Category — Solar Cooking

Today I discovered how simple and perfect solar cooking is for reheating already cooked rice. We consume an enormous amount of rice in our household. We cook a good-sized pot of it for a meal and then store the left-overs in the refrigerator so there’s usually cold rice in there. We’re fairly skillful at reheating it in the microwave but I thought I’d give the solar cooker the job today and it performed marvelously.

I put 3 cups of rice in the pan and added 1/3 cup of water. The lid went on and the pot went into the solar cooker. Five hours later, when a rare treat– venison steaks– were coming off the grill, the tender, fluffy rice was ready to accompany our meal. Again, minimal effort with wonderful results– all while saving energy.

I’ve only come to appreciate spinach more fully in the last couple of years. Prior to that, I merely tolerated spinach’s raw presence in salads or cooked form in other dishes. I would avoid anything where spinach was the main ingredient in any form.

I guess my taste buds are still maturing because at some point I found out a culinary secret: spinach is pretty good. Moreover, spinach is enormously flexible and generous. Not only can spinach dress up a vegetable lasagna, an omelette or something florentine, spinach can stand on its own… with the right ingredients.

This is my new favorite way to make spinach and I do it in the solar cooker.

Start with 10 oz of frozen spinach. Defrost it in the microwave or however you like. Combine the spinach with 1 beaten egg, 4 ounces softened cream cheese, 1 tsp garlic powder, 4-6 ounces of a favorite cheese, like mozerella, cheddar, whatever, depending on your mood. Mix well and put into a pre-sprayed small pan. Bake it in the sun all day while you go to work or do your laundry or run errands.

When you return, when you are ready to eat, lovely creamy flavorful yet mild and light spinach bake will be waiting for you.

Here is another simple recipe that will delight you (with its ease) and your guests (with its flavor).

Ingredients you’ll need:

Jiffy Apple-Cinnamon Muffin mix

1.5 teaspoon cornstarch

1 egg

3/4 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Combine the muffin mix and the cornstarch in a bowl. Add the egg, sour cream and oil and stir to dissolve most of the lumps. Spread the batter in the bottom of a pre-cooksprayed round lidded pan. Bake in the solar oven for 5 or 6 hours.

Our cake was brown and crisped on top. The bottom was more moist than a regular cake, although it was thoroughly cooked. It reminded me of an English pudding so I served it warm with a swirl of caramel on the plates.

Here is a short-cut recipe to a yummy dessert.

I was feeling a bit lazy so I started with a Jiffy Devil’s Food Cake Mix. This is just the right size for making a small cake. With the mix in the bowl, I added a small box of instant chocolate pudding mix, 1 egg, and a tablespoon of oil. Mix to get out most of the big lumps. Spread the mix in the bottom of a pre-cooking sprayed round pan.

Cooking a cake will take 5 or 6 hours of a sunny day. Try not too peek when solar cooking because you are letting the heat out of the pan every time you do. Plus you cannot burn your food so leave it alone.

The cake will turn out very moist and rich. You can eat it warm out of the pan because there’s not much cooling needed. Also, the cake does not set up exactly like a traditional oven baked cake, so expect a softer style of dessert.

And plan to use a spoon.

Solar cooking with potatoes requires an early start on a sunny day. Preparation is so easy however that you can have these babies out in the cooker in a matter of minutes.

Wash 4 or 5 potatoes. I usually pick the small ones and those of about the same size, if I can. Place them in the cooking pot. If you wish, you can add a small peeled and quartered onion. Or you might try a clove or two of garlic. If you are feeling mighty adventurous, you could add both. You can also dress them up with a teaspoon or your favorite herb(s) sprinkled over the contents. Cover. Bake. Eat. That’s it.

As said, potatoes need a long stretch in the solar cooker. I aim for at least 6 hours. The final result is a moist and tender potato, sort of a baked potato with a tenderer skin. Dress them up with butter and they are completely delicious.