Clean & Healthy Cooking With Clay From Miriam’s Earthen Cookware

One of the greatest joys I have found in life is cooking delicious meals for my family. While some people find cooking to be just another difficult task they have to do in the day, cooking has become a very special way to express my love to my husband and my children. I have always loved being creative and inventing new recipes has become almost my own form of artwork. Some artist use paint to make a masterpiece we see with our eyes, musicians takes notes, instruments, and voices and put them together for our listening pleasure, I just happen to use ingredients to make my own showpiece that my family enjoys (hopefully) with their taste buds. I had never cooked with clay, but I heard fantastic things about the benefits and flavor of fixing food this way, and Miriam’s Earthen Cookware send me a clay pot, pictured above, at no cost, to facilitate this review, and give me a first hand experience in healthy cooking with clay. I couldn’t wait to get into the kitchen!

Before I could get cooking, I had to “season” my new clay pot. The process of seasoning is extremely easy, and necessary to ensure perfect cooking for the lifetime of your pot.

To Season Your New Clay Pot:

This only needs to be done one time before 1st use.

Thoroughly rinse the pot/pan and lid under running water for a few minutes and let it sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile make the following mixture: 

Add 3 tbsp of flour (any one of the following: wheat, rice, arrowroot, lentil, flour etc) to 1 cup of water.  Make it 4 tbsp to 1.5 cup water if seasoning the Large or X-large pot.  Stir thoroughly so it’s without lumps.  Using a few drops of cooking oil and a pinch of turmeric is optional.  

Now fill your pot 1/4 with water, add the flour mixture, stir and place it on the stove and start on low.  Let it stay at this heat for 5-7 minutes then increase to medium heat.  Cook with lid on till it thickens to a broth. Turn stove off and wait for it to cool down, preferably overnight. The next morning pour broth out, rinse the pot with water and start cooking! – MEC Website

Why Cook With Clay?

Clay pot cooking is a cooking method that is as new as tomorrow and as old as time itself! It’s unique in that, this inert and mineral rich composition of pure nature cooks your food without any additives like Metal Ions, Toxins or Glazes leaching into your food. They also have the unique ability to lock steam, locking nutrients and cook with a far superior form of heat that cooks your food without damaging any of the nutrition bearing cells in your food.

Did you know: 9 out of 13 essential vitamins and minerals are water soluble and are constantly lost in the form of steam with conventional cookware? With Pure-Clay, steam is is so well managed inside the pot that little to no water soluble nutrients are lost as steam.  The special design of the pot and lid lock the rising steam, cools / condenses it and sends it right back into your food. This feature also lets food cook with its own oils and juices so little to no oil or other liquids are needed. – MEC website. 

To read so much more about all of the health and even energy saving benefits of cooking with clay, click HERE!

The first dish I made in my new clay pot was some wild rice to pair with oven baked chicken. I have made wild rice numerous times, but never has it tasted so delicious, or the texture come out so perfectly! I was a little unsure when I first began cooking with clay because the process of preparing a dish like rice, in clay, is totally the opposite of how you would cook it in a metal pot. In clay, you start the water on low for a few minutes before turning the heat up to a medium temperature. After letting the water heat up for a few minutes in the pot (it never came to a boil) I tossed in my rice, covered it up and let it cook. I checked on the water level a few times and tasted the rice to check for it’s tenderness. It wasn’t long before it was finished! Normally, I put my food in a serving dish, but this clay pot is so unique, I served my rice right from the pot. I was amazed at how quickly the outside of the pot became cool enough to handle, while still keeping the food inside warm. Even my little kids couldn’t get enough of the healthy wild rice, and everyone was fighting over who got the last bite! Although these pots are even dishwasher safe, I wanted to keep the chemical free integrity of my pot. With just a sprinkling of baking soda and a soft sponge, my pot wiped clean and ready for the next use. Also refrigerator safe, once the pot reaches room temperature, leftovers can be kept in the pot until you are ready to polish them off.

MEC recommends once you have seasoned your pot, that you cook with it every couple of days back to back. This meant that I had the perfect reason to create a new recipe for my family! I knew I wanted to fix a dish that included some white rice so I decided to blend the spices of Indian cuisine with the comfort of southern cooking. The result: Nontraditional Southern Korma. Click HERE to check out Our Southern Style’s latest recipe!

From it’s beauty, to the delicious, healthy food this cookware allows home cooks to create, these handmade clay pots are worth the investment in your kitchen, cooking, and meals. There is no other pot in my kitchen that will be used to make rice besides my Miriam’s Earthen Cookware!

Miriam’s Earthen Cookware has numerous styles and sizes perfect for every dish! Click HERE to see all of the cookware that MEC has to offer!

Make sure to follow Miriam’s Earthen Cookware on their Facebook Page to hear about all of their newest products and latest promotions!

WIN IT!

One lucky reader will win their own size Large 100% handmade clay pot! The giveaway will end July 6 2015 at 11:59pm. Open to residents of the US only and must be 18 years old to enter. Enter using the Giveaway Tools entry form below.

Disclosure: I was sent the item listed above at no cost to facilitate this review. Prize fulfillment is the responsibility of Miriam’s Earthen Cookware and not Our Southern Style or Thrifty Nifty Mommy. This giveaway is not associated with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.