I tried making curry with a compact folding burner 'ST-340' that can be used for both intense high heat and low heat.

When camping or BBQing, in addition to outdoor heat sources such as charcoal and bonfires, you can enjoy a wide range of dishes such as stews and stir-fries if you have heat sources such as portable gas stoves and single burners with stable heat power. However, there are many people who have experienced problems such as 'I bought a portable gas stove, but it is not as compact as I thought', 'Single burner can be stored compactly, but the fire is concentrated in one place, so the food tends to burn'. Should be. The regulator stove ' ST-340 ', which appeared in 2022 from the outdoor brand SOTO, is said to have the ability to spread the fire evenly over a wide range in a compact body. Since I bought such an ST-340, I actually made a standard camping dish 'Spice Curry Curry' and checked its performance.

Regulator Stove Range ST-340 | SOTO | OutDoor Gear

The package contained the ST-340 main unit, storage bag, and explanatory documents.

The ST-340's trivet and heat shield (plate marked SOTO) can be folded, and the size when folded is very compact.

When you unfold it, it looks like this. The hole for the burner fire is made to avoid the central part. In addition, the four-legged trivet ensures outstanding stability.

You can adjust the gas output by turning the black 'instrument plug knob'. Also, by pressing down the 'ignition lever' mounted at the bottom of the device plug knob, you can ignite it in one shot.

The ST-340 fits comfortably in a cooker with an inner diameter of about 14 cm in a storage bag.

In addition, gas can also be stored at the very limit of the cylinder. However, since the gas cylinder protrudes greatly upward, in this state you cannot use the technique of ``combining a large cooker and a small cooker to make a lid''. If you are planning a lightweight cap that works with a single rucksack, you need to be creative with your packing.

◆ 2: ST-340 ignition procedure
The ST-340 can be attached to a gas cylinder similar to a tabletop gas stove. The instruction manual says to use the SOTO gas cylinder '

The gas cylinder can be installed by aligning the installation opening with the notch and twisting it to the right.

The state with the gas cylinder attached is as follows. A heat shield is placed between the fire and the gas cylinder, making it difficult for heat to be transmitted to the gas cylinder even when using cooking utensils with a large inner diameter.

To ignite, first turn the instrument plug knob to the left until you hear the sound of gas coming out ... ...

It is OK if you push down the ignition lever until it clicks. At this time, the trivet gets hot, so if you use it on a wooden desk, it is recommended to put a heat-resistant sheet under the trivet to prevent the desk from burning.

◆ 3: I tried making spice curry with ST-340
Now that I know how to use ST-340, I will actually use it for cooking. This time, I will make a spice curry that is important to use high heat and low heat, such as `` blow off the moisture of the ingredients with intense high heat '' and `` simmer for a long time with low heat just before extinguishing ''.

The material looks like this.

If you use a large cooking utensil with a compact single burner, you tend to fall into the situation that 'only the center of the bottom of the pot is heated, and the fire is uneven.' This time, we will use a pan with an inner diameter of 21 cm to check the heating performance of the ST-340.

First of all, make it a low heat so that the fire barely touches the bottom of the pot ...

Fry the garlic and ginger until it turns brown. I sautéed it over low heat for about 12 minutes, but it never went out.

Next, put onions ... ...

Twist the appliance plug knob to adjust to high heat. Looking from the bottom, you can see that the tip of the fire covers the entire bottom of the pot.

After frying the onion until it becomes a candy color with high heat ......

Put whole tomatoes.

Continue to stir-fry over high heat to completely evaporate the juice. I continued to stir-fry over high heat for about 25 minutes until the moisture evaporated, but the heat did not become unstable during the process.

Now adjust to medium heat ......

Throw in the spices.

Add the chicken and fry until the surface is cooked through.

When the surface is cooked, pour the consomme soup ......

Adjust the heat to low enough to barely touch the bottom of the pan.

Boil in this state for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, the spice curry is complete. When making spice curry with a small single burner, the final 'simmer over low heat for 20 minutes' is a bad idea. It was difficult to simmer steadily and stably. However, with the ST-340, it was possible to stably output ``high heat that covers the bottom of the pot'' and ``low heat that barely touches the bottom of the pot'', so I was able to make a spice curry that was comparable to cooking on a kitchen stove without burning.

◆ 4: Summary
When I actually used the ST-340, I was able to confirm that while it was compact enough for camping use, it was able to maintain a stable state from high to low heat with high performance. Also, even after igniting for about an hour to make spice curry, about half of the gas remained in the gas cylinder, so one gas cylinder seems to be enough for one night's cooking. Bonfires and charcoal fires also add to the atmosphere of camping, but if you prepare a burner like the ST-340, you can greatly increase the repertoire of camping dishes such as stews and stir-fries.

Also, since the main body of ST-340 is a size that fits in a large cooker, it can be expected to be useful in applications such as mountain climbing where you want to reduce luggage depending on the packing.

The ST-340 is sold at the official shop of Fuji Burner for 8800 yen including tax. Also, at the time of writing the article, it is sold at Amazon.co.jp for 12,000 yen including tax.

Amazon | [SOTO] Made in Japan Single Burner Micro Regulator Equipped (High Fire Power, Wind Resistant) CB Can Group Camping Regulator Stove Range ST-340 Silver | SOTO | Single Burner