Tuesday 11 January 2011

Optimus Terra Solo Pot

Would you believe me if I told you that I had been abducted by the American Government and held in some sort of suspended animation for months and therefore was totally unable to blog?  If you do believe me you're the sort of reader I'm after!  If you don't please just, I don't know, just read on.

This offering is slightly unusual in that it's an indoor video of me cooking using a very small frying pan.  I saw this pot on the webtogs site* I've been after a light frying pan for a couple of years and this at only £20 intrigued me.  As explained in the video sometimes the lightweight approach can lead to slight jealousy when walking with non lightweight friends.  I may have less on my back but they have a fry up for breakfast.  Hmmm, who's the winner there?  So sometimes a little luxury would be nice.  It's not often that you can get both the lightweight and the luxury together.  In this instance I can add a frying pan to my lightweight kit for just a further 40g, it weighs more than that, you need to see the video for further explanation.

The pot itself which doesn't get much of a look in, in the video is a nice piece of kit.  Very sturdy, great heatproof handles so you can dispense with melting various bits of clothing taking the pot of the stove and just the right size for boiling water for dehydrated meals.  With the addition of a silicone band around the rim to protect your lips its also a nice mug to drink from.

The price at £20 is great compared to similar titanium pots, allthough slightly heavier, it's just as sturdy as my Ti pot with the advantage of being easier to cook with, try frying anything with Ti, it's not a great idea.  Lets see how I got on cooking fried eggs...

I apologise for the poor editing.  I seemed to be doomed never to be able to get even simple video editing software to work, there are 10 seconds of silence at the beginning, it's not for artistic effect I can assure you.





As promised the bannock bread recipe

2 cup plain flour
1 cup milk powder
1 tsp baking powder
Good pitch of salt.

This is the very basic recipe.  Just google "bannock bread bushcraft" for countless tasty variations.  This can be mixed up taken in a ziplock bag and just add water when needed.  Very little water at a time as you're making a stiff dough not a cake mix.  The wet mix is seriously sticky.  Practice at home first, my boys love this and they're very picky!

* Disclaimer - Webtogs have supplied the pot for this review.  All views and comments are mine alone.  If I didn't like it I would say as much.  I have full editorial control. FULL CONTROL I TELL YOU.

11 comments:

Shed Dweller said...

Apologies for anyone who viewed the unproperly sized video. It's been shrunk to fit now, it was a late night last night...

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed watching this and shall henceforth call you Delia ;-)
I saw that Judy Armstrong (the TGO one) likes to take a frying pan; I'll have to look up what she uses (sorry Webtogs), as I like to have a bit of real food every now and then too!

Ben said...

Really enjoyed watching that, made my evening.
I am going try bannock bread real soon. Thanks Ben

Shed Dweller said...

Thanks for the comments! I really like doing video although, I always have massive difficulty actually putting it together at the end, nothing ever runs smoothly. I would be interested what software other people use to edit. Windows movie maker will be the death of me.

Mac E said...

Good review there, the pot set looks quite nice. I'd pretty much stayed away from pots with frypan lids thinking I'd not use them as intended and feeling that they're not great as a cup/mug. I just tried your bannock recipe today and it is much nicer than I expected, I imagine it would be even better on a cold frosty morning together with a fried egg, maybe I should reconsider a frying pan.

QDanT said...

Thanks for the review I’ve the same pan set with an Optimus crux stove which seems to be my set of choice for the last few tours. I’ve fried eggs no problem but not tried a bannock certainly will now! cheers Danny

Shed Dweller said...

The bannock bread is quite surprising isn't it. From the ingredients you wouldn't think it'd be that nice. Then the outsides burn like crazy and it doesn't look all that nice.

The taste surprises in how nice it actually is. No real burnt taste, just sweet hot doughy bread. You can make the dough into a sausage and wrap it round a stick and bake over an open fire. I've not done this. Don't do it over meths though it tastes of burnt meths!

Mac E said...

Funny enough it reminded me of stuff my mum makes, over here (North Antrim) they call them 'Slims' They're baked on a griddle and often fried along with soda bread, fadge (Potato Bread) egg and sausage bacon etc (an Ulster Fry) although you can eat them cold.

I asked my Mum at the weekend what the recipe was for slims and it's virtually the same mix only she uses self raising flour (essentially plain flour with baking powder already added) margarine, sugar and milk. Some people also put raisins in the mix which is how I like them, like your recipe the black bits don't taste burned.

Guy Bell said...

Great review. One suggestion.....when cooking the egg just add a couple drops water and cover the pan with the bottom pot. The resulting steam will finish the egg in seconds.

Shed Dweller said...

Cheers Guy

Good tip!

Anonymous said...

Could you post some specs of the Pot and frying pan,Lid.

Just would like to know how many Mls, Litres they both hold and the total height of the pot with the lid on and the width of the pot would be nice :)

I think the large pot is 600mls, but not sure about the frying pan ????

I just want to know as I like to cook my meal and also boil my water for tea and coffee and the same time and want to make sure the frying pan has enough capacity at least 1 and a half cups.

Also the total height so I can see if it will fit all my gear in it :0

Cheers.