More Zucchini Stuffed with Salmon

Not new recipe, not even any new twist to it. I made it  a couple of weeks ago and liked it enough to make it again today. Don't let the picture fool you, one can of salmon goes a long way, I actually had to use two baking dishes and stack them in the Sun Oven, only half the zucchini are pictured here, it's enough for six to eight servings. Looks like we'll be having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Solar Salmon Stuffed Zucchini

In may seem kind of silly to buy zucchini when we're going to be inundated with them from our garden in a few weeks, but this is what I wanted to eat today so that's what I did. It's easy to make. I used my salmon loaf recipe to stuff the hollowed out zucchini. I didn't have a big enough covered pan to fit all of them so I used a useful solar cooking trick; take a glass baking dish, cover it tightly with tin foil, then cover that with a dark tea cloth before placing it in the Sun Oven. It works, trust me. The tea cloth will not catch of fire and if you don't use one the heat will be deflected out of the cooking chamber and ruin your food.

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.