Solar Cookers

You're in for a rude awakening if you think desert recipes is some kind of cake.  No it's not a healthy after dinner riposte either. 

Please don't be confused.  The often sweet end to a meal is a dessert, while a desert is an often sandy and hot but always dry area.  This article is about desert cooking.

The desert has one element that makes it ideal for cooking food.  That element is the sun.  It's a tremendous source of heat, particularly in hot deserts where temperatures can reach 150F and even higher.  If harnassed, it can mean cooking without modern appliances like microwaves, stoves or even gas or charcoal grills. 

Solar cookers are easy to find or even to make.  Such cookers can reach up to 300°F, perfect for many desert recipes.  Hotdogs, steaks, soups, even spaghetti can be cooked here.  But keep two things in mind.  This is slow cooking.  That's many hours needed to cook.  Plus the solar cooker will likely have to be realigned throughout the day as the sun moves.  The second is that it doesn't work at night or on cloudy days – any time there is no sun.

Cooking with solar cookers has some unique advantages too.  Slow cooking keeps food moist.  There is also a lot of leeway as far as burning food because it's cooking so slow.  Don't believe it?  Try rice on the stove for an extra minute.  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.  Anticipation can make the meal taste better when it's finally time to eat.  And don't worry about food not browning in a solar cooker.  If there's some fat, the meat will brown.

Do you want to hear some desert recipes?  As mentioned before there are a variety of creative cooking recipes for everything from eggs to pastas and even casseroles  These and others can be found with a quick Google search.

It may seem impossible to cook desert recipes with just the power of the sun.  But it works. Especially when you have a solar cooker.