EcoCooker
The domestic version sizes are 5-litres (for a family of 5 or 6) and 3.5 litres (family of 3 or 4). It can be used for anything that can be cooked by steaming or boiling.
EcoCooker Advantages
EcoCooker will save for you:
- 75% of the fuel compared to normal open-pot cooking (or 50% of the fuel compared to normal pressure-cooker cooking), and
- the time you spend standing at the stove
- Also, because of slow heating, you have tastier food.
- The EcoCooker will work with any fuel: gas, kerosene, coal, wood or biofuel.
- It is completely safe. There is no pressure, so no danger of explosion. If you forget to turn off the gas the base will dry out, and you will waste some fuel. The food in the cooker will be mostly unspoilt.
Choice of Cooking Utensils
These are stainless steel and come in three sizes, all of identical diameter with varying heights:
- Large (2 litres)
- Medium (1.5 litres)
- Small (1 litre)
You can use any combination of vessels whose sizes add up to the capacity of your model. As a guide, 1 litre can cook 330g of rice, or 250g of _dal_, or 400g of bean-type vegetables.
Description
The EcoCooker consists of the following parts:
| 1. | The aluminium base, which is the cooking pot. It has handles so you can lift the Cooker off the stove. Notice the holes which allow flue gases to enter the space between covers. |  |
| 2. | A Bubble Breaker Plate that is placed inside the base. |  |
| 3. | Stainless steel cooking vessels, all of the same diameter, with a choice of heights. These stack, and fit inside the base. They have a stainless steel lid on top. |  |
| 4. | A cooking pot cover, which goes over the cooking vessels, and fits inside the base. |  |
| 5. | An outer cover, which goes over the whole assembly. The hole on top can be closed with the disk cover. It is kept open during heating, closed when the flame is turned off. |  |
Instructions for Use
| 1 | Prepare your food, as you would for open pan cooking (not pressure cooking). For example, if you normally soak beans before cooking, soak them in the same way for the EcoCooker. Place each item in one of the stainless steel cooking vessels. Rice requires water in the ratio 1:2 (with slight variations depending on the quality of rice). Dal and lentils need water in the ratio of 1:3. Vegetables should be with water added as in normal open pan cooking (about one cupful). | |
| 2 | Add your spices, including salt and lemon, as well as the tadka (phodni, vagaar) at this stage. | |
| 3 | Stack the cooking vessels, with the hardest-to-cook item at the bottom, the second-hardest at the top, and others in the middle. The largest vessel does not have to be at the bottom, nor the smallest on top. |  |
| 4 | In most stoves there will be a square cast-iron frame to support the cooking vessel. This makes the flame too low for the EcoCooker. Remove the frame. The tips of the simmer flame should touch the aluminium base. |  |
| 5 | Place the EcoCooker base directly on the burner. The burner will normally have studs or supports on top that ensure the cooker base stands clear of the burner holes. Light the burner before placing the EcoCooker on top. |  |
| 6 | Place the cooking pot base on the stove, put in the Bubble Breaker Plate and put in 350 cc water. Add a small piece of used lemon to prevent aluminium blackening. | |
| 7 | Place the stack of cooking vessels, with food inside, in the centre of the cooking pot. Make sure the vessels are properly seated. The bottom of the lowest cooking vessel MUST be in contact with the water when heating begins. You will see water surrounding the pot. | |
| 8 | Cover the assembly with the cooking pot cover. Then cover everything with the insulating outer cover. | |
| 9 | If you are using gas, put the burner on “simmer” for the smallest burner you have (or any other burner). The flame should be the lowest you can have from that burner, and the top of the flame must touch the base. Never leave the base dry on the flame. It will melt. | |
| 10 | The vent on top must be OPEN when you start heating. After one hour, switch off the flame. Meanwhile, the flame needs no attention. You can go about your other work. But make sure the stove is not in a windy place, where the flame can get blown out. The one-hour period is for a normally charged 5-litre cooker with a low flame. For reduced volumes of cooking you can shorten the time the flame is left on. As a general guideline, heating should continue for 20 minutes after you see steam coming out of the top vent. | |
| 11 | Now CLOSE the top vent and switch off the flame, but do not open the cooker for at least half an hour. For smaller quantities, increase this waiting time to say 45 minutes. Cooking is only partly complete when you switch off: the food continues to cook in its own heat for a half-hour or more afterwards. You may take the assembly off the stove and put it to one side if you wish. | |
| 12 | Ideally, you should open the cooker only when you are ready to serve the food. In this way it will not require re-heating. Remove the inner cover with a cloth or gloves on your hands. The cooking vessels are similarly removed. | |
| 13 | There is normally no harm to the food if you leave the gas on for too long. If you leave the gas on for far too long (say 3 hours or more) the base will dry out, and the food in the corner of the lowest container will begin to burn. But the rest of the food in the lowest container should still be unspoilt. The food in the upper containers should be unaffected. | |
| 14 | Ideally, when you open the cooker, there should be a small amount of water left in the cooking pot base. This means you are achieving the desired fuel economy. The bottom of the lowest vessel MUST NOT be in contact with the water when heating ends. You may need to adjust the base water accordingly next time. | |
Download
These instructions are also available in a three-fold instruction PDF manual available for download.
Please print the manual with landscape orientation on both sides of a single A4-size sheet of paper, and fold along the three columns.