Solar Cookers

Don't read this article on desert recipes expecting to get ideas for sweet after dinner treats.  Don't read it for tips on healthy ends to nutritious meals either.  Please don't be confused.  A cake can be a dessert a hot place where it doesn't rain much is a desert.  Let's talk about cooking in the desert.

The desert has one element that makes it ideal for cooking food.  Look up in the sky, it's the sun.  A typical desert day can be as hot as the hundred 150° or more, which tells us what a great source of heat the sun truly is.  If harnassed, it can mean cooking without modern appliances like microwaves, stoves or even gas or charcoal grills. 

Solar cookers can be anything from a fancy, modern store bought model to something as simple as a pizza box with insulation and reflective material (such as tin foil.)  Such cookers can reach up to 300°F, perfect for many desert recipes.  Everything from eggs stakes can be cooked on this.  But keep two things in mind.  Number one this is a slow cooking technique.  It takes all day to cook.  It takes constant realignment of the solar cooker to keep the sun focused.  The second is that it doesn't work at night or on cloudy days – any time there is no sun.

There are positives to solar cooking as well.  Slow cooked food is melt in your mouth moist.  And it really isn't possible to burn anything because there are hours of leeway in cooking times rather than minutes or even seconds with other cooking methods.  Have your doubts?  Leave a steak on the grill for five minutes too long.  Plus cooking over a longer period means more time to savor the aromas.  Food tastes better when some care is taken in the preparation.  Contrary to what many people believe solar cookers can and do brown foods.

Do you want to hear some desert recipes?  For some creative cooking ideas there's everything from spaghetti squash with sausage to good old eggs and bacon  A quick search on Yahoo will find even more.

It may seem impossible to cook desert recipes with just the power of the sun.  But it works.