Sun Oven Fennel and Potato Soup

This week I'll be making a lot of big batches of foods that freeze well. I'm going to visit my mother at the end of the month and Martin will be on his own for ten days. The last time I was away for that long he lived on frozen pizza and chinese take out. I'm hoping that with a well stocked freezer, the Sun Oven, and Arizona's abundant sunshine he'll eat a little better this time.

I adapted this recipe from Bon Appétit. In the original recipe it's garnished with smoked salmon. I normally use a salmon paté that I get at Ikea. I didn't have any, and a trip to Ikea on Saturday is not my idea of fun, so I improvised. In some of the reviews on Bon Appétit's website other cooks had substituted with prosciutto. I didn't have any prosciutto either. I did have some leftover corned beef from a reuben sandwich I had on my way home from L.A. It was o.k. but next time I think I'll make the trip to Ikea.

Solar Oven Potato-Fennel Soup with Salmon Patè

1 Tbs butter

1 medium onion chopped

2 fennel bulbs chopped, fronds reserved

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

4 medium potatoes, diced (about 1 1/2 pounds)

4 cups low sodium chicken broth

Abba salmon pate

Melt butter. Saute onions until soft. Add fennel, seeds, potatoes, and broth. Transfer to Sun Oven. When potatoes are tender, after approx. an hour,  remove from solar oven and blend in the pot with an immersion blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with chopped fennel fronds and salmon pate.

Sun Oven Sauteing

This morning I made a simple soup using onions, garlic, canned cannellini beans, canned broth and savoy cabbage. Normally I would saute the onions and garlic on the indoor stove but for some reason today that seemed like cheating. I let the olive oil heat up while I chopped the onion and garlic. By the time I'd finished chopping the oil was nice and hot. I let the onion and garlic cook about ten minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. I served it over the disappointing cornmeal bread from yesterday. It made a very satisfying lunch.

A Solar Cooking Favorite

This lamb cassoulet was the first dish to appear on my blog. It's still one of my favorites. I adapted the recipe from Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass.

Sun Oven Lamb Shanks with White Beans

1/2 lb. white beans (cannellini, great northern or mayocoba)
1 tbs. olive oil
2 leeks, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 bay leaves
3 1/2 cups water
2 lamb shanks
1 tbs fresh chopped rosemary
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Soak beans overnight. Heat oil in a large dutch oven, add leeks and carrots, saute for about five minutes. Add beans, water, bay leaves and lamb shanks. Cover and place in Sun Oven and cook for at least four hours. To serve remove meat from bones. Drain beans reserving broth for future use. Return beans to pot and season with rosemary, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

Be sure to save the broth. It's the best part of the recipe and can be used to make outstanding soups.

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.

Solar Cooking Tricks

The Sun Oven's cooking chamber may seem small at first sight, but don't be fooled. If you remove the leveling tray you will be able to use a 6 qt pot like I did today. I've been told that it is possible to cook a turkey as large as 18 lbs in the Sun Oven using a baking bag. I haven't done this yet but if it's sunny on Thanksgiving day I'll give it a shot. The only thing to remember is to never set anything directly on the bottom of the Sun Oven. That would create a hot spot and your food could burn. To avoid any problems simply place a small trivet on the bottom of the chamber and place the pot, or turkey - in it's bag- on top of it.
I used this large pot to make a batch of vegetable soup. This low calorie soup is a staple in our household. I'm a lifetime member of Weight Watchers and Martin recently joined. We often have it as a first course for dinner. The base recipe is as follows:

Pureed Vegetable Soup

1 small potato
1 medium carrot
2 celery stalks
2 cups cubed butternut squash
1 medium zucchini
1 clove garlic
1 can red kidney beans
1/2 lb swiss chard or cabbage
1 tbs tomato paste
2 qt chicken or vegetable broth

Roughly chop all vegetables. Simmer in broth until tender. Puree soup with a handheld blender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle each serving with 1 tsp olive oil (optional)

I vary the vegetables according to what I have on hand. If I'm in a hurry I buy pre-chopped squash and pre-washed swiss chard from Trader Joe's. You can also add fresh herbs like basil or parsley just before serving.

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.

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 Cooking Stack

Today's dinner was pretty much a repeat of last Monday's. Split pea soup, frittata with herbs and tomato salad. I had a whole week to come up with a way of cooking the frittata in the solar oven. I was pretty confident that cooking it in a glass pie pan or a silicone cake pan would work. I also wanted to be able to cook both the soup and the frittata at the same time. Here's how I did it. For the soup I used a graniteware pot that was not too tall. A taller pan would not have left enough room for the frittata. For the frittata I opted for the silicone cake pan because it's easier to handle and doesn't slip. I put the soup pan lid on upside down and put the frittata on top of that. I covered the silicone pan with a glass lid that I removed towards the end of cooking to let the frittata brown. This is a much easier way to cook a frittata since there's no risk of burning it. Next time I may try turning it so it will brown on both sides but it may be a while before I make another one since frittata is not Martin's favorite thing.

Sun Oven Soup

Soup from an oven? I made a nice big pot of split pea soup. It sounds kind of strange to make soup in an oven, but a solar oven is different; you can use it to bake, braise or boil. I had a lot of things to do today and it looked like it might get cloudy in the afternoon. I put the soup in the oven mid-morning and spent the day out and about. We had cloud cover for about an hour during the afternoon but for the most part the skies were sunny. Came home to a perfectly cooked soup.