Friday, May 11, 2007

Solar Oven Spareribs


My solar oven may well be the mother of all enthusiasms. I got it last spring, after reading about them in the NYT magazine. As you see in the first picture, it is essentially a sealed black box with reflector--very simple. You put food in a pot, put the pot in the oven, put the oven in the sun, and let'er rip. In direct continuous sun I get to about 350; in itermittent sun, maybe 250. You can cook *anything* in them: I've baked cakes, roasted vegetables, and made soup; last night my mom made pot roast in hers. Because you cook without water flavors get concentrated and textures silky--except for cakes, which come out (magically) golden brown.

The Solar Oven Society sells the ovens in this country, then donates them to impoverished and sun-drenched countries where wood smoke for cooking fires contributes to cancer, and women's days are eaten up gathering fuel. Cool, huh? Anyone in a sunny climate should check it out. The only downside is that once you start using one it can be slightly panic-inducing to think back on all the hours of sunshine in your life, wasted, *not cooking anything.*

PS You see here spareribs; rubbed with salt and pepper, doused with sauce, and left alone for about four hours. Could have taken longer or shorter; that's just when I happened to be home.

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