Latest favorite homemade freezer bag meal...and a question

[retired jerry]

I agree with mreha - putting hot water in plastic probably not good, but for the few nights most of us do it, not that big a deal

Mountain House dinner - same thing

But, I just heat in my 900 mL Ti pot. Let it sit for a few minutes. Easy to clean out.

I've got some stuff from packitgourmet.com, and I've dried my own. There was a huge can (#10) of dried onions at Winco for $15 (for survival?) which I couldn't not buy. It would have taken me 15 hours to chop that many onions.

Lately, I've cooked some pinto beans. 2 cups dry beans. salt, spice, onions,... Let them dry in oven at the lowest temp - 170 F. Maybe 24 hours. Stir it as it goes to dry uniformily. Makes 14 ounces of dried beans. Then I add 3 ounces of olive oil.

Then I make packets of 1.7 ounces dried beans, 0.33 ounces each of dried onions, tomatoes, and peppers. Add to 1 cup boiling water.

Or you could use other beans or peas.

I think the fiber is an important nutrient that's easy to omit when backpacking. It feeds all the bacteria and fungi in your intestine.

[Chazz]

Jerry,

It's a good thing you seem to hike mostly alone. That bean recipe, while nutritious, probably is not suitable for a shared tent at night unless you and your partner are on very good terms.

[retired jerry]

unless you and your partner both eat the same recipe

[Koda]

unless you and your partner both eat the same recipe

talk about waiting for the magic to happen....

[Chazz]

Mussamun curry noodles in a bag:

4 oz Rice noodles
1 Tbs mussamun curry paste
1/2 package of dehydrated coconut milk (from Uwajimaya)
1 oz beef jerky
handful of dehydrated onions, peppers and peanuts

Add 12-16oz of boiling water and let sit for 15 minutes.

The jerky can still be a bit tough so I often keep the jerky in a seperate small snack-sized ziplock and pre-hydrate the meat with a couple oz of water for about an hour before making dinner. You can also substitute textured vegetable protein nuggets for the jerky.

[mreha]

Mussamun curry noodles in a bag:

4 oz Rice noodles
1 Tbs mussamun curry paste
1/2 package of dehydrated coconut milk (from Uwajimaya)
1 oz beef jerky
handful of dehydrated onions, peppers and peanuts

Add 12-16oz of boiling water and let sit for 15 minutes.

The jerky can still be a bit tough so I often keep the jerky in a seperate small snack-sized ziplock and pre-hydrate the meat with a couple oz of water for about an hour before making dinner. You can also substitute textured vegetable protein nuggets for the jerky.

Just curious, how many days would you think the curry paste would be OK...it seems like once you opened the jar you would only have a day or two at most of safety unrefrigerated? It sounds awesome, by the way.

(Although Amazon has Mussamun curry powder...if you made it with that it would last pretty much indefinitely)

[Koda]

New Seasons sells an excellent curry powder in bulk, it goes well on most everything that you might sprinkle some other seasoning

[Chazz]

The curry paste is mostly spices and oil. Not a great incubating medium for bacteria. I think it would last at least a couple days but maybe I will run a test for two and four days.

[AAdamsPDX]

I was backpacking in the gorge this weekend (and preparing for and cleaning up after!) and didn't keep up with this thread. Side note: gee whiz it was cold on Tanner Ridge on Saturday evening!

Thanks all for the replies and great suggestions, and mreha and jessbee for the answers about the brown rice. Also, that Mussamun curry noodle dish looks fabulous for short trips!

Reading your comments and suggestions reinforces what I've been thinking for a while: at some point I'm going to have to break down and get a dehydrator. We've done OK by pre-mixing freeze dried ingredients at home and rehydrating in the field, with dried refried beans, potato flakes, rice, or instant grits forming the base for a number of meals, freeze-dried cheese or olive oil for extra calories, and dried veggies for nutrition. The results are often surprisingly good but I think what we miss on long distance hikes are those flavors that only happen when you cook ingredients together for a time, over heat. Which is where a home-cooked and THEN dehydrated meal seems more appealing....

[retired jerry]

in some cases it's better to dehydrate the ingredients separately because they require different drying times.

maybe cook some things together, like legumes and spices, but dehydrate vegetables separately

My Brevil tabletop oven goes down to 120 F, so I use that to dehydrate. I don't do enough to justify a single purpose dehydrator