| SOLAR COOKING
Posted: 7/4/2009 12:16:50 PM | Wow I did a search and came up empty handed on the subject of solar cooking and solar cookers. Anybody else do this? ........ and the post isn't long enough .... Okay
Anyone with experience with solar boxes, windshield shade cookers, mirror cookers or any other variation on them? I made one out of cardboard and newspaper, aluminum foil and glass about 16-18 years ago and think it may have to go in the trash finally. Glass broken, box warped. It's seen better days but still cooks at 225 degrees! | |
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| SOLAR COOKING
Posted: 7/4/2009 12:57:30 PM | | Many sites came up when I Googled "Solar Cooking". You might find ideas there. | |
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Posted: 7/4/2009 1:21:00 PM | | I bought one through work for a demonstration project. It is for kids enrolled in an environmental field camp. I just received the cook book a couple days ago. I will submit a recipe if you'd like. I haven't used the cooker yet. | |
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Posted: 7/4/2009 1:37:20 PM | I just wrap in foil and throw it on my engine block and drive to work  | |
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Posted: 7/4/2009 2:10:18 PM | Manifold Destiny - the cookbook for cooking on your engine.
http://www.wisebread.com/cooking-great-meals-with-your-car-engine-the-heat-is-on
Don't knock it - trout and salmon are great done this way. | |
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Posted: 7/4/2009 3:54:03 PM | Good Lord P&P solar cooking?? With all you're doing right now..
I proud of myself if I can remember to put the sun tea jar out in the morning.. Then remember to bring in back inside in the afternoon.
Happy 4th to all ya'll,,
tb | |
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Posted: 7/4/2009 10:53:27 PM | well dang another message off to cyberheaven!!
No, no, no I didn't come up empty handed on Google, the Great Karnak of all knowledge. I came up empty handed here on POF and wondered if I am the only cooking geek out there. Using the Solar Box isn't difficult for me. I just stick something in it sometime between 10 am and 12 and a few hours later I have something good to eat. It's especially handy in all of this post flood moving back in phase. No clutter in the kitchen and no heat generated in the house. Luckily I kind of have the basics mastered because the cookbook hasn't surfaced yet. Mine is 18 years old so I'd love to see what kind of new instructions and ideas are out there.
Manifold cooking--great idea! How do you keep it in place? | |
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Posted: 7/5/2009 5:25:02 AM | | I did try to jerky beef and dry tomatos on the roof once, does that count... | |
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Posted: 7/5/2009 6:27:54 AM | P&P ... did a quick search and came up with these books on solar cooking.
http://www.solarcooking.org/books.htm
Placement of food on the manifold depends on what you want cooked. Have a friend in Australia who cooks like this on all his road trips. He did a beef stew which he said was excellent and took 6 hours. He says it's cheaper than stopping and he knows what is in the food he eats. | |
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Posted: 7/5/2009 3:15:42 PM | Sure SA Solar is solar.
They literally lay sheets in the fields between the rows of raisin grapes, and harvest right onto the sheets to allow them to dry in the sun right out in the orchards. When you buy a package of SunMaid or other brand of California raisins, they really are sun dried. It's cool to see acres and acres of this, | |
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Posted: 7/5/2009 4:34:33 PM | stone,
thats a hoot.we would wrap hotdogs in foil and clothes hanger baked beans on our manifolds when 4-wheeling. | |
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Posted: 7/7/2009 6:00:44 PM | Recipe for NOLA Grillades (tomato stewed beef medallions). Serve with rice or cheesy grits....
1# cubed steak cut into silver dollar size medallions--you can pan sear like swiss steak recipes but I usually don't.
1 16 oz canned tomatoes or fresh (remove peel)
2 stalks celery, 2 carrots, 1 med. onion diced
1 cup brooth, 1 cup red wine or beer or tomato juice (2 cups total liquid, add more during cooking if necessary) You want to cover all the ingredients in the pan
Mrs. Dash, s +p, chile powder and cumin to taste about 1t each 1 bay leaf
tiny pinch of garam marsala or cinnamon/nutmeg about 1/2 t
Method
In a 2 qt dark enameled pan with lid (dark absorbs heat energy best) place all the ingedients inside and cover with liquid(s).
Place the pan inside a reynolds oven bag and set in your solar cooker. The bag adds another envelope of heat insulation. Set in high sun location for 4-8 hours depending on cloud cover, temperature, quantity of food, cooker, etc...it can go longer, it won't burn and like a crock pot the meat will tenderize in the braising liquids and vegys.
Michigan has a lot of cloud cover and it was about 70 (f) so mine took close to 8 hours, as a reference. Next time I'll try putting the food in the cooking bag and then in the covered pan to save clean up...although not as environmentally friendly,
To Serve
Spoon over rice or grits. I like extra hot sauce, too. If you want to be fancy, make a gremolata to garnish. below
Gremolata
zest of one lemon and juce
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced fine
3 T olive oil
s +p
Drizzle small amount on top of each serving. (this is, also, good on pasta, shrimp, soup, oso bucco, anything....well, maybe not ice cream)
Leftovers are great. | |
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Posted: 7/7/2009 6:22:27 PM | Boy does that sound good.
I made King Ranch Casserole in the cooker the other day.
8 to 12 corn tortillas, quartered
2-3 cups cooked , diced chicken
8 oz Mexcian Blend shredded cheese
4 oz can Ortega Green Chilies
1 can cream of ___ soup
1/4 can water
In the Dark enameled roaster, make a layer of tortilla wedges.
Sprinkle on chicken, and a thin layer of cheese
Mix the cream of something soup with diced Ortega chilies, all of their liquid and about 1/4 cup water. Pour half over what's already in the roaster, then repeat layers. Finish off with another thin layer of cheese. Put on lid and stick in the solar box about 4 hours before you want to eat it. All you are really doing is melding the flavors.
2 notes:
1. This dish will not evaporate the way it does in the oven, so you have to use less water than in the traditional one.
2. Pay attention to cooking times for your climate and amount of sun. The sun is blistering hot and skies are completely cloudless here. But we have wind. So it takes about 4 hours of midday or all afternoon sun.
There are a gazillion variations on this recipe. You can replace the soup and chilies with salsa, use cooked and drained ground beef, and make a nachos casserole out of it. | |
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Posted: 7/7/2009 6:52:11 PM | I was looking for a recipe just like this to do for the camp. My kids are grown now so I've been out of touch on kid friendly menus, but I think this sounds perfect.
....and if they don't like it I'll mix up some margarittas for the grown ups haha | |
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Posted: 7/8/2009 2:27:41 AM | | ..Gawd..in Northwest Ohio...we'd have to stand watch with a gun or the raccoons would eat all the grapes in those fields. They absolutely love wild grapes..and I could just see them messing up a few hundred acres of raisin grapes a night. | |
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Posted: 7/8/2009 4:33:02 AM | I love you all - great posts - it's so hot over here we just throw eggs and bacon on the road (you probably call it tar?) but we have to get it off before the Kangaroos, Emu's, Goanna's, kookaburra's, Koala's, crocodiles guts it all down -bugger than we have to chuck in the fry pan  | |
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Posted: 7/8/2009 6:32:28 PM | | PupDaddy you always leave me smiling and chuckling. I made ribs the other day Just threw 2 racks of beef ribs in the enamel pot, salt and garliced them, and put them in the cooker at maybe 10 am or so. Let them cook and cook. Then stuck them in the fridge. Next day I brushed them with a sweet mustard bbq sauce and let them cook in the box many hours more---man were they good. If I could post pictures here I would. Tomorrow I'm going to do a pork loin with bread stuffing with a bunch of fruit in it, likely including some of those not eaten by racoons grapes LOL | |
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Posted: 7/12/2009 2:22:28 PM | Anyone else using one?? Um Um Um I fixed Pork Loin and Stuffing the the cooker day before yesterday. Just finished the leftovers for lunch YUM.
Make your favorite stuffing recipe but make it on the dry side and don't add any oil or butter. Put into a dark enamel roaster
Butterfly a pork loin roast salt or season as you like. Lay on top of the stuffing. Cover. Placed in cooker by 1:30 (in mid summer), earlier at other times of the year. You need about 5 hours to cook it.
My stuffing was
4 slices whole wheat bread
1/2 cup onion
1/2 cup celery
1/4 cup craisins
1/2 apple
parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme of course
salt
liquid and I used too much. I's say next time I'm going to only use 2 tbsp
Mix together--no pre cooking of anything. | |
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Posted: 7/12/2009 5:04:21 PM | P&P, after reading your thread, I just keep thinking,, why not,, especially considering the abundant sunlight where I live. So, I've been looking for directions to build one. Mother Earth's web site has directions for one that sounds like yours,, I think this would be fun for the kids and I to built,, it sounds so simple. It's going to be something to fill one of those " Mom, I'm so bored" days.
Thanks
tb | |
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Posted: 7/15/2009 7:34:53 PM | | Bet you could build one with some salvaged mirrors from garage sales..and a few scraps of plywood. Get some contact cement..and glue the mirror inside the wood once you've formed the basic box... | |
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Posted: 7/15/2009 8:34:39 PM | | eeeew no not contact cement on a food thing. All of the instructions say just do an Elmer's glue kind of thing for the foil. I think some of those mirror holders glued and screwed into strips of close fitting wood might work if you're going the wooden box direction. TB and I 've been talking outside this thread doing some problem solving. We'll have to post pictures once we have them made (of course with a headshot since the hmmmmmmmmmm ... well so we don't get our pictures deleted). | |
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Posted: 7/15/2009 9:32:29 PM | What a great intelligent post. I saw it when you put it up and meant to reply, but I have been quite busy with all the stuff I told you about Pistols. I am going to build one of these for sure. And I thought a reflector oven was cool LOL
TB have you built it yet?
SS  | |
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Posted: 7/16/2009 7:03:11 AM | Not yet SS,, collecting all the stuff still. I did find one made from very common things around the house,, it's for single servings. I'll probably help the kids each make one of those first.. Did I say that already? Some days I sure miss my mind.....
tb | |
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Posted: 7/16/2009 10:37:39 AM | Oh my gosh A new use for the solar oven. I had a pot that was sooooo burned on that I was pretty certain it was going to have to be trashed. Even though I use baking soda and water to soak off burns, I didn't think this one was salvageable. Well, boy howdy. I'm NEVER going to do this in the house again as long as I live. I sprinkled the soda in the pot, added water and stuck it in the cooker. Set it and forget it style. I didn't use the cooker yesterday and didn't bother to check on the pot because it was doomed anyway, right. So this morning I went out to get it, and everything was crusted white. I figured that was the complete end of it -- I had cooked it to death all the way now. BUT I rinsed it in the house and every single bit of that burnt on stuff came out with no scrubbing of any kind. I always have to scrub like crazy with my ususal method. I guess the baking soda baking into the burnt stuff and both getting to a crust made the difference. NO scrubbing!!! Who knew?? I'd be afraid to boil the pot in the house to the complete baked on state this one reached.
I sure hope we can get some other people interested in this thread. It is such an easy way to conserve energy. | |
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Posted: 7/16/2009 8:11:43 PM | thanks for the invite back in to the fold to discuss a "hot" topic hee hee.
Funny about your pan, but you may be the next Billy Mayes if you keep inventing time saving tricks.
I haven't used my solar cooker this week or so, been on the road. Santa Fe, it was gorgeous. However, I did read a blog about some students who experimented with their cookers. They had a "Lessons Learned" about some of their disaster recipes.
The funniest one was the kid who tried to make rice krispie treats. Started out with mini marshmallows and the cereal and put it in the solar cooker. Came back 4 hours later and it still hadn't melted because the puffed rice acts like an insulator and prohibits enough heat in to melt the marshmallows. hee hee. He said, next time to melt the marshmallows first. It made me think straw bale housing material was probably a pretty good insulating material; maybe rice krispies are the greatest insulator for home improvement projects....... | |
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