Since becoming aware of their existence, solar cookers have always intrigued me. Yet I have to admit to having previously harboured a certain degree of scepticism as to their efficacy and practicality. A visit to some friends a week ago, where I witnessed a solar cooker performing some low level bean-cooking, had the effect of upgrading my intrigue to full bodied consumerism (with an ecological slant thankfully) which I acted upon...
I bought my solar cooker from Solardome in Stellenbosch. It is a Sun Cook and is manufactured in Portugal (warranting extra diligent useage on my part in order to pay back the embodied fossil fuel energy incurred from not having made it myself as the real hard-core sustainability types would have done). As luck would have it, my taking possession of it seemed to trigger a highly unseasonal spell of wintriness complete with 100% cloud cover and rain. During this time I tempered my rain drenched enthusiasm through vicariously delighting in other people's solar cooking exploits, trawling the web for solar cooking related information. There is a lot as a visit to our friend Google will atest to.
Sunday, 5 November dawned a clear, summer's day in the Cape Winelands and by 10:00am I had the cooker set up and the bird I intended to cook in situ and ready to roast. By 11:00am I had garnered sufficient faith in my little experiment to text an interested friend and invite them around for some tasty bird. Four hours after ignition, some occasional sprinkling of herbs and spices and some episodic basting with lemon butter, and the bird emerged in all its glory. It was one of the most delicious meals I had ever made (admitedly coming off a relatively low base). The fact that it was cooked entirely from the sun's rays made the consumption of it even more special.
Monday saw me boastfully e-mailing pictures of my first forays into solar cooking to family and friends. This bird was becoming famous. Sadly for it, more famous in death than in life (unless there were prior sporting achievements that I am unaware of). It died for a noble cause however, and will be held up as a champion in promoting the more sustainable cooking of birds the world over.
As I turn to thoughts of what my next solar meal will be, I hear the ever more nervous cackle of the Guinea Fowl from across the fence...
