This weekend I went along to the Grand Designs Show at Excel in London’s Docklands..As well as amazing ideas for gardens and living rooms was an eclectic mixture of kitchen and food ideas. The one that really caught my eye was the ‘Wonderbags’! No, it is not a new brand of handbag. In fact it is a new way of cooking that I can see would be particularly useful for Shabbat cooking. Its heat last for 12 hours, so ideal for Friday night in the winter when Shabbat comes in early or suitable in the summer for Shabbat lunch when it comes in late.

The Wonderbag is an insulated fabric bag full of an insulating material in which people can cook anything from meaty stews, or vegetable hotpots to simple rice and soups. You heat up your pot of food on the stove, kick-starting the cooking process, and then place it in the Wonderbag to complete the cooking.

The inventor, Sarah Collins, got the idea when she was in South Africa and having suffered a series of power cuts she remembered how her grandmother used to wrap the saucepans of her half cooked dinner in cushions to keep them cooking and hot.

< > Today, the Wonderbag is South Africa’s first official Clean Development project and for every purchase that we make in the UK, one will be given free to a poor family living in Africa. Prices start at £38 and the product is available at http://nb-wonderbag.com/ The clever insulating properties of the Wonderbag allow food that has been brought to the boil to finish cooking while in the bag without the use of additional energy. It works in three simple steps, boil it, bag it, stand it and serve and this in my opinion makes it ideal for making of cholent, a traditional Shabbat recipe that requires a long period of cooking to optimise the flavour.

I think Wonderbags are an excellent idea and would love to know if any of you, my loyal readers, have had an experience of this new product.

www.jewishcookery.com

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