More Indian Stew

Last Monday's red lentil stew was so good I made another batch today. This time I used fresh ginger, I didn't have any on hand last week. The end result was really not that different. Whether you use fresh or ground ginger you wind up with a very tasty, satisfying, vegetarian meal that tastes even better the next day.

This weeks forecast once again predicts partly cloudy skies most days with a chance of rain on Wednesday. I'm learning that it is possible to solar cook even with intervals of no sun, but I like the cloudless days of summer better. This on again off again sun light is starting to drive me a little crazy.

Solar Cooked Indian Stew

The morning did not start out well as far as solar cooking goes. There was some decent sunshine early on, but I fretted away the time worrying whether or not I'd be called in for jury duty. I had to call at eleven to learn my fate. I was dismissed, as usual. By then I'd pretty much decided to make Curried Red-Lentil Stew with Vegetables; a recipe from epicurious.com. The only problem was the sky was now covered with clouds. They were thin and the sun was still managing to shine through, but I wanted to leave for the afternoon and was afraid the cloud cover would thicken. People often ask me how much sun is needed to use the Sun Oven and I always answer, "As long as there enough sunlight to cast a shadow you can cook with it." There was a shadow so I went for it. I'm glad I did. The stew was delicious.

I made the following changes to the original recipe: I didn't have any fresh ginger so I used ground, increased the red lentils to 1 1/2 cups, used less water,  added a peeled, chopped sweet potato in addition to the carrots, used frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry, left out the cilantro - I don't like it - and added the carrots and sweet potato at the same time as the lentils. To compensate for the less then ideal solar cooking weather I brought it to a boil before placing it in the Sun Oven.

When I'm done with this blog I may not choose unattended solar cooking on a day like today but it is nice to know that it's possible in case of an emergency or if I ever do something crazy, like go camping.

Lentils, Lentils, Lentils

I would have been more than happy if it had been cloudy today. I was still a little groggy from yesterday's feast and not really in the mood to do any cooking at all. But of course the sun was out in full force. I threw a pot of red lentil soup in the Sun Oven around noon for dinner and heated up the green lentils that were left over from Christmas eve for lunch. There aren't many foods I would serve twice in one day but lentils are one of them. No one complained when they reappeared on the table for dinner, we don't even have any leftovers.

Solar Red Lentil Soup

As soon as we got back from our two day mini vacation, I went to the store for some red lentils.  I vary the recipe every time I make it, but the basic recipe is onion and garlic sauteed in olive oil, ground coriander, cumin, mustard, ginger, lemon peel and red lentils. We like it thick so I use less water than most recipes call for. I served it with sour cream and hot sauce. Red lentils cook quickly and are great for solar cooking. The soup was ready in about an hour.