the explorers journal the global adventure issue - The Explorers Club

E x t r e m e C u i s i n efood for the epicurean adventurerS o l a r - C o o k e dpicnicby Linda Frederick YaffeSuddenly it comes, the flaming globe, blazing on thepinnacles and minarets and balanced rocks, on thecanyon walls and through the windows in the sandstonefins. We greet each other, sun and I, across theblack void of ninety-three million miles.—Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire (1968)Enjoy simple but sumptuous solar-cooked mealsnearly anywhere in the world. Cooking with thesun is free, clean, easy, and fun. Simply toss togetherthe ingredients in a lightweight dark metalpot, put the pot in the cooker, and relax while thesun prepares your meal. Convenient at home, solarcookers also shine at picnics and basecamps.They pasteurize drinking water, cook and bakefoods, and provide hot wash water for people,clothes, and dishes. Solar cooking is stress-free:no overcooking, smoke, stirring, tending, fire danger,or use of wood or fossil fuels. Foods cook upmoist, flavorful, and full of nutrients.Set up the cooker at your picnic site and pointit towards the sun. Assemble the Jamaican JerkChicken and Monterey Nachos recipes and popthem into the cooker. A half hour later, remove thenachos and put the corn into the cooker. Enjoythe nachos as an appetizer while the chickenand the ears of corn are cooking.Plans & directionsto build asolar cooker· The Expanding World of Solar Box Cookers by BarbaraProsser Kerr (1991)· Solar Cookers: How to Make, Use & Enjoy by Solar CookersInternational (2004)· Solar Cooking for Home & Camp by Linda Frederick Yaffe,Stackpole Books (2007)Resources forpre-built solar cookers· Gaiam Real Goods, www.realgoods.com· Solar Cookers International, www.solarcookers.org· Solar Household Energy, www.she-inc.org· Solar Oven Society, www.solarovens.orgBiographyA California-based writer, Linda Frederick Yaffe is theauthor of Backpack Gourmet, High Trail Cookery, and therecently released Solar Cooking for Home and Camp.56