Sunny Side Up

Eggs look so pretty cooking in a uiTzi it's sometimes hard to avoid being mesmerized while they cook. It doesn't take long. Perhaps ten minutes on a clear-skied day. By then they're looking like baby suns in a pram smiling up at their father. A uiTzi cooks from the top down, so a great lunch involves first cooking up a bed of sizzled vegetables, or reheating some beans from the day before, and cracking eggs over them ten minutes before you're ready to eat. The other thing a uiTzi does with incredible grace is frittatas, or even souffles (check there are no clouds first!).

Lasagna

From sun-roasted peppers to a long simmered tomato sauce to sizzled mushrooms, everything in a lasagna can be made sumptuously in a uiTzi. Using homemade noodles means you don't have to pre-cook them (pre-cook store-bought ones or they'll soak up all your liquid and leave your lasagna dry) and they retain a lovely, eggy identity while at the same time marrying beautifully with the sauces and cheese.

Canning

Canning couldn't be easier in a uiTzi. The biggest hassle with traditional canning is the problem of steralizing jars. But with a uiTzi you can forget scalding your hands while manhandling unwieldy jars out of boiling water. Simply let the fruit or vegetables you're preserving cook down in a big black pot for as many hours or days as you require. Then transfer into Mason jars and place them back in the uiTzi for another few hours under a hot sun. And voila! Just tighten the lids and you're done.

Chutneys and Jams

This is a recipe for green mango chutney (above), but you can apply the general principle to any kind of chutney or jam. In a large pot combine the following 7 ingredients: 9 cups of chopped green (but mature) mangos (or peaches or apples, as you wish); 5 small, finely chopped hot peppers; 3 tablespoons minced fresh garlic; 1/3 cup chopped dates; 1/3 cup dark raisins; 1 - 1/3 cup currants; and 3 cups of apple cider vinegar. Let this mixture stand at room temperature, losely covered, for a full 24 hours (all day and all night, ending in the morning)

In the morning, add the following four ingredients: 5 cups of sugar (in Mexico we use piloncillo, the dark solid cones of pure cane sugar that melt easily in a uiTzi); 3 tablespoons of salt; 1/2 cup of finely chopped fresh ginger; and 2 more cups of apple cider vinegar. Put the pot in the uiTzi for the day, checking it once or twice to give the mixture a stir and to rotate the uiTzi into the sun. After about 5 hours on a hot, sunny day it will turn thick, dark brown and delicious.

Decant the chutney into glass mason jars, place the mason lids loosely on the jars, and put them back in the uiTzi (at 200 - 2015 degrees) for a couple more hours to steralize and preserve them. When the jars have cooled enough to handle, take them out and screw the tops on tightly.

Granola

Granola is a cinch in a uiTzi. Using baking trays, start by partially drying your favorite fruit - mangoes, apples, strawberries, whatever - until they can be cut into small pieces. Then fill the baking dish with rolled organic oats, shredded coconut, nuts and (unless you're not using store-bought raisans) the fruit you already partially dried, in proportions that appeal to you. Coat with a mixture of honey, water and lemon juice until damp and sticky and then toast in the uiTzi for an hour or two, until just right.