Notes and resources to accompany the June 28 meeting of the Environmental Change-Makers www.EnviroChangeMakers.org

Why Solar Cooking?

• Fun!
• Doesn’t heat up your house on hot summer days
• ZERO fuel consumption
• ZERO greenhouse gas emissions
• A nutrient-enriching slow cooking method
• Easy!

A Change of Pace
Solar cooking requires different timing.  With a microwave, we tumble in the door at 5:30 p.m., haggle over what’s for dinner, and slam it on the table within minutes. 

Solar cooking calls to us to return to a more luxurious pace of life – one many of us yearn for.  With solar cooking, you’ll need to select the dinner menu after breakfast.  “Prime time” for solar cooking is from 11a.m. to 2p.m. but you can cook anytime you have sunshine between about 9am and 4pm, year round.  If you’re going to be away for the day, your meal cooks while you are gone – just like in a CrockPot.  Solar cooking dovetails nicely with the Slow Food Movement (www.slowfoodla.com ). This movement retrains to us to appreciate rich local flavors and traditional goodness in our food.

Solar cooking times are an art, rather than a matter of exact measurement.  For the most part, solar cookers behave like the good ole familiar CrockPot – they’re very tolerant of a half hour or hour give-or-take.  When skies are hazy with clouds or smoke, or when you’re working outside the “prime time” window, expect your cooking project to take longer – perhaps even double the time.  I’m cautious to use the “prime time” window for raw meats, but with grains, veggies and pulses, I’ve experimented with sub-optimal conditions and had great results.  If the sun goes down and your food isn’t fully cooked, you can always finish your dish using the conventional stove as a backup. 

Solar cooking is a great excuse to be leisurely about your cooking.  Go play catch with the kids, or take the dog for a walk – your dinner will await you.

RECIPES:
�
Indian Rice, inspired by Madhu Gadia
1 1/2 cups dry brown basmati rice
3 cups water
1/4 teaspoon cumin seed
6 black peppercorns
1/2 stick cinnamon
1 whole cardamom
2 cloves
2 bay leaf
2 teaspoons oil (I use butter or olive oil)
1 teaspoon salt
Place all ingredients in dark solar cooking pot.  Cover and cook for about 1 hour of prime sunshine (or longer if not prime) until done.  Fluff with fork and serve.

Baked apples:  Core and slice apples (I use farmers market apples and prefer not to peel them).  In a measuring cup, combine ½ cup fruit juice (apple, orange, cranberry are all okay), ½ teaspoon cinnamon, dash of cloves.  Honey is optional.  Spread apples evenly in dark solar cooking pot.  Pour liquid over apples.  Cover and cook.  This recipe cooks fine in the tail end of the afternoon.

Moroccan Lentils, inspired by Anissa Helou
¾ cup dry lentils (brown or black)
1 ½ cups water
3/4 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Place all ingredients in dark solar cooking pot.  Cover and cook for about 1 hour of prime sunshine (or longer if not prime) until tender.  There should be a bit of liquid remaining, which is delicious over plain brown rice.

Plain chicken breastmeat for a salad:  Place 1 frozen Trader Joes’ chicken breast in dark solar cooking pot.  Cover and cook.  If you start at 10:30 or 11am, this will be cooked in 45 min to 1 hour.

Homemade meatballs for the kids:  Combine in large bowl: 1 package ground turkey, sausage seasoning of your choice (I use an Italian seasoning heavy with fennel), 2 eggs, ¼ cup grated cheese.  Form mixture into small meatballs.  Place in even layer in dark solar cooking pot.  Cover and cook about 1 hr at “prime time.”

Mediterranean Stew, p.267 of the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Cookbook.  I made the entirety in the solar cooker, staging the onions first for an hour at “prime time,” followed by the vegetables and broth for 2 hours.  I added the canned items after “prime time” as the sun was cooling.

Vegetable, egg and cheese dishes such as the Spinach Pie in Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Cookbook or the Atkins Swiss Chard Gratin (http://www.atkins.com/recipes/s/swiss-chard-gratin-341) cook in about 2-3 hours at “prime time.”  Vegetarian chili is a one-pot dinner that can be cooked entirely in the solar cooker.

TIPS: 

• The Golden Rule for solar cooking is “Get the food on early and don’t worry about overcooking” – Eleanor Shimeall
• Remember the solar pots will be hot. More than once I’ve burned myself thinking “it was only in the sun.” Use potholders!
• You can stack multiple pots in a solar cooker (particularly in the panel cooker we built at this meeting).  Sometimes it helps to place a trivet for air space between the pots.
• Solar cookers may cook from 180 to 300 degrees F– Eleanor Shimeall
• Cutting food into smaller pieces and dispersing it evenly in the pot helps it cook faster, particularly when sun conditions are not optimal.
• Preheat your equipment particularly if you’re using heavy cookware (cast iron, enameled iron) or box-type cookers.  While you’re getting the food chopped and ready, place all your equipment in the sun.  It will get nicely warmed to receive your food.
• Allow a 1” air space all around your pot (sides, bottom).  Raise bottom of pot off the cooker floor by placing pot on a trivet.  Pots for the panel cooker we built at this meeting need to be placed in an oven bag (turkey size).

COOKBOOKS:

• Anderson, Lorraine, Cooking with Sunshine (available at Los Angeles Public Library)  Good tips on cooking techniques, including baking.  Anderson does use conventional cooking as a supplement to solar, so she’s not purist.  She recommends nonstick cookware, which I avoid.  And the recipes do call for some prepared foods (canned soups, mayonnaise, etc).  The back of the book includes lists of recipes for cloudy days, quick preparation, and other less-than-optimal situations.
• Shimeall, Eleanor, Eleanor’s Solar Cookbook (available through Solar Cookers International and through Bountiful Gardens catalog)  Many recipes are garden-to-kitchen, thus take your preparation in a more sustainable direction.  Cooking instructions are quite casual, sometimes scant. But this book includes instructions on solar canning of acidic fruits and tomatoes.
• Solar Oven Society’s recipe webpage http://www.solarovens.org/recipes/

Conventional cookbooks which adapt well to solar cooking:

• Crock pot cookbooks, like Rick Rodgers, Slow Cooker Ready & Waiting
• Garden cookbooks, like the Moosewood series
• Ethnic cookbooks (Indian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean), with long-cook dishes
• Unhurried traditional recipes, like Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions

Eleanor Shimeall writes that solar cookers cook faster than CrockPots, and recommends “using about 2/3 the liquid and about 2/3 the cooking time called for.”

RESOURCES:
Resources from this Solar Cooking event are at [this page]
comparison of cooker models http://legacyla.net/documents/solarcookercompare.pdf
comparison of pots http://legacyla.net/documents/solarcookingpots.jpg

Joanne’s essays about solar cooking:
Building the box oven model – part 1 http://legacyla.net/transformation/?p=161
Building the box oven model – part 2 http://legacyla.net/transformation/?p=182
About solar cooking pots http://legacyla.net/transformation/?p=197
Pros and cons of my various models http://legacyla.net/transformation/?p=181

BUILDING PLANS:
Plans for building several solar cooker models http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/default.htm
The Barbara Kerr Solar Wall Oven http://www.solarcooking.org/bkerr/DoItYouself.htm

BUYING A COOKER:
The Solar Sizzler is available at www.SolarSizzler.com
A mylar cooker similar to Joanne’s is available at www.WiseMenTrading.com/solarcooking.htm
The Global Sun Oven is available at www.SunOven.com
The Solar Sport Oven is available at www.SolarOvens.org

OUTREACH:
Please consider making a donation to the following causes:

• Jewish WorldWatch sends solar ovens to refugee families in Darfur http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/donate/solarcookerproject.html
• The Solar Oven Society supports projects in Afghanistan and Ethiopia www.SolarOvens.org

Also at this meeting:

“Beating the Heat with Passive Cooling” http://legacyla.net/documents/PassiveCooling.pdf

Raising Children to a Climate Change Future http://legacyla.net/transformation/?p=221

10 Things You Can Do About Global Warming (Yes, even if you’re not yet an adult) http://legacyla.net/transformation/?p=231