Category Archives: Recipes

food, Recipes

How to roast meat in a solar oven

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Roasting meat is easy in a solar oven. Not only does cooking with solar save money on electricity, but it makes the meat more tender and juicy than a conventional overn. We picked up a fresh 5lb leg of lamb yesterday, and since the sun’s out, I decided to roast it today. Here’s a rundown of how to roast meat a la the sun.

Step 1: Prepare the roast

Remove the packaging and netting, rinse under cold water and pat dry with a paper towel. Place the roast on a cutting board.

(Note about cutting boards — Glass or plastic work best for raw meat because they can be sanitized with bleach later. Avoid wood because the porous material holds onto bacteria)

Choose your seasonings and rub them liberally all over the roast. Today I chose rosemary, black pepper and sea salt. Other great choices for meats include mixed garden herbs, Indian “curry” mixes, or Spike.

Set up your solar oven to preheat (or preheat your regular oven if you don’t have a solar oven) to about 325 degrees F. Most recipes call for higher heat, about 400, but I strongly prefer the more tender meat that comes from lower, longer heat.

Step 2: Seal in the juices

Heat your roasting pan on the stove top at medium-high and add about 1 tbsp of oil. I use ghee or canola oil because they have a higher smoke point. Place the roast – fat side down – into the hot pan. Let it sizzle and crackle for about 3-4 minutes, or until browned. Turn over and repeat on the other side.

At the this point I also throw some chopped onions, garlic, carrots, celery and tomato into the pan and let them sautee.

Step 3: Slow and low

Now comes the roasting part. Check your oven’s temperature. It should be between 300 and 350 degree F. If it’s much lower, about 200 or 250, your roast will take a lot longer, but it will still cook.

For solar cooking, I use cast iron pots and pans exclusively. They are black and hold heat beautifully. They also lend a lightly smoky, outdoorsy flavor that your guests will rave about.

Cover the roast (don’t use aluminum foil for solar cooking as the shiny quality also reflect away heat!). Transfer the roast to oven, set a timer for 1 hour 30 minutes (for medium rare) and walk away. Enjoy your cool kitchen and lower utility bill to come while the roast cooks outside.

Step 4: Test and rest

Bring the roast inside and set it on the stove. Open the lid and slice into the middle. What color is the center? If it’s pink, you’ve got medium rare meat. Grayer and it’s more well done. Redder and you might think about returning it to the oven for a few more minutes.

Another easy way to test the meat’s doneness is to insert a thermometer. This will give you a more precise reading of the internal temperature. It will be easier to adjust to your preference this way.

Once the roast is how you like it, let it rest covered on the stove top for at least 30 minutes. Remember that during this rest period, the meat will cook a little bit more. It could take a medium-rare roast to medium. So keep that in mind while you’re testing.

After resting, the roast is ready to carve and serve. Enjoy!

Culture, food, Recipes

Hawaiian “Alaea” Red Sea Salt

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Hawaiian Sea Salt
Other Names: Alaea, Alae, Hawaiian Red Salt

Hawaiian red sea salt

Alaea aea salt is a traditional Hawaiian table salt used to season and preserve. A natural mineral called “alaea” (volcanic baked red clay) is added to enrich the salt with iron oxide. This natural additive is what gives the salt its distinctive pink color. The clay imparts a subtle flavor that is mellower than regular sea salt. The clay also adds fineness to the grain.

Uses: It is the traditional and authentic seasoning for native Hawaiian dishes such as Kalua Pig, Poke and Hawaiian Jerky. Also good on steaks, pork loin and grilled vegetables. Hawaiian sea salt can be used in place of regular white salt.

Gathering: Making Hawaiian sea salt is simple, provided you know where to find (or buy) alaea. In the islands, alaea can be gathered from most rocky beaches, like Kuiaha Bay along Maui’s North Shore. Clumps of the red clay run off to the beach and become lodged in the rocks, where the clay washes in the surf and bakes in the sun. I recently gathered a few chunks of alaea from Kuiaha Bay and carried them home in an old, dried out coconut. The clay stains everything it touches red, just like the Red Dirt Shirts, which are a local icon of creative alaea use.

Preparation: Back in my kitchen, I broke the clay into smaller pieces about the size of strawberries and ground into a fine powder using a coffee grinder. A little goes a long way. I mixed the ground alaea with a pound of sea salt, making a gorgeous red salt. I love the mellow, sweet flavor and use it everywhere I would plain salt.

Recipe: Hawaiian red sea salt is so good that it also inspires dishes. My favorite recipe for alaea salt is a simple one, grilled asparagus. Here’s what I do:

  • Start with a large bunch of rinsed and trimmed fresh asparagus
  • Lay them into a large baking dish (9×12 works well)
  • Drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar and generously sprinkle Hawaiian sea salt
  • Toss and coat all the asparagus
  • Fire up the BBQ and grill until tender
  • Enjoy them hot
Family, food, Health, Lifestyle, Recipes

Comparison of Diabetic Sweeteners

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Like 21 million other Americans, my mother has type 2 diabetes. Despite multiple trips to the doctor, she is still confused about which sweeteners are okay for diabetics. She also likes to bake (a multiple blue-ribbon winner in the area State Fair for pies and cakes), and is even hazier on which diabetic sweeteners work best as substitutes for sugar in cooking. So she sent me an email asking for my help.

Her timing was great. At the moment, I am writing a series of articles on type 2 diabetes. A few hours before her note popped in, I was asking all of those same questions. Here’s what I found.

By the way, I am not a licensed physician and this does not constitute medical advice. Check with your doctor before making any health decisions.

Comparison of diabetic sweeteners

Dr. Murray compares all the natural and artificial sweeteners on his webpage. Pretty thorough and no fancy language.

However, he doesn’t cover which diabetic sweeteners to use in cooking. There is a difference for everyday use and baking/cooking. Here’s a quick run-down:

  • For all-purpose use, stevia is the hands-down winner. It’s derived from a leaf, and in it’s pure form it contains no synthetic chemicals. It comes in powdered and liquid forms. You can bake with it. You’ll have to experiment some to find the right amounts of liquid to add. Animal studies show that it also lowers blood pressure, which could be a big bonus for diabetics.
  • Doctors also like “–ol” sweeteners, like xylitol (derived from a tree and a common ingredient in German chewing gum that prevents cavities) and mannitol, especially for baking. Splenda also gets high marks for baking because it can take the heat, but it’s dervied from sugar, and therefore, very processed. You can buy any of these at health food stores or online.
  • Two other compound sweeteners are also safe for most diabetics. Phenylalanine (marketed as Equal or Nutrasweet) is derived from two amino acids. These are naturally occurring in food so nothing weird here. However, people with PKU (a rare genetic disorder) cannot use this sweetener. Unfortunately, phenylalanine doesn’t bake well. Saacharin been around since the ’70s, tastes slightly odd, may cause cancer, and doesn’t bake well either.
  • Honey, real maple syrup and other fructose-based sweeteners (like rice and barley syrup) are okay in small amounts — like a teaspoonful in your tea, but in larger amounts (like for baking and cooking) they spike blood sugar and should be used in limited amounts. However, these sweeteners produce baked goods that are most similar to those made with sugar and require less experimentation to get the recipe right.

Unfortunately, brown and raw sugars impact blood sugar about the same as white sugar. So using “sugar in the raw” or brown cane sugar does not help control diabetes. These sugars are about the same as potatoes, white rice, white bread and drinks with high fructose corn syrup in terms of spiking blood sugar.

In fact, doctors recommend that people with diabetes cut out all white items and carbonated sodas from their diets. This presents a huge challenge because these are staples in our American diet. Guess that goes a long way toward explaining why 20.8 million of us have type 2 diabetes with millions more still to be diagnosed.

Whichever diabetic sweetener you decide one, good luck with your new eating plan! Here’s to your health.