When the Cooking Basket is Empty...

In November 2004 I visited the remote semi-arid region of Western Mukogodo in Laikipia, Kenya for the very first time. Since then I have spent several weeks living with the local Maasai community based at Musul, a beautiful conservation area with resident leopards, eland, migratory elephants and stunning views of Mount Kenya in the distance. Whilst I was there during December 2006 the women of the community were introduced to the use of Cooking baskets as a means of helping to save firewood and water.

This week I received the following heart-wrenching request for help from Daniel LeMolo on behalf of the community at Musul -

"We are continuing struggling with the drought here with no rain at all...The situation at Musul is worst ever seen. No water, no food, children fainting in the class and a lot of problems. So, to your website, if people can donate so that we can try to feed these kids so we don't lose them to hunger. Please put this request to your website."

A recent newspaper article about the terrible effects of the drought in Laikipia can also be seen by clicking here.

If any of you would also like to make a monetry donation to help the children attend and receive a much-needed meal at local primary school (probably the only meal that they will eat in a day), please visit the Sherston Musul Primary School website where it is possible to make a PayPal donation or send a cheque.

The Sherston Musul website has been set up to help raise awareness and funds for the further development of Sherston Musul Primary School (provision of facilities such as classrooms, uniforms, books, writing materials, school meals, etc). The funds and funding priorities at the school are administered locally by Gill Ellias at O'Lentile in Kenya.

Further information about Musul and related links can be found at 'Postcards from Kenya'.

Root Vegetable & Ginger Soup

Happy New Year!
Here's a delicious, economical soup to help warm you up this winter-

Ingredients (- please adjust quantities to suit)

• 1 onion. chopped
• 1/2 a leek, chopped
• Mixture of available winter vegetables (eg. carrot, swede, turnip, sweet potato, parsnip, Irish potato), chopped
• 1 large tomato, chopped or 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 inch fresh ginger, chopped or grated
• Half a cup of red split lentils
• 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce or HP sauce (if desired/available)
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme or parsley (or 1 tablespoon fresh herbs if available)
• Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
• 1 tablespoon natural yoghurt (if desired)
• 1 1/2 litres water

Method
1) Heat oil in a large saucepan, add chopped onions and leek and cook gently until softened.
2) Then add chopped mixed vegetables, ginger and chopped tomato. Cover and cook gently for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3) Add water, stock cube, herbs, lentils. Stir thoroughly.
4) Add Worcestershire or HP sauce to taste.
5) Cover and gradually bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
6) Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
7) Place covered saucepan in cooking basket or haybox for 1 hour or so to finish cooking (or longer if required).
8) When cooked, blend soup and add salt and pepper to taste.
9) If desired, drizzle some natural yoghurt on top of soup before serving.

Delicious served hot with (or without) some fresh home-baked bread.

Using a Hay Box or Cooking Basket could help reduce your fuel bills...

In difficult financial times like these, cooking with a traditional Hay Box or Cooking Basket could help you to reduce the amount of cooking fuel that you use, thereby helping to save money and cut the cost of your household bills.

This 'Cooking in a Basket' blog includes instructions on how to make a Hay Box and Cooking Basket, as well as a variety of recipes to help get you started, and links to other related websites.

If you have any recipes or other useful suggestions of your own to help save money in the kitchen, please send them in and I'll include them here.

More Good 'Hay Box Cooking' Links

Some more interesting websites about Hay Box cooking can be found at the following links:.

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/hayboxcooker.htm

http://www.preparedhome.co.uk/articles/haybox.htm

http://www.lostvalley.org/haybox1.html

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1980-01-01/Rediscover-the-Hay-Box-Cooker.aspx

http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/5307/tips.html#hay_box

http://www.ssrsi.org/Onsite/PDFbin/Haybox_flyer.pdf

http://community-2.webtv.net/adowning/FirelessCooking/

http://www.talkingleaves.org/node/142

http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/Anderson/haybox/HayboxBib.pdf

Fireless Cookers in History

The Household Energy Network (HEDON) is developing a useful page of links for Fireless Cookers in History. You can find this at their website:
http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/FirelessCookersInHistory


Many thanks to another 'Cooking in a Basket' fan who has also sent the following link:

Book Title: BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - NO. 217
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES, VOL. 1. No. 1

THE FIRELESS COOKER BY ELLEN ALDEN HUNTINGTON, A. B. Instructor in the University of Wisconsin 1908
http://books.google.com/books?id=zsVJAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover


More great links can also be found by doing a Google search for 'Fireless Cookers'.

If there are any links that you would like to particularly recommend or review, then please send them in and I'll post them here.

How Cooking Baskets & Haybox Technology May Help Refugees and Others in Kenya

There has been an increased number of hits here on 'Cooking in a Basket' over the past week or so from places such as Nakuru where a large number of displaced Kenyans are now staying following the violence that has erupted in Western Kenya and Rift Valley since the disputed General Election at the end of December. I'm hoping that the cooking basket information will be able to reach members of the UN, Red Cross and other Aid Agencies who may then help to disseminate this to more local people who are living and working on the ground.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Cooking Baskets and haybox technology, padded cooking baskets (or padded sacks) act like a thermos and help to reduce the amount of cooking fuel and water that is needed to cook food and could be a great help to the hundreds of thousands of people in Kenya and elsewhere who are struggling to survive at the moment - particularly those who have been displaced from their homes or are living in in areas where fuel and water is either in short supply and/or very expensive to buy.

This 'Cooking in a Basket' website has instructions for making and using a simple Cooking Basket (and a padded cooking sack/haybox), as well as recipes for cooking beans, maize, rice, etc, which are some of the staple items of food being distributed by aid agencies to those in need.
For more information please click on relevant links in the Contents part of this blog.

If you are able to help with passing on the above information to aid agencies and local people in Kenya, or if you are able to forward this website link to other contacts who may be able to assist, then please do so.

(Latest daily newspaper coverage direct from Kenya can be found at The Standard on line and Daily Nation on line.)

New Guestbook

Hi!
We have now topped the 3,000 visitor mark! You are one of many people from around the world who has now visited ´Cooking in a Basket´. Perhaps you have stumbled across us through Yahoo or Google, been referred by a friend, or found your way here from HEDON´s bio-energy site. Maybe your interest is learning more about Cooking Baskets and Hay Box cooking or simply to check out a few new recipes for your steamer or crockpot. Whatever your country, interest or background it would be good to hear from you at CCI´Kenya´s new Guestbook.