OTR Recipes & Menu

Recently, a friend bought me the gift reading, “The Green Kitchen” by Richard Ehrlich. The book not only provides great-tasting recipes for the health-conscious cook but contains techniques for cutting energy use, saving money, and reducing waste while cooking. It has been an interesting read so far and I’m excited to experiment with some new recipes to share with you in future posts.

One section of the book called “making the most of your oven” contains some very helpful energy-saving tips I wanted to share.

Piggybacking in the Oven

Piggybacking requires some planning but it means making one dish hitch a ride in the oven while the oven is ON for another reason. The piggybacker can be another dish for tonight’s meal or something you save for another day. The less you use your oven, the less energy it will consume.

Flexible Temperatures

Recipes give you an oven temperature to use when roasting or baking. Some foods can be cooked at a higher or lower temperature then what the recipe reads. The key is that the time cooked may require adjusting so you will need to keep your eye on the food. An example is baked chicken. The recipe may call for an oven temperature of 400 degrees F so anything where the recipes call for a lower temperature can be cooked at the same time.

Think before You Turn that Dial

Does the dish you’re making really need to be cooked in the oven? Look to see if there are alternatives, such as cooking with the lid on. A lot of energy is lost when food is cooked with no lid. Additionally, if you cook with a lid on the cooking time is reduced thus conserving energy.

Plan Oven Use Better

If you plan on cooking in the oven, for say, your main dish, it’s easy to plan on cooking other dishes in the remaining space. Roast potatoes, baked potatoes, baked yams, roasted or braised vegetables, desserts (pies, tarts, crumbles, etc.) can all be cooked in the available space.

Finally, ovens aren’t the only place where you can use these principles of energy use.  Broilers are great for piggybacking too!

Don’t let any spare energy go to waste!

{ 0 comments }