Solar Cooking Recipes and Tips

Below are some tried-and-true recipes I use in my solar cooker throughout the summer, followed by a few tips. For more on solar cooking, see Cooking with Sunshine or Solar Cooking for Home and Camp.

Sun-Nutty Granola

Adapted from Simply in Season

Mix together in large bowl:

3 ½ cups rolled oats

½ cup ground flaxseeds

1-2 T xylitol (or brown sugar)

1 ½ t ground cinnamon

¼ t salt

½ cup sesame seeds

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 to 1 ½ cups chopped pecans, almonds, and/or walnuts

In a small bowl, mix:

¼ cup oil

1/8 to ¼ cup honey

¼ cup fruit juice or water

1 t vanilla

Add to the oat mixture and mix well. Spread on a dark pan and place on two loaf pans to elevate inside the cooker. Bake uncovered several hours in the solar cooker with the lid propped slightly open. Stir once or twice throughout the baking time. Granola is done when it is dry.

Oven instructions: Bake at 250 degrees for a few hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes.

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Sunttata
This flexible frittata adaptation is a great way to use up small amounts of leftover vegetables and make use of whatever herbs are in your garden. You can even use potatoes you've precooked in your solar cooker earlier in the week. Experiment with different combinations of vegetables as they are in season.

Note: Only one of us eats cheese, so we put the grated cheese on half the eggs, but you can also add it right to the egg mixture.

6 eggs
1-2 cups vegetables, choosing from:

--diced precooked vegetables, such as asparagus, potatoes, green beans, greens
--chopped raw vegetables, such as peppers, chilies, zucchini, green onions, mushrooms

handful of chopped herbs, such as parsley, thyme, chives, etc.
salt and pepper
grated cheese as desired

Oil a dark 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan. Beat the eggs and add a little water. Beat again until fluffy. Add the other ingredients, reserving or omitting the cheese if desired. Pour into the pan, cover well with foil, and set in the solar cooker with a dark cloth on top. Bake for 3 hours or until dinnertime.

If you have reserved the cheese, you can uncover the dish an hour before dinner and spread the cheese on top, then re-cover and set back into the cooker to let the cheese melt.

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Sol-Posole (New Mexican Hominy Stew)

Adapted from Extending the Table and Cooking With Sunshine

2 pounds pork necks

6 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 onions, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

water to cover

Place in dark pot, cover tightly, and set in solar cooker (bringing to a boil first on stove if desired). Cook 2 to 4 hours, until meat is cooked. Remove from the solar cooker and cut meat from bones, returning the meat to the pot, along with:

2 20-oz cans white hominy, drained

1 t salt

2 T chili powder

2 T tomato paste, or to taste

1-2 chili peppers, chopped (optional)

2 T ground cumin

1 t oregano

½ t thyme

Mix well and return to solar cooker. Cook 2 more hours, or until dinnertime. Just before serving, top with:

½ cup chopped cilantro

Serve with rice or warm flour tortillas. Garnish with lime wedges if desired.

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Pie-in-the-Sky Plum “Pie”

(or apple, peach, berry, etc.)

Adapted from Simply in Season’s Fruit Platz recipe

1 cup flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 ½ t baking powder

¼ t salt

Combine.

½ c butter or oil

½ c milk, water, or juice

Mix in butter until crumbly. Add liquid. Mix with fork until a ball of soft dough forms. Press into greased 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

4 cups plums, cut in half (or use other seasonal fruit)

2 T (or more) xylitol or sugar

Mix, then place the plum halves cut side down in rows on top of the dough.

2 T (or more) xylitol, sugar, or brown sugar

½ cup flour

¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 T butter

1 t cinnamon

½ t nutmeg

Mix and spread over fruit.

Cover tightly with foil and bake in solar cooker (ideally raised up on loaf pans to be close to the glass) for 3-4 hours.

Oven instructions: Bake uncovered in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Solar Cookery Tips

My cooker’s so bright…I gotta wear shades.

Protect your eyes from glare! Wear sunglasses when placing food into or removing it from your solar cooker, and keep your back to the sun.

Keep one eye on the weather report…and don’t believe the radar.

Sometimes the radar shows zero precipitation, but a sudden downpour can come along and soak your cooker. Best to check out the window now and then, and stay near home when solar cooking on “iffy” days.

Solar cookers take flight.

When solar cooking or drying lightweight foods, like granola or tomatoes, be sure to put something heavy in the bottom of your cooker. A glass casserole dish or bread pans help keep the cooker from taking flight in a gust of wind.

Mistakes were made. (Learn from mine.)

• Poorly covered food steams up the glass and reduces the inner temperature of the cooker.
• Overloading the cooker with too many food items at one time may result in half-cooked food.
• Overcast days are not viable cooking days, and no amount of fist-shaking at clouds will make a difference.
• Remember to choose thin cooking pots; glass, cast-iron and other heavy materials take too long to heat.

Harnessing the Most Plentiful Source of Energy on Earth

Solar Cookery was a surprisingly popular station at the SkillShare. We relished the opportunity to show off the humble box cooker that Judy made two summers ago. What fun to share the solar-baked granola and sun-roasted pumpkin seeds I'd been saving in the freezer for the occasion. Especially fun was explaining how well it works with all kinds of dishes, from stews to desserts - even a whole chicken.

Why cook with the sun?*

•

• It saves money and time.
• It's healthful and delicious.
• It's safe and kind to the environment.
• It's empowering.
• It draws you closer to nature and the rest of the world.
• It's fun and satisfying.
  

You can use a solar cooker if:*

• you live between the 60th parallels of latitude on Planet Earth
• your cooker remains unshaded for at least four hours between 9am and 4pm
• your shadow is longer than your height
• your cooker gets at least 20 minutes of sun per hour on a cloudy day
  

Food safety concerns:*

• Raw refrigerated or frozen food remains cold enough to prevent bacteria growth until the sun starts to heat up the cooker.
• Food heats up quickly to the point where harmful microbes are killed, at 160 degrees.
• Cooked food should be kept above 125 degrees or below 50 degrees to keep haramful bacteria from growing.

Materials needed:*

• Two cardboard boxes
• Insulating material (crumpled up newspapers, fiberglass batting, straw)
• Aluminum foil
• A pane of clear glass
• Tape, glue, and sharp utility knife

Follow Judy's step-by-step instructions on how to make a solar cooker (cat optional). You can also use online plans or those in Cooking with Sunshine or Solar Cooking for Home and Camp.

*Source: Anderson, L , Palkoovic R, Cooking with Sunshine, Da Capo Press 2004

Looking for Edible Landscaping Info?

Check out presenter Amy Mullen's Fraudulent Farmgirl blog, where she has posted her presentation from the SkillShare. She also has a list of her favorite edible landscaping books, handily broken out by experience level of the target audience.

A list of resources as suggested by our presenters

Books Recommended by Irvington SkillShare Presenters
Note: Bookmamas carries many of these!

Gardening:

Trowel and Error: Over 700 Tips, Remedies and Shortcuts for the Gardener by Sharon Lovejoy.
Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children
The Way We Garden Now, Katherine Whiteside (a series of pick-and-choose projects, including some for kitchen gardening)
The All New Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholemew
Gaia's Garden, Toby Hemmingway (about domestic permaculture)
Grocery Gardening, Van Krevelin (new this year, and more of an introductory book)
Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead
Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long by Eliot Coleman

Vermiculture:

Worms Eat My Garbage

Chickens:

Chickens : tending a small-scale flock for pleasure and profit / by Sue Weaver.
Keep chickens! : tending small flocks in cities, suburbs, and other small spaces / Barbara Kilarski.
Raising chickens. Haynes, Cynthia.
Storey's guide to raising chickens : care, feeding, facilities / Gail Damerow.
Chickens in your backyard: a beginner's guide. Rick and Gail Luttmann.
Chicken coops : 45 building plans for housing your flock / Judy Pangman.
The chicken health handbook / Gail Damerow.
Keeping chickens : getting the best from your chickens / Jeremy Hobson and Celia Lewis

Homesteading:

Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life, by Jenna Woginrich
Radical Homemakers, by Shannon Hayes
The Backyard Homestead, Storey Publishing (great intros on lots of subjects)
The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition): Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-reliance Series) By Kelly Coyne, Erik Knutzen
Scott Kellog and Stacy Pettigrew's Toolbox for Sustainable City Living

Solar Cookery:

Cooking with Sunshine: The Complete Guide to Solar Cuisine with 150 Easy Sun-cooked Recipes, by Lorraine Anderson and Rick Palkovic
Solar Cooking for Home and Camp, by Linda Frederick Yaffe


Food Ethics:

Diet for a Hot Planet by Anna Lappe

Cooking:

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger
Fix it and Forget it Cookbook by Phyllis Pellman Good (there are several different editions/variations on this cookbook)
Fresh from the Farmers' Market: Year-Round Recipes for the Pick of the Crop by Janet Fletcher
The Harvest Eating Cookbook: More than 200 Recipes for Cooking with Seasonal Local Ingredients by Keith Snow
The Farmer John Cookbook
Simply in Season, by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert


Preserving:

Ball Blue Book, the Guide to Home Canning and Freezing (may be out of print but used are available at Amazon)
Saving the Seasons


Beekeeping:

THE BACKYARD BEEKEEPER- Kim Flottum
THE BEEKEEPER'S HANDBOOK- Diana Sammataro & Alphonse Avitabile
PLAN BEE- Susan Brackney
NATURAL BEEKEEPING- Ross Conrad

Fermenting:

Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Katz

Foraging:

Feasting Free on Wild Edibles, by Bradford Angier
Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide by Elias and Dykeman.
Stalking the Wild Asparagus, by Euell Gibbons
Harrington's How to Identify Plants.
Newcomb's Wildflower Guide

Herbal Medicine:

Healing with Whole Foods, by Paul Pitchfor
The Green Pharmacy, by Jim Duke

Bread:

Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Native Plants:

Go Native! by Harstad
Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens, by Doug Tallamy

Urban Homesteading – Putting It All Together

by guest blogger Autumn Williamson


Urban homesteading is a growing trend in which eco-conscious individuals who live in an urban setting are utilizing the small parcel of space they occupy to sustain themselves. Although many people think of homesteading as moving out to the country and working their land full time in order to be self sustaining and more eco friendly, homesteading in an urban environment can be even more sustainable because you use less in fuel, water, and space. There are many things that you can do to become self sufficient while living in the city, most if not all of which you will have access to learning at the Irvington SkillShare "Feast"ival.

When you decide to strive for the goal of becoming an urban homesteader you should start out small. Just start by growing a small amount of food or herbs at first. You can grow herbs in your windowsill, hang a tomato plant upside down in front of a window or on a balcony, or plant a potato in a 5 gallon bucket on your porch. Even though at first you will not be supplying all of your own produce, you will be learning many valuable lessons on how to grow vegetables. (Be sure to save seeds at the end of the season to plant next year! ) If you have a moderately sunny yard you can build a couple of raised beds (best to build in the fall so they are ready to go in the spring), start a compost pile or get a tumbler, and make a rain barrel once you get your gardening skills set. If you have even more room in your yard you can plant fruit trees or bushes, wheat or oats in place of grass in your front yard, or even grow grape vines along your fence. Many urban homesteaders also keep small animals also. Common animals for city keeping are chickens for eggs, dwarf goats for milk, bees for honey, and rabbits for meat. By the way, all of these are legal to keep in Indianapolis. (Check your neighborhood's regulations though.)

Once you start producing your own food you can start cooking and preserving it so that you can reap your gardening rewards all year long. There are many ways to preserve foods that you will have access to learning at the Skill Share and everyone has their personal preference. You can dehydrate, can, freeze, root-cellar, or ferment. Since you won’t be producing all of the food you need at first, and may never get to that level depending on the size of your property, make sure that you make the most of the local markets. Try to do the majority of your grocery shopping from local sources and buy extra of your favorites when they are in season to preserve for the winter when choices of in season foods are slim.

The biggest challenge that new homesteaders face is to learn the changing of the seasons and what to do when. To start out build some garden beds in fall. The real garden planning begins in January when the seed catalogs become available. Plan out what you want to grow and where it will fit in your garden or yard. Order seeds in late January/ early February. Start seeds in late February through mid March. Mid March to mid April is when you plant spring plants (peas, spinach, broccoli, kale.) The old saying is to have peas planted by St. Patrick’s day. Look up the Last frost date for Indiana and plant summer plants around then, usually late April to early May (things like tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, zucchini.) Warm weather crops like sweet potatoes and watermelon should be planted in late May or early June. Wait until late June or early July to plant pumpkins so they are ready for Halloween. Then if you are planting a second crop of cool weather crops they should go in mid August. July and August are the main months for preserving as most things will be ripe then. As plants die off in the fall you can turn the soil over and add compost so that they are ready for the spring. You can also grow some plants year round with row covers but they need to be planted by the end of August. September and October is a good time to make soap for the year or other crafts for holiday gifts. Enjoy thanksgiving and Christmas and you’ll be ready to start planning your garden again in January!

The biggest thing is to do what you can and have a desire to do yourself and form relationships with local vendors for the rest. You want to enjoy what you are doing and not force yourself or you’ll stop and a little is better than nothing. Urban homesteading is all about going back to relying on ourselves and our local community to supply our needs rather than being disconnected from our food source and having those products come from large monoculture farms that are negatively impacting our environment. Learn all you can from the SkillShare and have fun putting it all together!

Autumn lives with her husband and two children in the Community Heights neighborhood. She shares recipes, knitting patterns, and her experiences on the urban homestead at Autumn Adventures.

Introducing Presenter - Amy Mullen

A Tale of Two Soups

by Shawndra Miller
Every now and then, like the time I took a simple chicken soup to a sick friend and her sister asked me in amazement if I made it from scratch, I realize that I’m not quite mainstream. It’s probably not that common to buy a whole chicken that was raised on pasture by a local farmer and roast it to succulent perfection in the oven. Let alone subsequently simmer the carcass to make a rich stock, then pick the bones clean to use every scrap of meat in a soup loaded with locally grown veggies.

Then again, not too long ago (OK it’s been a few decades), I was a clueless college student, with popcorn and cinnamon toast being my main culinary accomplishments. The first time I realized that soup didn’t need to come from a Campbell’s can, I was watching friends whip up a simple meal in their tiny kitchen. I remember someone asking, Should our soup have tomato in it? Holding up a ripe tomato. My mind was blown about twelve ways.

First, at the time I wouldn’t even have known where to begin if someone gave me a soup pot and a bunch of ingredients. It would have been a stretch even with a recipe. But there in that little off-campus apartment with Tracy Chapman crooning from the boombox, there was not a cookbook in sight. And as my friends came to consensus on the tomato question (yes, definitely the soup needs a tomato), I thought, you can do that? Just, make it up?

So I can relate when someone can’t even imagine cooking a darn thing. I’m living proof that anyone can learn how. And by now I’m so immersed in this way of life that sometimes I forget it might be a little out of the ordinary to soak dry beans overnight and cook them in a solar cooker by day, or grow a mess of cukes to pickle in a crock, or pick fruit growing wild, or any of the other semi-nutty things I do in my quest to be an urban homesteader.

One of the most exciting things about getting ready for the SkillShare has been finding my people, realizing that there are countless individuals right here in Indy who are reclaiming these kinds of skills for themselves and their families.

Equally exciting is the idea of attracting people who might be mystified by one aspect or another of garden-to-kitchen skills. Because I have been there. In fact I’m still a novice in many ways, and that’s the beauty of bringing these people together in one room: We all benefit from shared knowledge.

So whether you butcher your own meat or are still looking for your oven’s on switch, whether you feed your family and neighbors out of your garden or are just inching toward growing some sprouts on a windowsill, we hope you will check out the SkillShare this Sunday. We believe everyone has something to teach, and in turn something to learn. Join us!

Shawndra will be demonstrating solar cooking at the Irvington SkillShare "Feast"ival.