Do you ever get tired of cleaning the inside of an oven? For instance, after roasting a chicken when splatters of oil or other liquids have nested inside the corners and edges of the oven interior. Or perhaps you live in an apartment which doesn’t have an oven and you can only fry or boil ingredients for a dish, and not also use an oven, like professional chefs do, for baking, roasting or just to use convention heat to cook through the final dish. Well, there is a solution to these twin problems, and that is the Lotus Rock Stove-Top Convention Cooker!

The Essentials

1. The Base

The base is the foundation upon which all the other components of the stove-top convention cooker rest on. The sturdy, ergonimical construction of the base is essential not only for the durability of the product, but also for its high dry-heat cooking performance. The base has a circular open bottom to allow the heat from the gas stove to rise up towards and circulate around the food above it. In addition, there is an inner ring at the edge of the base for water to be added. This is particularly useful for grilling (as explaned below). The addition of water in the base can reduce the temperature inside the cooking veseel, which can prolong the quality of the coating and material of the convention cooker.

2. The Tray

Made of heavy-gauge steel, the high strength of the tray makes it both highly resistant to warping from the gas flame below it, while at the same time strong enough to withstand the weight of heavy food, such as a Turkey, being roasted on top of it. Small, evenly punched holes at the edge of the tray allow heat to rise up and circulate evenly around the food for excellent dry-heat cooking.

The tray is also very useful because other accessories can be added on top of it (as explained below) to increase the versatality of the cooking vessel.

3. The Lid

The last essential component of the stove-top convention cooker is the lid. The large, oval-shaped construction of it is essential to ensure there is enough room for hot air to circulate around the food for excellent dry heat cooking. Its spacious interior is also very useful if you want to cook food such as a turkey, which is quite often large in size. The knob is made of bakelite material which is stay-cool, thus the lid is easy and safe remove when necessary.

 The Accessories

1. The Rack

A useful addition to the stove-top convention cooker is a rack. By keeping  meet such as chicken elevated above the tray, it is lifted out of its own juices. This has a few advantages for roasting, such as ensuring the bottom develops a nice and crispy crust, especially if a whole chicken is roasted with the skin still on. Another benefit is that the rack also allows the heated air to properly move around all over the meat and make sure the bottom gets cooked well, too. Last of all, the drippings which are left in the tray after roasting can be used to make a sauce to pour over the chicken for extra flavour.

2. The Steel Tri-Pod

On the stove top, the heat from a gas flame can be quite intense and make the inside of the convection cooker hotter than it actually needs to be. One option mentioned above to reduce the detrimental effects of the high heat is to fill the inside of the base with water, which can reduce the temperature inside the convention cooker. However, one disadvantage of this method is that it might produce too much moisture inside and so limit the amount of browning that can occur on meat. So another option instead of water is to include a steel tri-pod inside the base that can reduce the rate of heat transfer and also spread the heat more evenly into the area within the lid above.

3. The Grill Plate

There is another accessory which can completely transform the use of this cooking vessell: this is the grill plate. With this accessory neither the tray nor the lid are necessary. The grill plate can be placed on the base to do Korean style BBQ cooking.  Unlike with the rack described above, the thick ridges of the grill plate allow juices to flow to the edge of the plate and cascade through the holes into the ring of the base below. As mentioned previously, it is generally advisable to add water into the base when grilling to reduce the temperature and maintain the quality of the cooker for future usage.