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Flying Wombat
that sounds like a fun stew for a human campout..
ZooKeeper
Dimwit -- that's funny... I'll have to try that one...
Dimwit Flathead
It really is quite tasty stuff. Easy to make while camping - the kind of dish one can make in an uncivilized wilderness with no heat or light or windows or roof of computers.
That stew was one of the few things that kept me from walking home from camping. I'm not a fan of it.
Flying Wombat
actually, I've got about 3 recipes which I take on hiking trips.. one's a chicken stir-fry, one's ham fried rice (both with hints of teriyaki and maybe curry, but it's actually quite good), and chicken with spaghetti parmesan. all are good prepared the day before and served cold from a tupperware. what I >haven't< tried is cooking them while camping. (rice could be cooked ahead of time, but it's not too hard to do on a camp stove. the other pasta should be easy. the rest is done in a cast-iron skillet.) details later, when I have time to codify the recipes.
Bookworm
Flying Wombat- Please post them. They sound great.
Flying Wombat
okay, they're rather off the top of my head, as I've never written them down. I'll start with the chicken parmesan. the timing and sequence of food preparation won't be very accurate, oh well... you may even have to read it backwards.
First, slice up a couple of boneless chicken breasts into 1" chunks. Saute in olive oil until done. Add a clove or more of sliced or crushed garlic, cook quite briefly (don't let it turn brown; this should be at low heat anyhow), then add the cooked pasta, spices, and parmesan.
Spices include: pepper, oregano, basil, marjoram, sage, and/or poultry seasoning. and rosemary, if you crush it well.
you get to make up the proportions to suit your taste. I use enough parmesan to stick to everything else.
Flying Wombat
it's late at night, so I'll try to describe one of the other recipes, and see whether this is any more incoherent than the last one.
chicken stir-fry.
dice the boneless chicken breasts into 1" chunks. marinate in a random combination of: Soy, Hoisin, Oyster sauce, or Yoshida's sauce (a teriyaki-flavored BBQ marinade, we get huge Costco-sized bottles of it.) Or, whatever else appeals to you. Add some extra garlic and ginger; for the warmer version of this recipe, add a pinch of curry powder and/or a few drops of chili oil.
in the skillet (or wok), put as much sesame oil as you can afford, diluting with salad oil to make a tablespoon or so, just enough to cook the chicken in. so, do just that. it takes 15 minutes or so (longer if you're preparing this first thing in the morning and have to leave on schedule to meet your girlfriend to go hiking or something..) anyhow, at the same time, start some Chinese Egg Noodles (the best kind, but use whatever you prefer, noodle-wise) boiling. just before the noodles are done, add some frozen peas. drain it, and add to the chicken when it's also done.
then, pour in some more of the marinade, and keep stirring until the noodles soak it up and the sauce reduces in the pan. for this last stage, turn off the heat and let thermal inertia take over.
now, upon describing this in words, I'm not so sure it'd be easy to make >while< camping... considering how hectic it is to cook the simplest items on a Coleman stove, to say nothing of a campfire.
Flying Wombat
for the fried rice, start by dicing the ham (a good way to use up leftover baked ham), and pre-cook the rice. I use Calrose rice, as it sticks together quite well and it goes with a lot of dishes, not just this one.
then, heat the ham in skillet with sesame oil, pour in the same kind of marinade, garlic and ginger; once the ham is a little bit fried, add the rice and frozen peas and soak it with some more marinade sauce. just cook it enough to blend the flavors and get the rice nicely soaked, without overcooking the peas. (fried peas? hmm.)
both of the pseudo-Asian recipes can be made with many kinds of fresh vegetables, though for pre-hiking food I found peas to be the most convenient and requiring the least thought.
fresh veggies require pre-dicing, and adding to the cooking meat at intervals which provide for precise cooking.
as I've usually prepared these dishes in a state of last-minute tiredness (akin to what I feel when staying up too late modeming instead of only programming until midnight), I haven't worked out the details.. but broccoli, carrots, snap beans, bean sprouts, etc. are all good if not overcooked.
Bookworm
Thanks for the recipes Flying Wombat. I'll have to make a couple of changes to the ingrediants due to allergies but will give them a try. I understand what you mean it always takes longer if you are on a schedule. Once a gain thanks.
dragon
yum, thanks, they all sound great!
Flying Wombat
you're welcome. this weekend we were just camping, I made the chicken parmesan before we left, and we weren't adventuresome about the rest of the cooking -- partly due to using campfire instead of Coleman stove. I guess I can't recommend campfires for pan-cooking, even the hash browns were, uh, 'interesting'...
Bookworm
I know what you mean. Campfires are quite interesting to cook on.
Black Wolf
Campfires are great to cook on as long as you do it right, first you have to have a good sized one to build up some coals, then let it burn down to hot coalys and your all set...
Bookworm
But what if you don't get back to camp early enough to start it and let it burn down to coals before 1a.m.?
Lady Godiva
If God had inteneded me to cook over a fire, she wouldn't have given me a Jenn-Aire.
Starry
How do you make frozen boxed chicken decent? Put it on a stick or a skewer and hold it over open coals. It's actually good eating!
Aquila
Your recipes all look excellent, thank you for sharing them. What I am looking for the most is a way to make pizza crust completely from scratch but without a fancy oven or having to toss it in the air. The sauce part is easy to master.
Megamol
Bisquick to the rescue!!!
MontyL
Give me a day, Aquila, and I'll post what my better half does. (yes, I said _better_)
West
Pizza Dough.
Okay, I've been making pizzas for year, and I have developed my own dough formula. But you know, people have different tastes in these things. So, try this, it's quick and easy, but if you don't care for it, try some others.
For one large, (but not extra large) pizza.
1 pkg or 2 tsp active yeast.
1/2 cup water
(You can also experiment by using V-8, or tomato juice for the water)
1 1/2 cups *bread* flour, not all-purpose flour.
1 pinch sugar.
1/2 tsp salt.
1 tbl basil
1 tbl oregano
garlic powder to taste
1 tbl olive oil.
O Optional-- one tsp of sesame oil in addition to the olive oil.
Mix together the sugar and quite warm water. Sugar lowers the temperature
of water when mixed in, so make the water a little more hot than you would if you wern't using sugar. Be sure to turn on the oven to its lowest
setting while you're preparing this.
Mix the yeast into the water. Put the mixture in the warming oven to proof while you mix the dry ingredients in a medium to large non-metal bowl.
Mix together the bread flour, salt, spices (adjust spices to taste).
If you have a food processor, put the dry mixture in the bowl, using the
metal blade. Add the oil or oils to the liquid misture, stir it a bit turn on the processor and while spinning the solid mix, pour the liquid through
the port and spin until the dough forms a ball on top of the blades.
Continue spinning for about one minute total. You might stop halfway through and let the dough cool off for a minute, although this is usually not
necessary.
You're done making the dough!
Now, if you have to do it by hand, make a well in the flour mix, pour the liquid in, including the oil or oils, mix together by tossing with a fork, and then knead for about eight minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. You're done making the dough!
Wash the bowl or get another bowl, oil it lightly with olive oil, place the dough in the bowl, cover the bowl with a cloth, cover the cloth with a moistened and wrung out paper towel, and let rise in the warm oven for about
half an hour or more, up to an hour.
Meanwhile, you might try making this topping.
Chopped up ripe, fresh tomatoes.
Chopped or shaved Mozzerella and Provelone cheeses.
Parmisan cheese.
Olive Oil.
Basil
Oregano
Garlic powder
Other toppings such as anchovies, bacon, pepperoni
sauteed munchrooms, or anything else you like on pizza.
Take risen dough out of oven, and turn the oven up to about
450 degrees. While it's heating up, chop up the tomatoes and
prepare the cheeses and other toppings.
When the oven is up to around 350 degrees or more, cover the pizza pan,
(yes, go to the market and by one of those real, not disposable pizza
pans) and cover it *thickly* with butter. This makes a large difference.
You don't need to toss the dough. That's just for show, This dough will
be very elastic and workable. DO NOT re-knead it. That just makes it hard to work with. Put the dough on the buttered pizza pan and just your hands to
spread it out. Roll the edges over so that you'll have a nice, large, soft rim.
Now, let that rise for about 15 minutes. By that time the oven will be up to heat. If it isn't don't worry about it. Put the pan in the oven and bake it
until the crust is just beginning to brown. Depending on the oven temp, this may take around seven to twelve minutes.
Now, take the pan out of the oven. Take a supermarket paper bag or two, and
take the dough off the pizza pan and put it on the bag. (You're through
with the pan, put it in the sink to clean).
Now, brush the crust top all over with olive oil. This seals it against the
tomato joice you're going to generate. Put some cheese on top, then some
chopped tomato, then some more cheese and more tomato.
What you're doing there is to mix the cheese and tomato in layers so that
The tomato will be held firmly in the melted cheese and you won't have a topping that slides off in your lap.
I'm sorry, I meant to say that after you chop the tomatoes, you mix them up with the spices and let them sit while you prepare everre everything else.
Now, add the parmisan cheese over the top of the tomato cheese mixture, and
then top off with pepperoni and/or other toppings.
Return the pizza from the bag to the rack in the oven and continue to bake
for about ten minutes, or until everything is well melted.
When finished, return the pizza to the bag, and use that as the serving
surface. Cut it up right on the bag. When you're done, just toss that bag
in the garbage.
Notice that there is NO tomato sauce or pizza sauce on this. That is
because the chopped tomatoes, mixed with the spices, makes a better,
in my opinion, sauce than anything you can buy or spend hours cooking
yourself in a saucepan.
And that's the story. And I hope you enjoy it/
Addendum: if you like a really soft and sloppy pizza, don't use the
paper bag and don't pre-bake the crust. Leave the crust in the pan, add
the toppings and bake directly.
If you like that kind of slightly crummy crust that some places make,
then after that heavy buttering of the pizza pan, toss on some yellow
corn meal and sort of shake and tap it around to cover, and then
spread out the dough on top.
ZooKeeper
sounds good West! I'll have to try that sometime when I've found my energy again...
MontyL
Looks like West beat me to the punch. His looks better, too!
Flying Wombat
it looks so good that I'm going to make sure it winds up in a textfile, available here and at TLC. that way, it won't be lost when it scrolls (in a month or so) and everyone will have a chance to share it.
West
Well, thank you, guys. I made one of those pizzas last night, and it was purty darn good as usual.
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