I'm absolutely thrilled to have Pica of Bird by Bird and Feathers of Hope as one of our guest bloggers this week. She is here today to share an alternative method of cooking she's been using along with one of her wonderful garden-fresh recipes. Please welcome Pica!

I live in part of the country where the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is turn on the stove to cook dinner. We try and keep the air conditioning off most days, even when it's over 100°, but part of this requires no additional heat sources! Fortunately, we have a lot of sun, and we use it to cook with most of the summer (and on sunny days in winter too, though this takes a lot more planning.)

We got through two solar cookits before we decided to make the investment and buy a solar oven. The oven is more sturdy in the wind, comes with its own thermometer, but most important, has a four-way reflective surface that concentrates the sun's rays onto our little black dutch oven. Things cook faster. I've browned red peppers and walnuts, made cobblers: this oven regularly tops 250°.

Mostly, though, we put food in to cook before we go to work and arrive home to a warm and sumptuous meal. This means treating the oven like a slow cooker. Any recipe that works for a slow cooker should work well in a solar oven. Our garden is producing wildly at the moment and that determines what ends up getting cooked. Almost any of the vegetables can be substituted with something fresh, though any crucifers tend to overpower what's cooking.

Comments (8)

Skye 

Like food from the campfire, I suspect a meal in a solar oven would taste extra special.

August 27, 2008

trina 

Cool!

August 27, 2008 | website

Johanna 

This sounds great - I have never heard of a solar oven before, and still don't really have my head around a slow cooker but I have had meals cooked in a really low oven which I assume is what I could do with this meal

August 27, 2008 | website

chow vegan 

That's so cool! I've been interested in a solar oven for awhile now but I don't really have anywhere to set one up.

August 27, 2008 | website

Pica 

Thanks, everyone. The Cookit is also excellent to take camping if you ever do that, Chow Vegan! It's almost impossible to burn anything in here, so it can be left a long time. The meals do taste extra special but not "smoky" -- in case you're looking for that kind of taste.

August 28, 2008 | website

Cassie 

Pica, I'm fascinated by the solar cooking you've been doing! Your article was a great introduction and I loved seeing how you are using this in your everyday meal preparations. Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us! If any of you are using a solar cooker, I would love to hear about it!

August 28, 2008 | website

Cassie 

Pica, by the way, what is that beautiful veggie in your image, right of the zucchini? Is it purple okra??

August 28, 2008 | website

Pica 

Cassie, yes, that is a purple okra. I lost most of the plants during a freak freeze here in April while we were on vacation in Texas, but a few made it, and have been producing okra steadily all summer (never really enough at any one time for a meal, but easy to put together with beans. The latest experiment: Kalaloo, from Madhur Jaffrey's new World Vegetarian Cooking. Okra, green beans, chard, and coconut milk: simmered and blended. It's heaven.

September 09, 2008 | website

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