Solar Cooked Zucchini Pasta

When Oma and Opa visited this past weekend they brought along some yellow and green zucchini so I decided to make some pasta yesterday.

I just cut up one of each into half moons about 1/4 inch thick and added a leftover roasted chicken breast from the night before. Put it all in my oval cast iron pot, placed it in the turkey bag, put it on the solar funnel and set it and forgot it.

I put it out at 12:30 and kept it just off center of the sun because I didn't want it to get too hot. It was 70 degrees and a clear day.

The results- Everything was thoroughly cooked, although if you want a bit of bite to the squash you will definitely not cook it all day. Probably an hour or less in direct sun would be more then enough.

Everything was tossed with hot pasta and served.

Ingredients-

1 medium size green zucchini- cut into half moons 1/4 inch thick
1 medium size yellow zucchini- cut into half moons 1/4 inch thick
1 leftover chicken breast, chopped(meat)
2 ounces of chicken stock
olive oil
garlic
oregano
salt and pepper
* would have added tomato but was out

Solar Cooked Chicken and Potatoes

So far we have cooked chicken twice on the solar cooker. When cooking, it is very much like cooking with a crock pot so pretty much anything you can do with a crock pot you can do with a solar cooker and a big pot.

When I made our solar funnel I decided to go with chicken and potatoes again because it was familiar and I wanted to have a point of comparison to see how my funnel rated.

I put a whole seasoned chicken into a 3 gallon stock pot and surrounded it with cut up potatoes ( a good inch or so to a side) and onions and popped on the lid. I used this pot because it is the only dark pot I have big enough for a chicken, but when you do it, try and use something smaller if possible. The pot barely fit in the turkey bag so the advantage of the bag was largely lost.

The bag is used to allow in the suns rays while holding the heat created. It also serves as a barrier preventing the breeze from whisking the heat away from the pot. Basically it makes its own mini oven.

I kept an eye on it through the day and noticed the chicken was cooked through within 2 hours. Unfortunately that was much too early to eat dinner, but the good thing about cooking like this is everything is wrapped tight, the heat is gentle and the chicken stays moist. There is no crispy chicken when cooking this way, at least so far in my experience.

If it seems like things may overcook you can simply change the orientation of the cooker so it gets less direct sunlight and simply stays hot.

End results? Moist, falling off the bone chicken, tender potatoes and onions and great flavor. Another interesting thing, there was a good 2 cups of liquid in the bottom of the pot to make gravy with.

I imagine this could make a nice chicken cacciatore or any similar dish using a moist heat cooking method. Just keep in mind to use less liquid then normal because you will not loose any to evaporation.

My first time

For the last couple years I have read a bit here and there about the practice of cooking with the sun. Since first reading about it I have imagined myself one day giving it a try, only to put it off til later.

Well recently I decided it was finally time and so started looking for the exact method I would start the experiment with. Shortly after having decided on a set of plans, we got word that my father in law was bringing his solar cooker that same weekend on his visit. This meant of course that I could use his first before making my own which was a good thing. It helped me finalize my own plans.

The first thing we made was a roasted chicken with potatoes. We set up his cooker, put a whole, defrosted chicken into a black pot with a clear glass lid, surrounded it with cut up potatoes and onions and placed the whole thing into a large turkey bag. The kind of bag you put into the oven. The idea is the bag allows the suns rays in to heat the pot while holding the built up heat inside the bag allowing it to cook at a higher temperature.

Later that evening, when everyone returned home from a day at the water falls, we had chicken that was falling off the bone, moist and delicious. The potatoes were cooked through and so were the onions. I was really surprised to be honest. I mean, there was no doubt it would work. After all, my father in law had done it before and so had countless others. But seeing it and reading about it are two completely different things.

So of course all I could do the next couple of days was think about what I was going to do once I made my own solar cooker. This blog is one of the results and in it I will try and keep track of my experiences as well as put up recipes that we have tried. This will be my note book and with any luck, maybe even the extra nudge needed to get others to give it a try.

Since my first time one month ago today, I have made another chicken, stew, soup, a couple pots of beans, a couple pots of chili, a large pot of spaghetti sauce, 3 cakes and just today I baked my first loaf of bread. Each of these things will be discussed to a degree based on memory and future items will (hopefully) have a bit more detail.

For the record, I live in Oregon. So if you think you don't get enough sun or maybe not an intense enough sun, keep that in mind. You may just be surprised at what you can do at home.