Great Australian Bushwalking Recipes after Day 3

[crollsurf]

Once you have your kit down pat, your focus turns to longer hikes and diet. As much as I appreciate the commercial freeze-dried offerings, you tire of them quickly. For a 2-3 day walk, bread, cheeses, even fresh meat are all viable options. But what recipes have you found work after day 3?

Ingredients need to be readily available off-the-shelve at Coles, Woolworths et al. Can be prepared using dehydrators.
In many cases it is best to break the recipe into 2 parts: Preparation at home including packaging and then what is required on the walk.

Keep in mind that fuel is precious so where possible, mention soaking for x minutes, bringing to boil, stand for x minutes then bringing back to the boil etc.
I’m sure there are some great simple recipes out there that are light-weight, taste fantastic and are readily available in Australia.

[crollsurf]

Moroccan Cous Cous
This recipe will happily fill the stomach but is devoid of calories which we all hunger. A base recipe to add whatever takes your fancy, or get your calories at breakfast

At Home:
100g - Ainsley Harriot Moroccan Medley (Coles)
~20g - Drizzle of Olive Oil (homemade Chilly Oil is also nice)
Optional:
75g - Rehydrated Meat (http://settlersfoods.com.au)
10g - Fried Shallot (Coles)

Bushwalking:
(optional) Re-hydrate meat as per instructions.
Add 160 ml of water and bring to the boil.
Add Moroccan Medley and stand for 5 minutes to allow Cous Cous to absorb water. (optional: add shallots before or after for crunch)
Add Olive Oil and fluff with a Spork.

[Hyena]

Hi crollsurf, I've just started dehydrating our own food so am new to creating my own meals for mult day hikes. Am about to test taking home made dehydrated Veg Chillie w/ brown rice in a couple of weeks time to feed two of us on the OLT.

At Home:
Cook large serve of Veg Chillie in slow cooker (choc full of black beans, kidney beans, carrots, celery, capsicum, tomatoes, onion and spices), then deydrate three serves for each of us, bag 3 x 95g into snaplock bags
Cook and dehydrate brown rice (can't remember weight of each bag, think it was ~40g per snaplock bag)
Mission Tortilla bread (small) - 4 slices for each meal - repacked into snaplock bag - 3 x 172g
Cheese - buying block when in Tas

On trail:
Will have to come back and let you know how it goes, but from practice we should add 2 cups water to chilli to rehydrate for an hour, then simmer for a few mins. Rice, add 100ml water, rehydrate for same time as chilli then fry in frying pan until heated (adding more water if required)
Add thin sliced cheese on top, warm the bread if required (I stack all 4 sliced in frypan, warm for 5-10 seconds each side and flip, so all slices have a turn on the hot plate, this also helps wipe out the frypan, or slice the cheese between two tortilla and have cheese quesadilla - this does use more gas and cheese, but gives a bit of crunch) and demolish a big bowl of warm veg chilli!

Have also dehydrated mushrooms to add to the packet meals will be cooking on the other nights, and made and dehydrated hummus into daily portions to add to lunch wraps for a bit of flair.

[Neo]

Here's one I've done twice, third time substituted with some dried salsa mix from a ration pack instead of fresh ingredients:

Vego Nachos

Plain CCs or Coles corn chips, it's OK if they get crushed
Tiny can of 3 bean mix &or corn kernels
A bit of pre-chopped onion and capsicum
Cherry tomatoes.

Fry in a little oil and simmer down. Put on top of corn chips.

Add brie or a mini coles avocado dip.

PM me if you want to know my Mexican seasoning mix! Have had the brie and Avo last fine until the second nights meal inside my pack. Not sure about beyond that but there are other 'cheeses'.

Enjoy

[Gadgetgeek]

At my work we do a veggie taco salad that is very similar. To save the weight of the can, you can take dried beans, then pre-soak them for the day you plan to have them. To get it out longer you could also use the fried dried shallots, or home dehy onions, and capsicum, and I do like the foil tomato paste packets, add your own spices. We do mostly fresh though as we have room (boat) or supported trips with a drop.

I've had decent luck using home dehy chicken, and packet flavor mixes to make butter chicken and similar. The hard thing for me is keeping it gluten free, or I'd be munching down on the lup cheong. dehy shallots and shiitake mushrooms feature heavily in my meals, and last trip I tied some of the miso soup mix as a flavoring, and it came up really nice with dried peas, and some freeze-dried beef squares.

[Neo]

Nice variation.

I've considered using a single cuppa soup tomato sachet for cooking too, to make a sauce. Got one here that I'll use eventually, otherwise wouldn't eat one!

[Warin]

Moroccan Cous Cous
This recipe will happily fill the stomach but is devoid of calories which we all hunger.

At Home:
100g - Ainsley Harriot Moroccan Medley (Coles)

Cous Cous has calories - being Ozies we count it in kJoules .. approximately 15.3 kJ per gram of Cous Cous -not dehydrated.

Ainsley Harriot Moroccan Medley has approximately 40.5 kJ per gram before adding water, and approximately 1,557 kJ per 100 grams after adding water.

You can see the kJ (energy) vs weight (grams) which I'll call energy density is a concern of mine, the higher the energy density the less weigh I have to carry to fuel myself. Dehydrated stuff like the above Ainsley Harriot Moroccan Medley gets a lot of energy in little weight so is a good thing. I'm trying to get a table together of various foods vs energy/density &/ costs so as to judge what is what.
For comparison Campers Pantry spag boll is around 20 kJ/g

[Outbeck]

An oldie but a goodie and taken on every trip.

Cook up a napoli sauce. The cheats (my) way is to fry up an onion and garlic in olive oil and add one large jar of tomato and basil pasta sauce plus a tin of diced tomatoes.
Usually I will add capers and chopped zuccini plus s & p. Allow to cool and spread thinly in the dehydrator.

Before setting up camp, add water and allow to rehydrate for as long as possible - stir occasionally.

Heat up when ready to eat and add one or more of the following (or whatever takes your fancy):
A sachet of Safcol salmon with Mediterranean dressing, mild chilli dressing or lemon pepper
A sachet of tuna
Salami
Olives
Dehydrated vegies
Grated cheese

Serve over pasta
Hits the spot for me.

[Mark F]

You can see the kJ (energy) vs weight (grams) which I'll call energy density is a concern of mine, the higher the energy density the less weigh I have to carry to fuel myself. Dehydrated stuff like the above Ainsley Harriot Moroccan Medley gets a lot of energy in little weight so is a good thing. I'm trying to get a table together of various foods vs energy/density &/ costs so as to judge what is what.
For comparison Campers Pantry spag boll is around 20 kJ/g

I played around with this a few years ago for longer trips and found the best thing (for me) was to get everything into portion controlled quantities. While I like to know the kJ/g (or usually per 100g which is provided on all labels) I also need to know the portion size. I don't bother trying to get the energy density of my home dehydrated meals - too much effort - but I know they are reasonably nourishing from both the energy and nutrients aspects. Over time I adjusted the portion sizes and ratio of ingredients to get to the point where I have food I enjoy, all I need and no more. I now portion control everything and start the trip with minimum weight and at he end of the trip with zero food except for my emergency supply. Portion control removes the need to measure dry ingredients in the field especially if tent-bound in bad weather when cold and tired - just the conditions to spill the lot . For example breakfast is 100g of museli and 1/3 cup of full cream powdered milk mixed in a ziplock bag (2,500kJ and 140g). Tip into bowl and add 1 cup of water, mix and eat. Similarly I have 4 standard dinners. Lunches I find are actually the hardest to sort out as I oscillate between several snacks, morning and afternoon snack plus lunch or two smaller lunches.

[Moondog55]

I've found that keeping to a fairly bland base ration and adding herbs and spices that vary from day to day can work well.
My two basics are rice and quick cook macaroni with ramen for when I am in a hurry or want to bolster a soup.
I don't seem to use as much instant mash as I used to a few years ago, for some reason it no longer seems to taste as good but I still carry a packet or two of Deb
Kraft grated Parmesan seems to keep well enough and works well with pasta and rice.
If I'm hungry enough tho I can eat almost anything but condiments are important. Also saving money has always been more important to me that saving weight so I've never been big into freeze dried meals, especially as most of them taste like cardboard
Freeze dried ingredients like strawberries are great tho and worth packing for a dinner time treat

[Warin]

You can see the kJ (energy) vs weight (grams) which I'll call energy density is a concern of mine, the higher the energy density the less weigh I have to carry to fuel myself.

I played around with this a few years ago for longer trips and found the best thing (for me) was to get everything into portion controlled quantities. While I like to know the kJ/g (or usually per 100g which is provided on all labels) I also need to know the portion size. I don't bother trying to get the energy density of my home dehydrated meals - too much effort - but I know they are reasonably nourishing from both the energy and nutrients aspects.

I have created another thread on the kJ/g thing - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=26908

The main point is getting ideas for what is avalible to make light weight meals from.
And ideas for making a meal from.

For example breakfast is 100g of museli and 1/3 cup of full cream powdered milk mixed in a ziplock bag (2,500kJ and 140g).

Humm looking at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0
You can see that 'Arnolds Farm Clusters' from woolies are fairly good kJ/g wise and still good kJ/$ wise. I'd give them a try. The other thing that came up was using coconut milk power rather than milk powder - twice the kJ/g but also twice the cost per kJ (kJ/$ is ~half). Might be worth trying if weight over rides price. Don't know how the taste would go?

Ok .. back on topic of meals?

I like sweat & sour ... so dinners;

a) A take on chilly con carne. Use beans only with the usual spices .. say a Moroccan variety .. no advo. Add in pineapple for the sweat part. Probably a cous cous base.

b) mince meat - curry. Add sultanas for a contrast. Pasta base? At home I do this with layered pancakes, but I'd not bother on the trail. Unless someone knows a fuss free way of doing pancakes on the trail? I don't usually carry oils nor a non stick pan - so that usually excludes pancakes.

[Moondog55]

Well as a food purist I have to say Chillie Con Carne without meat is simply Chillie.
I use far fewer red beans these days due to the associated leptin problems with under cooking but when I do I like a mix of red kidney and black beans for my Chillie rather than pinto beans
Not having a dehydrator I have never tried cooking and drying them so pre-soaking for 12 hours or so is a must as is that 5 minutes rapid boiling

[Heremeahappy1]

As I love to cook and play with my food I dehydrate dinners, usually for the core group of people I wander with. Always seek input asnd no idea is stupid until you tried it. I've come across a few dehyde brekky and lunches, not always requiring hot/boiling water.
Dehyde baked beans or ful medames. Many cultures have pulses/beans for brekky. Self explanatory. Cook, dehyde. In field add water before going to bed. Heat through or eat cold in morning.
Lunch tuna 'salad' on flatbread. At home Tuna in spring water drained, add onion, olives, herbs of choice, garlic and tinned white beans (any variety). Blend to a paste, season and spread on a baking sheet to dehydrate. Use oven on lowest setting door ajar. Once fully dried a quick pulse in processor and pack in small zip lock bag. In the field add water and knead to bring back to desired consistency, cut bottom corner off zip lock bag and 'pipe' onto bread. Add oil of choice for additional kj and mouthfeel. Credit to Babelfish5 on youtube. He also dehydes a kick a$$ basil pesto sans olive oil and cheese Add these later) that is great on biscuits. Use senses to determine best quantities.

[Warin]

Well as a food purist I have to say Chillie Con Carne without meat is simply Chillie.

Family Rule: If you don't have half the ingredients, don't make it.
As dictated by my newly wed farther to my mother.

So I take it that; if I have over half the ingredients, then I can 'play' with it.

[Neo]

Here is one I like, maybe now days it's 'great Australian'. Thai curry.

Can get curry shots 4x45g from Coles, red or green or other.
Can get Pandaroo coconut in the mini 165ml can with a ring pull lid from Woolies. Or if that's too heavy go for powdered.
They would last ages!

Works with just about any veg and/or meat. I always start with onion, then the paste, the food and then the coconut.
Skip the rice unless you are really keen to cook ñ clean.

[Neo]

Risoni aka Rice a riso.
I remember it from the 80's.

Still available in supermarkets, if you want to make your own then check the ratio of risoni to rice, can get straight risoni and a rice of your choice, add whatever lasts past the 3 days like sun-dried tomatoes, olive, favourite seasoning...

It's a parboil-fry type of dish so fairly economical with the right kind of pan. A pasta in the shape of rice

[crollsurf]

Been an Ainsley Harriott Cous Cous fan for a while but discovered he has a rice dish out at Woolies
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/599322/ainsley-harriott-singapore-spice-rice-spice?googleshop=1&cmpid=smaf014

No need to simmer for 5 minutes. Cold soak for 30mins and you are good to go. For the rest of us who carry a stove, cold soak then heat up and add some zest, Olive Oil, pull apart Pepperoni, Parmesan...

[Moondog55]

Yes Rice A Riso was a walking staple when I was younger, the combination was more satisfying than straight rice. I think I stopped using it because there is too much food in a packet for one person

[Moondog55]

Just came back from supermarket shopping
Both RiceaRiso in chicken flavour and the Ainsley Harriot rice were on sale cheap so I bought a few while I was getting my Deb instant mash and surprise peas