Habitat because I thought it'd look good in kitchen - design classic

now i've heard it all, Tnog .

I bought an Artichoke once because it looked good and kept it on kitchen table for weeks.

Never cooked the thing, just admired it.

i reckon you could do a lovely ratatouille in it, tnog, but you'd have to stew the onions in oil first.

I'll have a go Aitch, but might sully it if I actually cooked in it

you are crackers, my dearest.

Yes

Makes life a little more bearable if you're crackers sometimes

Are they as breakable as they look?

they do look a bit breakable... but loads of people seem to have had them for years. i think if you dropped it onto a stone floor it'd be fooked, though.

Hmm. Yes.

See now if Ikea did chick bricks i'd be laughing. Or John Lewis..........

get a romertopf anyway, they look better. i bet JL sells 'em.