Make Ahead Solar Beef Stew

Beef stew is always better on the second day. We weren't eating at home tonight so I took advantage of the sun to make a batch for tomorrow's dinner. Tomorrow I'll steam some carrots to mix into it along with some frozen peas. I use a recipe from epicurious.com - Hearty Beef Stew with Green Peas and Carrots - I just adjust the quantities according to how much meat I'm using.

I browned the meat and sauteed the onions on the stove before putting the cast iron pot in the Sun Oven. When I use a heavy cast iron pot for solar cooking I like to start on the stove so it's already hot when you put it in the Sun Oven. If you start with a cold pot your cooking time will be longer by about twenty minutes.

I had a busy day today. I put the stew in the Sun Oven before going out around ten. Martin was home to do the refocusing. When I got home around three the meat was tender and smelled delicious. I'm looking forward to dinner tomorrow.

Solar Cooking on a Busy Day

It seems our days of predictable sunshine are back. As busy as I was today I still managed to get some solar cooking done, even if we didn't eat any of it. This morning I put a pot of beef stew in the Sun Oven before going to volunteer at the Arizona Humane Society. It was cooked to perfection by the time I got home around three. Like most stew it's better the next day, so I put it in the fridge and it was off to my cousin's for dinner. We'll be enjoying it later in the week with some steamed carrots and peas.

The panforte was a great success. I think it may become my signature dessert.

Solar Stew

Our guests are gone and the sun is back. After getting up early to bring them to the airport I swung by the grocery store to pick up something to cook in the Sun Oven before heading out to work. It was a beautiful clear day and a slow cooked beef stew sounded like a good dinner to come home to. It was in fact cooked to perfection when I got home. The only problem was after such a long day, the two weeks of preparing  three meals a day for four people suddenly caught up to me. I had no energy to prepare anything to go with it. I took another trip to the store - in my pajamas! - to get some ready made mashed potatoes. Even more out of character for me, I heated them up in the microwave. My microwave is so seldomly used that it's kept in a storage room, not the kitchen. I did manage to steam some carrots and peas to add some color and once the store bought potatoes were smothered with the stew they weren't so bad.

Solar Stew

It was another day of full sun. I put a pot of beef stew in the Sun Oven in the morning and left it there all day. Easy stuff. I refocused the Sun Oven a few times, but only when I happened to notice it out of the corner of my eye. I brought it in when the sun started to go down. Beef stew is always better the day after it's made. We went out for pizza tonight. We'll be enjoying this tomorrow night.

Half Solar Beef Stew

Well it finally happened. I ran out of sun. I dilly dallied around too long this morning. Since I was working from home today I figured I had plenty of time to make my stew. I guess I should have read the recipe closer. The meat had to braise two and a half hours before adding the potatoes and carrots, which needed to simmer for another hour. I didn't get it started until just before noon. With the shorter days and the fact that I currently do not have access to the part of my yard that gets the late afternoon sun - we're reseeding the grass - my solar cooking window is significantly diminished. There just was not enough sunlight to complete the stew. I tried. In fact I just assumed everything was fine and left it in the Sun Oven until dinnertime. It wasn't until I was about to set the table that I realized the vegetables were not anywhere near ready. Not really a disaster. I finished it up on the stove and we had a late dinner. Tomorrow I'll try to get an earlier start.
Once again, I used a recipe from epicurious.com which can be found here:
Beef Stew with Potatoes and Carrots