More Solar Bread and Sun Ovens on T.V.

Today I met the president of Global Sun Ovens Int. He invited me to do a segment on solar cooking with him on a local morning news show. I got a lot of tips and ideas for future meals. I found out that the Sun Oven can also be used as a food dehydrator and that if you leave the oven door closed the food will remain hot even after the sun goes down. This is great news. We no longer have to eat dinner so early. I am even more convinced that, especially in Arizona, solar ovens could replace crock-pots. They are just as easy to use and the food comes out much better.

In my oven today I made some more bread. It's the same recipe as my previous post but I made two loaves instead of one.

Here's a link to our T.V. segment if you'd like to see it:

http://www.azfamily.com/video/gmaz-index.html?nvid=390095

Solar Braised Lamb Shanks with Root Vegetables

Braising has to be the easiest way to cook meat and braising in a solar oven is even easier. I didn't follow a recipe, I simply took two lamb shanks, trimmed the excess fat, washed and patted them dry and browned them in olive oil in a cast iron dutch oven. I took them out of the dutch oven and sauteed some chopped onion, leek and garlic in it. When the onions were soft I put the lamb shanks back in the dutch oven with some salt and pepper and about 1/2 cup of red wine. I let the wine reduce a little, added about 1/2 cup of chicken broth, placed the lid on it and transfered it to the solar oven. After it had been cooking for about an hour I added the root vegetables, a rutabaga, a turnip and a carrot, peeled and cut into one inch pieces. I wanted them to retain their colors so I made a sort of pocket with tin foil and put it in the dutch oven on top of the lamb shanks. The total cooking time was approximately two hours, no longer than in a conventional oven and all without using a single watt of electricity.

Most lamb shank recipes allot one shank per person. I usually take the meat off the bones and get up to two servings per shank. I use the left over meat to make a shepherd's pie later in the week. I also usually serve this dish with mashed potatoes instead of the root vegetables but I wanted to cut back on the calories. I mashed the vegetables with some olive oil and of course I spooned the cooking liquid over everything before serving.

If you happen to be in Arizona be sure to tune into Good Morning Arizona on channel 3 Tuesday morning. They are doing a segment on solar cooking with me and the president of Global Sun Ovens International. It should air at 8:45 a.m. I've never been on T.V. before and I'm a little nervous.

Solar Risotto with Squash and Sage

I was tempted to just throw a potato in the sun oven and call it a day. I was still pretty tired from yesterday’s yard sale and we were out late last night. We had dinner with my cousin, Liz, and her friends. She lives less than ten miles away and yet we hadn’t seen each other in over ten years. Thanks to Facebook, her sister on the east coast told her about our yard sale so she came over to visit and shop.

Liz invited us round to her house for the evening telling me that her friend who had recently moved here from NYC would be making porchetta. We graciously accepted her invitation but I secretly thought she was making the whole porchetta thing up. This happens to be one of the foods I miss most from Italy and I know you can’t get it anywhere in Arizona.

You can imagine my surprise when her friend showed up and pulled the most beautiful piece of meat I’ve ever laid eyes on out of a bag. I had to know who her source was.

Well, like I said, she just moved here from NYC and she brought the roast with her! Her husband imports Italian foods. Apparently, according to my cousin, I am now one of the lucky few that can get their hands on one of these cuts of meat. When I do I will definitely cook it in the solar oven.

So, back to today’s solar cooking. With a nice chunk of leftover porchetta in the fridge our dinner’s main dish is pretty much covered. I thought it deserved something better than a boring baked potato to go with it.

Making risotto in the solar oven is an idea I’ve been toying around with for quite some time. I decided today was the day to go for it.

When it comes to risotto I’m a bit of a purist. I’ve always made it the traditional way, on the stove, stirring for the entire 20 minutes it takes to cook. I have recipes for pressure cooker risotto, acquaintances claim that it can be made in the microwave, and many insist that using brown rice is perfectly acceptable, but I would have none of it. It took solar cooking to finally find the courage to break from tradition.

The following recipe is a bit of a hybrid, it starts out on the stove and is moved to the solar oven to complete the cooking.

Solar Oven Risotto with Butternut Squash Sweet Potato and Sage

1 medium sweet potato peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces

1 small butternut squash, halved, seeds removed, cut into 2 inch pieces.

2 tbs butter

½ cup chopped onion

3 fresh sage leaves

1 cup Arborio rice

½ cup dry white wine

2 cups chicken broth

½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Put sweet potato and squash into a dark roasting pan with a little water. Cover and place in pre-heated solar oven until soft. About 30 minutes at 350º

Remove squash and sweet potatoes from pan. Peel squash. Put both vegetables in a bowl and mash. Set aside.

Heat broth in a small sauce pan

Melt butter in a dark pot. Add chopped onion and sage and cook until onion is soft. Add rice, stir to coat with butter. Add wine. When wine has evaporated add half the broth, stir and transfer pot to solar oven. Keep broth warm while rice cooks. After ten minutes add the rest of the broth and squash mixture to the rice stirring to incorporate. After ten minutes test rice for doneness. When rice is ‘al dente’ remove from solar oven. Stir in grated cheese. Adjust for salt and serve.

So I proved to myself that it is possible to make a decent risotto in a solar oven. But there is one major drawback. Risotto should be eaten immediately. This means either a very early dinner or having it for lunch. Since I don’t really like to eat early and generally have a light lunch I will most likely go back to the old fashioned way of making risotto and leave the solar cooking to dishes that are enhanced by it.

Solar Cookies!

Today I introduced solar cooking to my neighbors. I baked some cookies to give away at our yard sale. Putting a solar oven in the driveway will attract almost as much attention as a dog or a baby. It's a great icebreaker. I've been living on this street for over 10 years and I spoke to some of my neighbors for the first time today.

I'd share my chocolate chip cookie recipe with you but I didn't use one. I was way too tired from getting everything ready for the yard sale to make them from scratch. I used frozen cookie dough from Trader Joe's. It makes pretty good cookies but today was more about using my solar oven for socializing than anything else.

Windshield Shade Solar Cooker

I would really like to see solar cooking become as common as using a slow cooker but I realize that the cost of a solar oven can be off-putting. Like I said in my previous post, I started with a low cost solar cooker, then upgraded to a Global Sun Oven after a year. By then I knew solar cooking was not just an experiment but something I'd be doing on a regular basis. I decided to go back to experimenting with an inexpensive option to encourage people to give solar cooking a try.

I must admit the Global Sun Oven has spoiled me a little. It is designed so well that it's almost foolproof. The windshield solar cooker is not as easy to use. The instructions said to set it on a bucket. I didn't think it made any difference what kind of surface you put it on and I didn't have a spare bucket so I used a small metal table. At first it blew around in the wind and the temperature barely made it past 200º. By mid afternoon I got the brilliant idea to anchor the back with some clothes pins. This made all the difference, stabilizing the windshield shade so it would be more exposed to the sun.

The split pea soup I made turned out fine in the end. It took a lot longer than it would have in the Sun Oven, that was mostly because of the wind. With my clothes pin modification the cooking time should be shorter. I'll keep experimenting with my homemade solar oven but I will use the Sun Oven for our main course.

Homemade Solar Oven

The sun came out too late for solar cooking today. Hopefully we'll have clear skies tomorrow since I have a new solar cooker to try out.

When I discovered solar cooking I considered building a solar oven. There are a lot of plans out there and it seemed simple enough. Then I remembered the curtain rod I put up. I got so frustrated that I knocked a hole in the drywall. That was over two years ago and the hole is still there. If you're the handy type then a solar oven may be a great project. If not there are some inexpensive options.

My first solar cooker was a simple one made of cardboard that I got from Solar Cookers International. I used it for a few months and then upgraded to a Global Sun Oven. A few days ago one of my readers sent me a link to a solar cooker that even I could build. All you need is a windshield shade and some velcro. Here's the link: Windshield Solar Cooker.

I think it will make a good back up to the Sun Oven. It will come in handy for cooking rice and side dishes.

Solar Oven Partybrot

I have no idea why I decided to make this today apart from the fact that I thought it would be fun. Since I had to make two batches of dough, one white and one whole wheat, it wasn't ready to go into the sun oven when I had to leave for my 1:00 dentist appointment. By the time it was ready for the solar oven, at 2:50, the dreaded afternoon wispy cloud of the west had appeared. This cloud seems to show up every afternoon this time of year. It looks a little like a genie coming out of his bottle and blocks the sun just enough to make you think twice about attempting solar cooking. I really didn't want to turn on the indoor oven so I went ahead and put the partybrot in the sun oven anyway.

Now it was time to think about lunch. I'd been so busy with the dough and the dentist that I hadn't eaten yet. We went out for some sushi. We had intermittent sunshine for the rest of the afternoon but for the most part it was sunny enough to cast a shadow. When we got home the sun oven temperature was at 250º. By 4:50 the sun was completely blocked so I took the bread out of the oven. If the temperature had been higher it might have had a crispier crust but it was still very good.

It's Martin's boys night out and it looks like I'll be having my own private partybrot for dinner.

No Solar Cooking in Phoenix Today

It was too cloudy to do any solar cooking so I spent the day thinking about cooking instead. I read Michael Pollan's recent article, 'Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch', this afternoon. In it he talks about the decline of cooking. A food-marketing researcher that he interviewed claimed that within a few generations people will no longer cook at all. It got me wondering if cooking really is a dying art. I know many people, most of whom have children, who seem proud of the fact that they don't cook. It makes me sad to think that their families will never know what it's like to sit down to a home cooked meal. I hope the researcher is wrong. I hope people will tire of consuming low quality cheap food. I hope they will turn off their T.V. and find their way back into the kitchen. I also hope Michael Pollan will start following my blog.

Solar Soup with Beans and Wheat Berries

I've been preparing my own meals for over 30 years and while I'm no super chef you'd think I'd trust my instincts by now. I have never cooked, or eaten, wheat berries before so I used a recipe from Cooking Light. There was one thing in the recipe that bothered me, it called for canned diced tomatoes that were to be added to the soup at the very end and cooked for only 5 minutes. I should have followed my gut and cooked the tomatoes with the other vegetables while the beans and wheat berries were in the solar oven. Just as I feared the tomatoes did not have enough time to mellow and the soup was a little acidic. Next time I'll do it my way.

This soup reminded me of a Tuscan specialty made with farro, a type of wheat grown in Italy. I got the wheat berries, along with some brown rice, from Massa Organics. I know I could have bought it from a grocery store but I like these guys. They have a cool website and blog and they raise ducks. If you're lucky enough to be near them be sure to check out their products at various farmer's markets or you can order them online.

Solar Cooked Potato Fennel Soup with Salmon Patè

I found this recipe on epicurious.com and made a few minor modifications. The original recipe called for smoked salmon. I used salmon patè that comes in a tube, which I got from, of all places, Ikea. It's cheaper, more convenient and, in my opinion, works better in this recipe than smoked salmon. Even without salmon this is a perfectly acceptable soup. The salmon, however, takes it from a ho hum dish to something good enough for company. Here's my version.

Solar Oven Potato-Fennel Soup with Salmon Patè

2 tsp butter

1 leek white part only chopped

1 fennel bulb chopped, fronds reserved

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 large potato, diced

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

Abba salmon pate

Melt butter in a cast iron dutch oven. Add fennel, leek and fennel seed and cook until soft. Add potatoes and chicken broth. Cover and transfer to solar oven. When potatoes are tender remove from solar oven and blend in the pot with an immersion blender. Add more chicken broth if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with chopped fennel fronds and salmon pate.

In addition to substituting the smoked salmon with the patè I also cut the recipe in half and used less butter. This is yet another recipe that adapts perfectly to solar cooking.

Solar Honey Spice Loaf

I was feeling emboldened by my success in recreating my 100% whole wheat bread from memory so I thought I'd try accessing another recipe filed in my brain vault. Among the few recipes I brought with me from Italy was one for "Torta al Miele" (honey cake). I had made many changes to the recipe but once again had never written them down. Add to that the fact that the original is in metric, recreating this was a little more daunting than the bread. Here's a translation of the original recipe.

Torta al Miele

300 grams all purpose flour

1 packet baking powder (it's sold in pre-measured packets in Italy)

80 grams sugar

1 cup milk

100 grams ground walnuts

8 tbs honey

grated lemon peel (from one lemon)

Mix well first 5 ingredients (flour through milk) in a medium bowl. Add the honey and lemon peel while continuing to mix. Put mixture in a greased and floured pan. (the original recipe does not specify what size pan!) and bake. It also doesn't say at what temperature but that doesn't really matter with a solar oven because it will depend on the weather.

Anyway, I added 1 cup raisins, 1 tsp cinnamon and, because Italian baking soda contains a touch of vanilla, 1/4 tsp vanilla. I'm not sure how much baking powder there is in a packet so I went with 1 teaspoon. After it was in the oven I realized the recipe didn't call for any salt. If, and that's a big if, I try it again I would add a pinch. With my original, but long forgotten, modifications this used to make a very good cake to have with tea. Unfortunately I think my much needed improvements are lost forever. From now on I think I'll stick to recipes from epicurious.com or other sources for my baking needs.

Solar Pasta e Ceci

I had completely forgot about this traditional Roman soup until we recently watched the classic Italian film "I Soliti Ignoti" (English title "Big Deal on Madonna Street"). It's a caper movie where a group of hapless thieves sit down to a bowl of Pasta e Ceci after their disastrous attempt to break into a pawn shop. Good Italians that they are, they immediately began discussing the merits and faults of the soup. Since then it's been a regular in our meal rotation. It is basically Pasta e Fagioli with chickpeas instead of beans, and it is a solar cooking favorite.

Pasta e Ceci (chickpea and pasta soup)

1/2 lb dry chickpeas

1 TBS olive oil

1 leek, white and pale green part only, chopped (or 1 small onion)

2 medium carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup chopped tomatoes, preferably Pomì

salt

pepper

1 cup small tubular pasta such as ditalini

2 TBS chopped fresh rosemary

1 TBS balsamic vinegar

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Soak chickpeas overnight. Drain, put chickpeas in a dark pot with water and place in solar oven. While chickpeas are cooking prepare the soup base. Heat olive oil in large heavy dutch oven. Add leek, carrots, celery and garlic and saute until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and let simmer for about 20 minutes. When chickpeas are cooked remove from solar oven. Set aside 1/2 cup chickpeas add remaining to dutch oven with the cooking liquid. Off the heat blend with a emersion blender. At this point if you are ready to eat the soup and there's still enough sun you can put the dutch oven in the solar oven cover and bring to a slow boil. If soup is too thick add some water. Add the pasta, reserved chickpeas, salt and pepper to taste. When the pasta is ready, take the dutch oven out of the solar oven. Add rosemary and balsamic vinegar. Serve with parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. If it's too late to cook the pasta in the solar oven complete the soup on the stovetop. Do not cook the pasta until you are ready to eat or it will get soggy. Serves 4 to 6.

100% Whole Wheat Bread Take Two

This is my fourth attempt at solar baked bread and my second at 100% whole wheat. Today's solar cooked loaf is definitely the best so far. I used to bake bread weekly with my bread machine and had tweaked the recipe until it was perfect every time. Unfortunately, I never actually wrote it down. I stored it in my head, which in retrospect is a very bad place to store anything. The following recipe is as close as I remember.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

1 1/2 cups water

3 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 TBS dry milk

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 TBS olive oil

2 TBS honey

1 1/2 TBS vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup flax seed

1 TBS molasses

1 packet Hodgson Mill active dry yeast for whole grain

Set solar oven out to preheat

Put ingredients in bread machine following manufacturer's instructions. Set on dough cycle. Remove dough from machine, form into a loaf and place in loaf pan. Let rise in pan approx. 1 hour. Place in preheated solar oven and bake for approx. 1 hour or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Solar Huevos Rancheros

We still have plenty of leftovers from the past two days for dinner tonight so I decided to try making 100% whole wheat bread again today. After a quick trip to the store for some fresh flour I got the dough going in the bread machine. Since it wouldn't be ready to go in the sun oven for a few hours I made solar cooked Huevos Rancheros for lunch. Here's the recipe:

Huevos Rancheros - Serves 2

2 corn tortillas

4 eggs

2/3 cup refried beans

4 TBS prepared salsa (red or green)

2 tsp sour cream

salt and pepper

Put solar oven out to preheat. Spray two small dark metal pans with cooking spray. Place one corn tortilla in each pan. Divide refried beans between the two pans making room in the middle for the eggs. Put eggs in the middle of the beans. Place pans on a dark baking sheet, cover with glass lids and place in preheated oven for approx. 25 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on oven temperature. When eggs are cooked remove from oven, top with salsa and sour cream and serve. To keep this low calorie I don't use cheese but if you like you could add some shredded cheddar about 5 minutes before the eggs are done.

Solar Pulled Pork and Baked Beans

Pulled pork just might be one of the easiest and tastiest things to come out of the solar oven. All you have to do is trim the fat off a pork shoulder roast, rub it with a bbq spice mix, put in in a dark pot and place it in the solar oven. When the meat is fall apart tender, place it on a cutting board and shred it by pulling it apart with two forks. Serve it with your favorite bbq sauce. It's a great dish for a casual dinner with friends. It can be made a day in advance and gently reheated. The baked beans were made in the sun oven too. I used a recipe from epicurious.com. If you want to make both the beans and the pork on the same day you will need two pots that fit in the solar oven together. I am always on the look out for cookware that can be used for solar cooking. I found the two red pots in the picture at a thrift store.

Solar Cooking Chicken

Today I made Chicken with Two Lemons again. This recipe is definitely a solar cooking keeper. The chicken comes out very moist with a slight hint of lemon. It was ready by early afternoon so I had time to slice up a couple of beets and roast them in the solar oven too. I served it with risotto and kale.

Solar Baked Bran Muffins

I finally made it home around 10:00 a.m. After a weekend of very little sleep, six intense workout sessions with Cathe Friedrich and a little too much wine last night, major solar cooking projects were out of the question. I whipped up a batch of bran muffins using a Hodgson Mill mix. I put them in the solar oven when I got home and took a nap while they were baking, something you would not be able to do with a conventional oven.

Stranded in SLC

I was hoping to get home to enjoy some solar baked rigatoni tonight but missed my connecting flight in Salt Lake City. Luckily I met some awesome women who were in the same situation and we enjoyed a great meal with plenty of wine.

re-rigatoni

Martin here;
set the solar oven outside to preheat, took the rigatoni out of the freezer and put it in the sun oven. Solar cooking is easy! The solar oven had got up to 350 degrees, it loses 50 degrees right away when you open the door to put the food in, but it doesn't take long to heat right back up again.

Baked Potato in the Solar Oven

Not much to report today. I'm still out of town and Martin it preparing his own meals. Today he baked a potato and finished off Wednesday's chili. He only has one more day of fending for himself. I'll be back tomorrow evening and already have plans for solar cooking on Monday.