Cooking with the Sun

By: Linda Pinkham | July 12 2010
Posted in Rogue Valley - Cook It - Rogue Valley

When it’s hot enough outside in Southern Oregon to fry eggs on the sidewalk, you may see TV news reporters demonstrating that they can bake cookies under the glass of their car windshields. Solar cooking doesn’t require triple digit temperatures, but does necessitate some simple equipment and a little knowledge.

Baked pork chops with fresh green beans and mushroom soup simmer in the afternoon sun in the Global Sun Oven (left). Brown rice completes the meal in the Molly Baker Solar Oven (right).

Solar cookers use no other fuel than energy from the sun. They can be found in a range of sizes and levels of sophistication.

• Panel cookers. The most basic cooker, made out of a single sheet of reflective material, or cardboard covered with foil, and folded to optimize capturing the sun’s rays.

• Box cookers. Basic component is a black box, equipped with reflectors and a glass door. They can work as well as a conventional oven, reaching temperatures of up to 400°F in the Rogue Valley.

• Parabolic cookers. Curved reflectors focus the sun’s rays on a single point, working more like a stovetop burner. Capable of burning your food, this type of cooker can reach temperatures over 900°F!

Solar cookers are so simple that you can easily make one. For a variety of plans to build all kinds of solar cookers, click here.

If you're more inclined to cook than work on a craft project, you can buy a solar cooker. One of the most popular cookers is the Global Sun Oven. Another excellent and very portable model that’s made here in Oregon for backpacking and kayaking is the Molly Baker Solar Oven. Both types of cookers can be ordered on the Internet, or you can buy them at Green Way EcoMart in Klamath Falls.

Solar cookers work exceptionally for any recipe that you can cook in a crock pot or conventional oven, including roasts, baked chicken, stews, lasagna, and rice and pasta dishes. Here's a recipe for stuffed zucchini in a solar cooker. The best cooking vessels are black pots and dark-colored glass baking dishes. Glass lids work well because they allow you to monitor how well things are cooking.

As with a crock pot, you need to start your meals earlier in the day to allow plenty of cooking time. Load all the ingredients into a pot, cover and place it the solar oven. Then align the solar cooker for optimal sun exposure. Local solar cooking expert Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze recommends “standing behind your cooker and pointing it so that there is a slight shadow on the west side of the interior cooking area.” If you can reposition the cooker every hour, then you will have faster cooking times. If you want to “fix it and forget it,” just point the solar oven to where the sun will be around 2 p.m., and your food will be done in time for dinner.

Solar cooking is part of an easy, carefree lifestyle. According to Jennifer Barker of Canyon City, Ore. and author of The Morning Hill Solar Cookery Book, “The sun draws out the creativity in me. I can’t stop creating new recipes!”

Photo courtesy of Linda Pinkham