Thursday, July 29, 2010

Monday with Marcia Lowry-Cooking with the Sun



it's HOT here in the high desert country of Wyoming - up to 90 degrees recently. On these sweltering days it's too much to heat up the kitchen to cook so we BBQ just about everything. Lately we've had a hankerin' for beef roast with root veggies, so I've relied on my other source for roasting - the Sun Oven. It's basically just a black plastic box with a tilting tray inside, an adjustable leg for the up and down angle, a glass door, and reflective metal wings that fold in when not in use. I use (as you can tell from the picture) an old dark colored roaster that fits on the tray, placing a locally grown, seasoned beef pot roast in first, adding no liquid. I started this morning about 10 am and just kept moving the oven clockwise with the sun every couple of hours or so. It stays at a pretty consistent 250 to 300 degrees. At about 2:30 pm I added veggies fresh from this morning's garden picking - new potatoes, turnips and baby carrots. The finished product, at about 6:30 pm was wonderful - juicy and tender... and NO hot kitchen!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow..and that is a big roast! How long did it take?

I've seen these advertised and wondered if they worked. Bravo!

Unknown said...

Dave says SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District) has a solar cookoff every year. Who knew? He works for SMUD.

Marcia said...

It took about 5-6 hours for the roast and then I added the veggies and they took another couple of hours - yummy!

Taradharma said...

This is simply delicious (by appearances) and such an elegant way to use nature to cook your food and avoid the hot kitchen. Bravo!