Eskom releases electricity smart cooking book

The seasonal delight of indulging in hearty foods in winter does not mean that you have to spend hours in front of the stove and cause a spike in your electricity bill. Stoves use a lot of electricity and cooking accounts for up to 8 per cent of the electricity used in an average household in South Africa.

Electricity-smart cooking – preparing quick and easy recipes and using appliances that use little or no electricity – will allow you to save time, effort and money when you decide to prepare one of your big winter favourites. Eskom, in partnership with The Star and Angela Day Kitchen, has released The 49M Cookbook. It is filled with electricity-saving recipes that are prepared using one-pot cooking and electricity saving appliances such as pressure cookers and Wonderbags. A pressure cooker’s much shorter cooking times makes it one of the most convenient and cost-effective ways to save energy. The Wonderbag, on the other hand, is even more energy efficient. This simple heat retention cooker was developed in South Africa and saves up to 30 per cent on the electricity you consume for cooking. Once brought to the boil on a heat source such as a stove plate, the warm pot containing the food is placed in the Wonderbag and continues to cook slowly without using any additional energy until finished.

High-pressure cooking, the 49M way, include recipes for Moroccan lamb shanks and quick and easy leek and potato soup – the shanks are ready in 50 minutes and the leek soup in eight minutes. Conventionally, the shanks would need to simmer for three to four hours on an electric hob and the soup for 30 to 40 minutes.

Electricity smart winter cooking in kitchens across South Africa – especially between 5pm and 9pm, the period of peak demand for electricity in the residential sector – helps to reduce pressure on the national power grid. Moreover, by acting upon the Power Alerts you see on television and switching off electricity heavy appliances and unnecessary lights in your home, you contribute even further to help keeping the lights on in winter.

Details: Visit www.eskom.co.za/idm and click on Residential for a free download of the 49M Cookbook.