Kayaking Food & Recipes

Flatbread

I love fresh flatbread myself. I use this very basic chapati recipe - it makes eight. They keep well for a few days too.

* 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 teaspoon sea salt (reduce?)
* 1 cup water
* oil for fry pan
I mix and knead the whole mess in the ziploc that I prepacked with the flour and salt. Knead for 5 minutes or so then let rest for half hour or so... real specific huh?

Then you divide it into eight sections, flatten with your hands and fry in a hot pan - only a few minutes or so per side. It may become 'bubbly.' If you want to you can add spices like cumin to the flour to add flavour.

Herb and Garlic
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup white flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp basil

Rosemary
2 1/2 cup white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp rosemary, crushed

Mix the ingredients in a ziplock bag for packing. Add about 1 cup water into bag a little at a time and knead. Separate into 8 sections and roll out on floured surface.

This is based on kitchen testing so far (the field test comes in a couple of weeks). The dough can be rolled out quite easily using a 1L nalgene as a rolling pin.

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Subbing seawater for fresh in recipes

1 cup Seawtaer is equal to:

* 1 teaspoon sea salt
* 1 cup water

Sea water is about 3.5% salt. I judge that mixture is about the same ratio as sea water.

2part fresh, 1part sea water.

pasta, rice & vegetables boiled in seawater are very tasty ... a small amount of seawater can be used in beadmaking instead of adding the usual pinch of salt ... & yes it is safe as it is boiled / cooked ...

potatoes! Works really good

It also works well if you like your (fresh) vegetables, rice, fish, (suet) dumplings, rich fruit puddings etc steamed.

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Off the shelf foods

Anything from Knorr is good.
Lipton bagged meals are ok...
The ethnic section usually have a good selection.
You can even get tuna steaks in a foil bag! (they are good too)

There is absolutely NO reason to spend 15 bucks a meal for freeze dried food anymore.

The instant mashed spud mixes come in about 4-5 flavors, and are quite good. Can of hash. Heat and eat puddings from Jello.

Yakisoba noodles are quick and tasty -- in the deli case.

Those foil packaged tuna, salmon, etc., units Darren mentioned are really good, and about right for one hungry person.

Refried beans in a can. You can get them dried at a whole foods market, also, in pinto and black bean choices. Heat with water and eat, maybe in a burrito made from a tomato, some cheese, and a couple hot sauce packages from Taco Time. Simple and quick.

Pre-packaged -> http://www.fantasticfoods.com/

Sidkicks pastas are good and very filling.
Jello Pudding.
Mini canned Tuna(aprox 4oz) packs with crackers.(Can't remember the brand) Flavours I've tried are Lemon and Herb, Spicy Tai and both were good. This package also came with a spoon and napkin, crackers.
Pepperoni sticks.
StoneCrackers.
Hummus.
Packaged Smoked Salmon Locs from the deli.
Pitabread.
Aunt Jemima Pancake mix. (Just Add water)
Packaged Pre-cooked bacon strips.

Good old spaghetti! Amp it up with canned or bottled tomatoe sauce if you're on a shorter trip; the dried-in-the-envelope kind if you're out for a while and space and weight matter more.
Bring the dried kind of Chorizo sausage that keeps several days without refrigeration (available at Italian/Spanish/Portuguese deli shops); cut it up into coins and heat it with the tomatoe sauce for spicey, chewy-chunky eating pleasure that fills you right up.

Those pre-filled dried tortillenis are pretty good too. You can get mushroom or cheese filled types. Just boil, drain, and annoint with olive oil if you're feeling lazy; add a pouch of some store-bought dried sauce if you're feeling fancy.

One of my favourites is a lipton noodle pack with a can of home canned salmon.
another is to make a Thai curry (red green or yellow) with some boiled potatoes and some canned meat and veg
I am also quite partial to canned Chili - lots of varieties have worked wll for me.

Breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal with a spoon of brown sugar and a handful of dried cranberries or raisins. A one ounce lump of bakers chocolate and a cup of tea. I carry a few oranges or grapefruits but not usually enough for every day. 1 cup of dried rolled oats per day.

Lunch is sometimes bagels and sometimes flatbread usually eaten with peanutbutter. Fresh carrots with peanut butter is tasty. Hard boiled eggs (without peanut butter) are good for a week.

Lots of snack food. Peanuts, chocolate, licorice, and a kilo of jujubes.

Supper:
1 cup rice or pasta per day. Mashed potatoe mixes are good too. A sausage can be brought along for first day and cut up before mixing through the mash.
I throw in a half packet of spices meant for Nasi Goering or Bami Goering.
Soup mixes work well too. I always include a boullion cube and a lump of mozarella. A chunk of garlic keeps vampires, mosquitoes, and other blood suckers away. Sometime I buy the lipton dinners and uncle bens rice dinners and so don't need the soup mixes.
Variety comes from alternating days and changing soup mixes.

After dinner I like to watch the sunset with a cup of hot water mixed with gatorade crystals. Sometimes a shot of Nelson's blood will spill into the cup.

The rule when meal planning is that it can't be on the stove for more than 10 minutes. The second consideration is that the meal is one pot and easy to clean up.

I liked hiking in NZ. There you can buy dried vegatables the way we buy 'em frozen. A hand full of dried vegetables is great if you can get 'em. Too bad you can't get 'em here.

The "instant" scalloped potatoes are a nice change from pasta and rice. I like the Cheddar n' Bacon flavour best. If you have any of the instant quick-cook bacon mentioned above, you can add it. As far as I can tell there's no difference between the "brand name" and the store brand Scalloped Potatoes. I suspect, as they do for so many products, the brand names make the store brand product and put their label on it.

Instant is a bit misleading - these potatoes need to be simmered for 20-30 mins, so they're best done on a DragonFly or Trangia stove while you're setting up camp. They do call for butter and milk. Butter keeps well in a kayak; or you can use Carnation evaporated tinned milk, diluted with water to provide the volume of liquid the package calls for. The evaporated milk provides the fat that makes for what foodie techs call "mouth feel" and adds calories. (Usually on tour, the issue with calories is getting enough at the end of a long cold day to keep my "pot bellied stove" burning warmly through the night...)

Oh, and as with freeze dried foods, the "two servings" on the package is creative fiction. I can polish off an entire package solo with room left over for dessert.

I use powdered milk for sidekicks -- just add a couple of tablespoons for each cup of water. Works and stores well.
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We usually do a starch (rice/noodles/potatoes/etc.), some protein (gleaned locally if possible/canned if not/fresh the first night or two/sausage the third night or so), and some veggies. On several-day trips, having something fresh and crunchy always satisfies. We find potatoes, carrots, jicama, bell peppers, cabbage, onions, oranges, apples all keep well; broccoli, green onions, spinach, lettuce, etc., not so well.

Usually, we do up the starch, set it aside, and then stir-fry the veggies, topping or mixing with the protein and laying it all on the starch. Stir-frying retains much of the nutrients, allows you to monitor the degree of doneness of the veggies, and uses oil, to add calories. I used to use a wok (drill out the rivets and replace them with brass screws and wing nuts for easier packing), but now I use a heavy aluminum deep frying pan that has had the rivet treatment; better, more even heating, and better than the wok for burrito heating and pancake making.

Instant potatoes are popular; so are yakisoba noodles; hummus is a good appetizer (and available in dried form); so is tabouli; tortillas are surprisingly durable (a week on the BC coast, if you carry them low, against the hull, to keep them cool). Also, dried refried beans are tasty; supplement these with small cans of olives, hot peppers, a little canned salsa, and shredded cabbage for crunch with 4-cheese mexican mix and you've got vegetarian burritos on day 6 or 7.

Desserts are often quick-cook puddings, with a dash of apricot brandy. We take one of those really gross quick cheesecake mixes for a night when we are realy hungry. Serves 6-8, or 4 gourmands. [My ex- and I once split one of these monsters on a two-summit day, and would have eaten another one if we had it!]

Breakfasts are quick and easy, to get on the water when the paddling is better, unless there is a storm day, when the Jiffy corn muffin mix gets pressed into pancake duty, laced with pecans, vanilla, and berries if we can find them.

Couple storage hints: collapsible coolers, with those canned frozen berries as "edible ice" will allow you to keep fresh meat an extra day or two; eat the "ice" when it is melted, and the meat that night.

If you are just out overnight, a good, quick meal is 12 count shrimp, held in a bag with soy, oil, and garlic in a collapsible cooler next to the frozen berries. Skewer them in the shell and quick-grill them a couple minutes on a side; let folks peel and eat their own; the shells go into the fire.
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Recipes to dehydrate

Southern-Spiced Coleslaw with Jicama (Mexican turnip) and Corn

For salad:
1/2 small head red cabbage, cored and shredded
1/2 medium jicama, peeled and cut into thin strips
1 cup corn (canned actually works better for rehydrating)

For dressing combine:
1 Jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup vegetable oil
juice of two limes
2 tsp each cumin, chili powder and sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Place coleslaw ingedients in a bowl and mix in the dressing. Allow flavours to meld in fridge for an hour before serving.* (*Even if you are going to dehydrate.)
Jicama is readily available at supermarkets on the island, especially Thrifty foods. Huge ones are 'woodier' and not as flavourful.

I dehydrate it over night, depends on the machine and amount. Basically until it doesn't feel moist anymore, but isn't like pine needles either

I find the corn rehydrates slower, tends to be a bit chewy if you don't give it enough time... the canned stuff seems to work better, although it can have less flavour. I don't think it would help to dry it separately.

You're absolutely right - dehydrating does not cook the food. This has its good and bad points. Obviously it doesn't kill any bacteria, but it also leaves almost 100% of the nutrient content 'intact', unlike cooking.

The basic rule of thumb is, if the food needs cooking, cook it before you dehydrate it. For example, most beef recipes, including meat sauce for pasta and chili, are prepared just the way you normally would. Instead of eating it when it's done (or freezing etc.), you dehydrate it. Thus, when it's rehydrated, it is previously cooked and ready to go. Most times you're simply re-heating it when rehydrating, not re-cooking.

Other foods, such as vegetables etc. are dehydated to save the weight and bulk of their water content as well as for preservation. Fruits and vegetables that can be eaten raw can be safely dehydrated and rehydrated (or eaten in dehydrated form) without the need for cooking. Dehydrating is simply another form of food preservation, like freezing and canning. Like frozen food, dehydrated food won't last indefinitely - the oils can go rancid (so most things you dehydrate should be low in fat) and other spoilage can occur. Keeping the dehydrated food in the freezer will extend its shelf life. In Clayoquot I made a great stew from carrots, corn, parsley and other herbs, mushrooms, tomatos and other veggies I'd dehydrated shortly after I bought my dehydrator in early fall of 2005, and it was terriffic!

I've dehydrated some 'prepared' foods like mashed potatos, chili, pasta / meat sauces, as well as some less common foods like (low-fat) sour cream and salsa. Occasionally I try something that just doesn't work, but for the most part you can dehydrate just about anything that has a low fat content and reasonably high water content. In the case of fruits that have a skin or peel (ie grapes!) you have to provide a method for the water to escape.

Try dehydrating your next meal's leftovers - you might be surprised!

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Bake in Glad One gallon Food Saver bags. Suspended in boiling water. 20 minutes is the cooking time for biscuit mix.
Cooking In A Pot.

Useing the bakepacker with a pot and lid instead of the plastic bag. i found that the cooking time had to be increased by about 25%. the garlic and herb biscuit was awesome, just the same.
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Nutty Granola

5 cups of rolled oats

1 cup Pecans (toasted)
1 cup Slivered almonds (toasted)
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried blueberries
1 ½-2 tsp cinnamon

½ cup honey
½ cup oil
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp vanilla (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, add cinnamon to rolled oats and mix well.
Add oil, honey and water together in a small bowl and stir until all wet ingredients are well combined.
Add wet mixture to oats and stir until oats are evenly coated.
Let mixture sit for 20-30 minutes to absorb flavors.

Pour the oat mixture onto a non stick baking pan and spread it out evenly over the entire surface of the tray. Bake for 30 minutes, turning the granola with a flat spatula every 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Allow the granola to cool then add the toasted nuts and dried fruit and combine well. Store in a dry container. A food saver is a nice tool to have for vacuum packaging such an item.