I love to cook. I soon discovered, however, that backpacking offers a tremendous gourmet challenge. There are plenty of books with rather extravagant meal options for backpackers. I prefer to use simple ingredients with extreme flavor. Easy clean up is also essential.
The secret to any good cooking is knowing how to season… for me, spices are the spice of life. We carry a baggie full of old film canisters, each filled with different spices. Hot sauces and crushed pepper flakes also add a zip that can turn a bland meal into something amazing.
Fast food condiment packets work wonderfully well to spice up dishes, especially when you don’t have a refrigerator. While it is possible to scavenge taco sauce, mayo, and mustard from fast food restaurants, you can also order them online (see http://www.rvcampstuff.com/ or other such sites).
We have found a variety of tasty options in single-serve snack packets. Among our favorite squeeze snacks are Squeezers jalapeno cheese packets and Justin’s honey almond butter. Both of these items are great on crackers. One of our favorite evening meals is a bag of fresh veggies dipped in single-serving Ranch dressing and crackers topped with squeeze cheese.
While a skillet full of fresh brookies makes for a most excellent meal, we often must look in our “pantry” for easy and tasty dishes. As an example, for breakfast we have found that reconstituted freeze-dried eggs are great on a tortilla, smothered in squeeze cheese and a condiment-size taco sauce packet. With single-serving asceptic cartons of milk, you can easily have cereal or granola topped with fresh banana slices. Granola bars and peanut butter-filled crackers are always a pantry staple.
There are several options for meats that require no refrigeration other than the usual canned or pouch chicken and tuna. In Canada, we love to buy the Grimm’s turkey peperoni sticks (unfortunately not available in the US). In Alaska, Alaska Sausage and Seafood Company Hunter Sticks are favorites. Both of these products contain less fat than your usual meat sticks, need no refrigeration, and add delicious flavoring to reconstituted veggies.
Variety on the trail is always a plus. After our five-week backpacking trip in 1987, it took years for us to eat Ramen noodles again. Thankfully there are many new quick options in grocery stores. As an example, flavored rice is now available in microwavable pouches. Rather than using a microwave, just boil water, dunk in the pouch, and heat the rice to desired temperature. After the rice is heated thoroughly, add a pouch of chicken, a few spices, and… voilà... an instant, tasty dinner.
Because freeze-dried foods are expensive, I use them sparingly. When I do use them, I often opt for rehydrated vegetables and beans rather than meats (which never seem to fully rehydrate) or prepackaged freeze-dried meals (which are expensive and rarely seem to rehydrate or have enough flavor). There is a trick to rehydrating veggies… the secret lies in letting the veggies soak in water for as much as an hour prior to cooking. The more soak time, the less cook time.
Our next post will offer a few recipes using simple grocery shelf items or dehydrated ingredients from the Harmony House dehydrated foods backpacking kit (see http://www.rei.com/product/756809/harmony-house-backpacking-kit).
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