Solar Cooking Recipes

[westbrook]

http://www.solarcooking.org/recipes/pasta_rice.htm

 

they have a photo at the bottom.

 

in case the link disappears in the future.. here are the recipes..

 

Pasta & Rice

 

Recipes on this page:

 

Solar Oven Lasagna

 

Rice

 

Lentils and Rice

 

Solar Oven Lasagna

 

1 32-oz. jar spaghetti sauce

 

1 pound ricotta cheese

 

1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded

 

Parmesan cheese

 

8 oz. package of lasagna noodles

 

Spread 1 1/2 cups of sauce over bottom of dark roaster. Coat uncooked noodles with ricotta cheese and layer over the sauce. Add half of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers of sauce, noodles and cheese. Top with remaining sauce. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top. Cover and bake for 3 hours. Optional: 1 pound of ground beef cooked in a separate dark pan may be added to the sauce before preparing the lasagna.

 

If ricotta cheese is unavailable, fat free cottage cheese can be substituted.

 

RICE

 

2 cups Rice

 

3 cups water

 

Cooking rice in unsalted water is common in South-East Asia and keeps the flavour of the rice. Take 2/5 of rice and wash it. Boil 3/5 of the water until small bubbles appear (approx. 90 degrees C). Put the washed rice into the water. Leave it in the solar cooker for 10 minutes. Take the pot out of the solar cooker and keep it warm, e.g. in an isolation box or covered with woolen blankets. Ready to serve after another 10 to 15 minutes.

 

The mentioned amounts are to be taken by volume, not weight. This means for example 2 cups of rice to 3 cups of water for about 6 persons. Or: 1 cup of rice to 1 1/2 cups of water to feed about 3 persons. Recipe works best in a box cooker; the rice could stick on the walls of the pot if a powerful parabolic cooker is used. It is useful to take a heavy pot instead of a light one because of the heat storage in the metal.

 

(Thank you to Bernie Mueller)

 

Lentils & Rice

 

Soak lentils in water during the night

 

In the morning, cook in oil on a gas burner:

 

1 chopped onion

 

1/2 chopped bell pepper

 

2" chunk of salami cut into small pieces

 

1 clove garlic

 

2 chopped tomatoes

 

1 chopped carrot

 

In the hot skillet, add enough water to cook the lentils and bring to a boil.

Put in a beef bouillon cube and pour into the pot with the lentils.

Cover and place in solar oven.

 

(Thank you to Kay Tarble)

 

The plastic pot shown is not the most effective for solar cooking. We had much better success with lightweight aluminum pots that we painted black.

 

 

[westbrook]

for those new to this.. honestly, all you need is a cardboard box and foil! cover the box in foil... an oven is created that will get up to 350 degrees easily ... even on the coolest of days.

 

here is the link to the main page (also see above for the type of information)

 

I suggest that we all copy several recipes and make sure we have a basic understanding of solar cooking.

 

Pick recipes that offer several different recipes within the same group. An example is get several recipes for different soups and stews and breads and cakes. this will give you enough information to adapt or create your own recipes or to what you have on hand.

 

http://www.solarcooking.org/

[Jules]

I loved the windshield shade design, most folks have a silver windshield shade in their cars. Very handy! I want to try this; has anyone test driven any of the recipes yet?

[westbrook]

yes! put your food out about 10am and it is ready around 2pm. It gets to 300-325 degrees so watch out!

 

and did you know.... if you place milk or water or something liquid it out at night, it will get cold! sometimes even getting ice. However, <-- insert a deep breath here you have to take the liquid out before sunrise or it starts to heat up once again.

 

go to the thrift store and pick up pans with lids or order enamel pans with lids.. you need to paint them black!

 

Jules since you are interested in this, let me tell you about something else (also do a search as there is a solar cooking thread... when I find it I will link it here)... get an ice chest, an old one works great. Use wool blankets or something that won't melt if you set a hot pot on it.

 

Make your soup or rice or wheat or stews.. bring to boil on the stove.. then set down inside your ice chest/cooler with a blanket on the bottom. Stuff pillows or blankets around the sides and top. Close lid. In about 2-3 hours it is cooked.

 

This works well when the sun isn't out and raining or snowing.

 

 

[westbrook]

link

 

http://www.mrssurvival.com/forums/ubbthrea...ge=1#Post166517

 

 

[Jules]

"Jules since you are interested in this, let me tell you about something else (also do a search as there is a solar cooking thread... when I find it I will link it here)... get an ice chest, an old one works great. Use wool blankets or something that won't melt if you set a hot pot on it.

 

Make your soup or rice or wheat or stews.. bring to boil on the stove.. then set down inside your ice chest/cooler with a blanket on the bottom. Stuff pillows or blankets around the sides and top. Close lid. In about 2-3 hours it is cooked.

 

This works well when the sun isn't out and raining or snowing. "

 

Huh! No kidding?? I'm gonna try this! Thankyou very much, I will do this with my daughter this weekend. :)

[Leah]

http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Heat-retention_cooking

 

[westbrook]

Anyone interested in a group about solar cooking

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SolarCooking

 

it is nice to be able to talk to others that are doing this.

 

I just joined and will be looking at building one, learning to use it and who knows.. maybe use it frequently to keep utility costs down!

[Jules]

I was hoping to try the lasagne recipe this weekend but it looks like the weather is going to sour. Argh. Any ideas on just how warm or cold it can be and still cook outside? Must the sun be fully visible?

Thankyou Westbrook!

[westbrook]

from what I can tell... you just need some sun.. but I don't know.. join the yahoo group and ask them!

 

found another group I joined

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solarovens-ubuilt-or-bought/

 

 

[westbrook]

Spanish Chicken

 

1 chicken, skinned and cut in pieces

1/2 bell pepper

1 tomato, cut in 6 pieces

1 medium onion

2 gloves garlic

2 bay leaves

Ground pepper

5 to 6 chicken breasts, skinned

1 package Italian salad dressing mix

1 cup long grain white rice

2 cups water

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

 

Place chicken breasts in a roaster. Sprinkle package of Italian salad dressing mix over pieces of chicken. Cover. In another pot, place rice with water and butter or margarine. Cover. Place in solar oven at noon and remove at 5:00 p.m.

 

[westbrook]

now how easy is this? coking rice

 

http://www.solar-slow-cooker.com/slow-cook...ice-recipe.html

[Cricket]

Bumped for questions in Pinching Pennies!

[Staceyy]

"Jules since you are interested in this, let me tell you about something else (also do a search as there is a solar cooking thread... when I find it I will link it here)... get an ice chest, an old one works great. Use wool blankets or something that won't melt if you set a hot pot on it.

 

Make your soup or rice or wheat or stews.. bring to boil on the stove.. then set down inside your ice chest/cooler with a blanket on the bottom. Stuff pillows or blankets around the sides and top. Close lid. In about 2-3 hours it is cooked.

 

This works well when the sun isn't out and raining or snowing. "

 

Huh! No kidding?? I'm gonna try this! Thankyou very much, I will do this with my daughter this weekend. :)

<grins>

 

Thanks for this post. I find this to be very interesting. My first thought however was, if I'm out of an energy source such as gas or electric, how would I bring the pot to a boil? I do have a gas stove, plus an electric stove, a woodburning fireplace and a charcoal grill. I also plan on buying a solar oven, so I'm sure I could get my pot to boil some kind of way. I suspect this could cut down on your energy bill though. I've been trying to convince dh to get me a woodstove, but so far have been unsuccessful. This is very useful info though. I appreciate the post. You never know, it may come in handy some day.

 

[GettinReady]

If you haven't heard of Wendy DeWitt she is highly respected amongst the LDS (Mormon) group (famous for their food storage programs). Here is a link to her Solar Oven Cooking and Food Storage Guide. I have the entire thing printed out and in my Survival Binder. She also has some videos on YouTube if you google her name. Because of her, we bought our Solar Oven. I've cooked several fantastic meals in it and DH baked some bread in it. Admittedly, he didn't use her recipe. Wanted to do his own thing and I let him . His results were inconsistent but I give him credit. He's never baked a thing in his life before, much less bread in a Solar Oven, LOL. Regardless, the Solar Oven will definitely get the job done!

 

Everything Under The Sun