Recipes for those without an oven?

[emilbean]

MY OVEN BROKE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tracylee]

Peace Corps oven on a camp stove (I used this for 2 years as an oven).

Use a very large pot with an empty tuna can on the bottom to keep baking dishes off the bottom. Weight the lid and use the burner on low.

I also rigged up hooks around the top edge to hang circular baking pans inside to make pizzas, cinnamon rolls, cookies, etc.

[chef chicklet]

Geez I didn't read far enough, but as scunge suggests!
You can steam cook just about anything with great results, even a cake.

Steaming in Chinse wok and bamboo steamer (or use a rack of sorts) is another way to get around the oven.
I have a recipe for steamed spice cake if you'd like to try that.

[emilbean]

really? a steam cooked cake? hhmmmm, you have me thinking.

[jen kalb]

Unless you are a baker, that should be no big deal.

I think the main thing people use ovens for other than baking is grilling and roasting meat.
Grilling can be done just fine on the stove, in a hot cast iron pan. thats how we do it. If you are a roaster, there are pan roasts and braises that work well but for these you need recipes, which are in most general cookbooks. Im sure people will have suggestions if you say what kind of foods you like to prepare and eat..

[scunge]

steam ,steam, steam it's quick apply's to most of what I have available.Hamburger chicken,breads and buns not to mention veges all go into my bamboo steamer

[masha]

I'm assuming that your cook top is working. Anything that you would cook in the oven on low heat in liquid -- e.g., a braise -- can be cooked on the cooktop on a low flame. That would include pot roast, short ribs, etc.

[lgss]

Ours is on the fritz. Repairman scheduled for Tuesday. Do you have a pressure cooker? We had carmelized brussel sprouts with pecans and rice pasta yesterday and brown rice with lecho the day before.

[Querencia]

Not clear from your post whether this is a short- or long-term thing. Long ago we lived in a student housing hovel where the kitchen consisted of a two-burner hotplate. So we bought an electric roaster at Sears and that's what I baked in for three years---cake, bread, cookies, meals, souffles, everything. That's one option if you have no oven.

[emilbean]

Awesome, THANK YOU!!!!!

[avgolemona]

I don't understand. I use the oven maybe once a month, and I could live without that. It would be harder to find recipes that don't require a cooktop.

That said - crockpots, microwaves, toaster ovens, electric skillets, fondue pots, Foreman grills are all options. Or campstoves or grills. Just about anything that needs an oven can be made in a cast iron Dutch oven covered with coals.

[HillJ]

Do you own an outdoor grill? Electric grill? Blender? Microwave?
I was without an oven for 3 months during a kitchen redo and got so use to not using it, then when the new one finally arrived I didn't use it right away.

Salads are the easiest but if you have other appliances, you'll do fine.

[cleopatra999]

what about a slow cooker meal? as long as you don't need to pre cook anything you should be good.

[rainey]

My kitchen was down for a loooooong time when I got it remodeled. I ended up getting one of those open-the-top type roasters when I couldn't take it anymore. I should have done it in the beginning.

They're not ideal. You lose all the heat any time you open it up BUT I was able to bake bread and make most of the things we did without for too long. They're cheap (in the range of $35-50) and you could probably still pick up one that's left over from the holidays.

I kept mine. I now use it outdoors for things like baked beans or mac & cheese when we're BBQing and I don't want to crank up a hot oven inside.

[Chinon00]

Kick ass salads

My favorite is the classic Caeser: egg yolks, olive oil, fresh garlic, lemon juice, anchovies, herbs tossed with romaine and topped with grated PR and served with a baguette and a nice German dry riesling along with a decent cheese before or after . . .

[LadyintheKitchen]

at least with salads, you will be eating nutritiously and healthy. There are steam dishes you can buy from the grocery store in the freezer aisle. All you have to do is put it in the microwave and wah-lah!!

[FriedClamFanatic]

Stir fries, soups, even pan fried steak or chicken breasts are all good. And then there is pasta.

Lots of rice, pasta, fried potato

[nickblesch]

I second the steaks and chicken. You can either slice it thin and go for more of a stir-fry style, or you can turn the heat up to sear the outside and then crank it back down to let it cook through (works great with flank / flatiron steak). Searing and turning the heat down is not as effective as popping the pan in the oven for a few minutes, so either get thin steak or eat it medium rare. :D

I would also go for corn sauteed with, well, just about anything. Dice up some onion, garlic and toss them in a saute pan to soften, then add some diced red bell pepper and frozen corn (the frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe's is great), also some jalapeno if you like a bit of spice. Then add some salt, pepper, and cumin. Pull the dish from the heat, toss in some chopped green onion and cilantro, dress with a bit of lime juice and olive oil... Mmm.

The corn goes a lot of different ways, though - add zucchini and mint instead of the peppers, for instance.

[BamiaWruz]

If you have a toaster oven you can use it just like a regular one, also if you have a crockpot you can use that.. Do you mean your stove and oven broke or only the oven?

[emilbean]

only the the oven! (thank god)

[wolfe]

Here's one option.
http://www.surrealgourmet.com/html/re...