By desert recipes we don’t mean sweet treats to eat. 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. This article is about desert cooking.
The desert has one element that makes it ideal for cooking food. Look up in the sky, it’s the sun. Temperatures in the desert can top 150?F, that’s good for cooking. That heat can be used in the place of an oven, microwave or other modern cooking appliances.
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.) Desert recipes work well in these cookers where temperatures reach 300?F. This means cooking hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks, and even stews or spaghetti. There are two issues to consider. The first is that this is a slow cooking method. It’s an all-day affair. Plus the solar cooker will likely have to be realigned throughout the day as the sun moves. And when the sun isn’t shining, on a cloudy day or at night, a solar cooker is no good.
Solar cooking has some unique advantages too. Slow cooking keeps food 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. Another advantage of solar cooking is that it’s a process. Waiting longer for food to cook, doing more while it cooks, adds to the anticipation. Cooking isn’t just cooking and eating, it’s presentation and experience too. Don’t let people tell you solar cookers don’t brown foods. They do.
Do you want to hear some desert recipes? There’s everything from spaghetti squash with sausage to good old eggs and bacon These and others can be found with a quick Google search.
The sun makes desert recipes a snap to cook.
Posted on January 23rd, 2009 by the big chef
Filed under: Food and Drink
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