Just Todd
Trowel Owl
Joined: 15 Jan 2008
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Just Todd
Trowel Owl
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 Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:38 am |
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I just read in the C section of the PI this morning an article on backpacking food. It sounds a bit more like car camping food to me, but... Here's the link, which includes a video.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/367377_campfood18.html
And since that link won't work forever, here's the copy 'n paste.
| Quote: | | Crafting camp cuisine: Keep your menu simple without skimping on flavor
By PHUONG CAT LE
P-I REPORTER
Gorp got you down?
Suffered through one too many dehydrated meals that taste like cardboard?
You don't need to settle for expensive, prepackaged meals on your next camping trip. By planning ahead, designing a menu and getting organized, you can enjoy delicious gourmet meals that taste good and don't require a lot of work.
"People get overwhelmed because they think it's a science, and it isn't," said Claudia Pearson, food rations manager at the National Outdoors Leadership School. "The key thing is coming up with what your group wants to have and do as much prep work as possible."
The challenge in preparing backpacking food is space and weight. The fact you have to carry everything determines what you can and can't bring.
Decide what your trip entails and tailor your menu accordingly. Will you be camping at the trailhead or backpacking for six days covering a lot of miles? You can take more fresh vegetables and perishable food on short trips, whereas you'll want to stick to lighter, high-calorie meals for longer, harder adventures.
To get ready for trips, backcountry cooking expert Dorcas Miller first gets organized. She writes down the number of days she'll be out on the trail, jots down breakfast, lunch and dinner and begins filling in the blanks. She uses the plan to grocery shop and pack.
"You have three meals a day plus snacks, and those things aren't going to miraculously appear," said Miller, author of "Backcountry Cooking" and "More Backcountry Cooking." "That means really thinking about what you're going to eat at each meal, and getting it all ready ahead of time."
Keep it simple and stick to familiar foods.
For breakfast, try bagels and cream cheese, granola with dried fruits, couscous with nuts and brown sugar, or oatmeal (but only if you actually like oatmeal). For lunch, bring a variety of easy snacks.
"One of the beauties of getting out in the wilderness is to simplify," said Carole Latimer, author of "Wilderness Cuisine." "Even car camping, you don't want to be digging through cardboard boxes full of things. You want things really simple."
Simple doesn't have to mean flavorless. For a fast and filling breakfast, Latimer often serves whole-wheat instant couscous with brown sugar, butter and Medjool dates. In her "heavenly hash brown" recipe, Miller adds onion flakes and textured vegetable protein to a package of instant hash browns, mixes it with water at camp and fries it for breakfast.
Pack variety.
For snacks and lunches, bring a mixture of sweet, salty and savory so you don't get tired of your food. Most supermarkets stock such a variety now that you don't have to limit yourself to power bars and trail mix.
Miller recalls a friend who took a hiking trip to Maine and took 10 pounds of gorp, or good old raisins and peanuts.
"They got so sick of gorp they couldn't stand it," she said. "That's why I suggest having a variety of things. I keep them separate: raisins, salted nuts, chocolate. I may not eat every single item every single time, but it's a way of keeping things tasty."
Consider peanut butter pretzels, jerky (beef, salmon, turkey, tofu), gourmet chocolate, dried mango slices, summer sausage such as landjager, cashews, specialty breads, good crackers, fruit roll-ups, smoked oysters, string cheeses and hard cheeses such as Gouda.
Bring food you like to eat.
"I take food that I also eat at home," Miller said. "You should take food you like that's nutritional and gives you calories to fuel your activities."
(On a six-day backpacking trip through Olympic National Park, I learned this the hard way. What made me think I'd suddenly develop a passion for lentils? Not only was my lentil burrito dinner difficult to stomach, but I ended up carrying most of it out.)
"Take familiar foods and food that you can eat quickly in case you arrive at your destination famished," Pearson said. Consider taking some food that doesn't take a lot of prep time in case you have bad weather or a delay, as well as a meal that takes a little more time to prepare.
For a fabulous, quick first-night meal, Latimer recommends making basil pesto at home and packing it. At camp, cook the pasta, and add the pesto with fresh Parmesan cheese.
One of my favorite backpacking dinners is one I also eat at home: soba peanut noodles with vegetables and baked tofu. The combination of protein, fats and carbohydrates in this high-calorie dish hits the spot after a long day of activity. My friends and I devoured it after a 10-mile hike to the Enchantment Lakes.
When I make this meal at home I use canned coconut milk for the peanut sauce. When backpacking I substitute powdered coconut milk and powdered milk. The noodles are just as good without baked tofu or vegetables, but it's worth the extra weight, especially if you split the load among friends.
Know your audience.
Kids like peanut butter and jelly, string cheese, animal crackers, cookies, nuts, cut-up fruit, "any kind of nutritious treats in funny shapes to keep kids interested," Pearson said. Get the group's input and consider everyone's tastes, not just your own.
Spice it up.
Miller's indispensable item: olive oil. "It adds such flavor," she said.
Latimer always takes along different spices, such as curries, cumin, fresh ginger and dried orange peels, that she keeps in a small plastic bag. She also likes to spice up meals with fresh garlic or fresh onion.
"I am a cook in every aspect of my life," Latimer said. "There's always this wonderful element of surprise to serve something completely unexpected to people in the wilderness."
How much to pack?
Consider what kind of activity you will be doing. The National Outdoor Leadership School recommends from 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 pounds of food per person per day, depending on the time of year and activity.
Latimer recommends between 2 and 4 ounces of uncooked pasta per person, and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of uncooked rice per person. Use suggested servings on boxes as a guide, but increase the amounts by one-third, Latimer suggests.
The next time you have soup or stew, take a measuring cup and find out how much you eat at a sitting, Miller said.
"I have found that I eat 2 or 2 1/2 cups on the trail, while my husband eats 3 to 3 1/2 cups," she said. "You need to know what's going to fill you up. Everybody is different."
SOBA PEANUT NOODLES WITH BAKED TOFU AND VEGETABLES
SERVES 3-4
1 7-ounce block of baked tofu
1 package powdered coconut milk (Chao Thai brand can be found near the coconut milk cans at Uwajimaya)
1 package A Taste of Thai Peanut sauce (sold at grocery stores)
1 8-ounce package soba noodles
2 cups fresh vegetables
At camp, dice the baked tofu.
Bring noodles to a boil. A minute before noodles are done, add vegetables to blanch lightly. Drain.
Meanwhile, in a separate pot, dissolve the powdered coconut and peanut sauce mix in about 1 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil until heated through. To serve, put noodles, vegetables, diced tofu into individual bowls and pour the peanut sauce mixture on top.
NOTE: Any noodles will work, but I like soba because it cooks fast and has added nutrition.
Courtesy of Phuong Cat Le
BACKCOUNTRY BURRITOS
MAKES 8
1 1/2 cups refried beans mix
In a separate bag,
2 cups vegetables (such as 1 cup dehydrated corn, 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, 1/2 cup dehydrated mushrooms)
1 foil package chicken
8 ounces cheddar cheese (double bag)
Salsa (in a plastic container)
Hot sauce (optional)
8 10-12-inch tortillas
On the trail, rehydrate the bean mix per package directions.
Separately, rehydrate the vegetables by placing in a pot and covering with boiling water.
Cut cheese into pieces to lay on top of burrito filling.
After about 10 minutes (or whenever veggies are soft enough to eat), drain liquid. Add veggies and drained chicken to refried beans. Make burritos, using about 3/4 cup filling on each tortilla. Top with cheese and salsa.
Courtesy of Dorcas Miller
TRAIL TIRAMISU
SERVES 4
1/3 cup water
2 teaspoons instant espresso
2 tablespoons Kahlua
1 3.4-ounce box instant chocolate pudding mix
2 cups milk (made from powdered milk)
16 ladyfingers
2 tablespoons cocoa or chocolate bits
Bring water to boiling point, stir in espresso and Kahlua, mixing well.
Prepare pudding according to package directions.
Layer half of ladyfingers on bottom of pot or dish. Drizzle with half of the espresso-Kahlua mix, and spread half the pudding over the top. Repeat with another layer of ladyfingers, espresso and pudding. Chill dish in snow or cold water before serving.
From "Beyond Gorp," by Yvonne Prater and Ruth Dyar Mendenhall with Kerry Smith
CREATIVE CAMP DISHES
Some ideas for taking you beyond the same old fare when camping out:
Start with a starch base -- instant white or brown rice, quick-cooking pastas such as angel hair, instant couscous, Ramen or other noodles. Add a soup mix such as creamy chicken or Thai coconut ginger and throw in dehydrated or fresh vegetables.
Add sun-dried tomatoes to boxed chili, packaged tuna to macaroni and cheese and dehydrated vegetables to Ramen noodles.
One of my standby meals is Moroccan chicken couscous, which I adapted from a recipe off one of the boxes. In a plastic bag at home, combine sliced sun-dried tomatoes, sliced almonds, dried cranberries, cumin, salt, pepper and half a cube of chicken bullion. Pack a can or foil package of chicken, and dehydrated or fresh vegetables, depending on the trip and what you can find at the grocery store. At camp, bring about a cup of water to boil and add all the ingredients. Let simmer 5 to 10 minutes. Cook the instant couscous according to directions and pour the stew on top.
Saute chicken at home, freeze it overnight, wrap it in a Ziploc bag and then in newspaper. On day three of your hike, add a small can of green chiles to the chicken, wrap it in tortillas and add cheese.
To make a gourmet French onion soup, take some onion soup mix, add dry white wine, good-quality croutons and Parmesan cheese.
-- Phuong Cat Le
P-I reporter Phuong Cat Le can be reached at 206-448-8390 or phuongle@seattlepi.com. Read her Consumer Smarts blog at blog.seattlepi.com/consumersmarts. |
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