Archive for the ‘Kayak Food and Cooking’ Category

The Outdoor Glory Bowl

This is an adaptation of the Whitewater Cookbook’s Glory Bowl Recipe. Just as tasty as the original but with adaptations for kayak hatch friendly veggies and a quicker cooking grain so you use less fuel. It looks great with all the bright colours, is really healthy and filling and the sauce is everyone’s favourite.

Makes enough for 4 hungry paddlers.

• 1 package of  smoked tofu (most stores sell it in the same section as the other tofu- this is definitely the type to bring on a kayak trip as it lasts much longer than regular tofu)
• 1 tbps oil
• 2 medium beets
• 3 large carrots
• 2 medium yams
• 2 cups uncooked quinoa
• Sunflower seeds/chopped almonds/chopped cashews (optional if you have some extra nuts)

Peel yams and cut in to small cubes. Boil yams in water until medium-soft. Drain and set aside. Cut the smoked tofu in to small rectangles. Fry in oil over medium heat until golden brown on each side. Peel and grate the beets and carrots (it is worth it to bring a grater as the raw carrots and beets add a nice crunch, but if you don’t want to you can also cut the carrots and beets in to small pieces and boil with the yams until they are tender). Add quinoa to 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. After water and quinoa come to a boil, turn down the stove and simmer for 15 minutes or so until all the water has been absorbed. The quinoa should be translucent and a bit crunchy.

While the quinoa is boiling you can make the sauce.

• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• ½ cup nutritional yeast flakes (you can also substitute 1-2 tbsp of miso paste)
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup of water
• 1-2 tbsp of oil (whatever type you have along for cooking)

You can mix the soy sauce and apple cider vinegar (and miso paste if you are using that) at home so you don’t need to bring as many bottles. Nutritional yeast flakes can be bought in bulk at Whole Foods.

Mince the garlic. Mix apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, water, oil, nutritional yeast flakes (or miso paste) and minced garlic. This sauce is best made by taste so add a little of each item until you get the flavor that you like.

Now it’s time to put everything together. Put the quinoa in a bowl. Add the tofu, yams, beets, carrots and nuts/seeds (if you are using them) on top. Pour some of the sauce on, mix and enjoy.

This month’s edition of “Cook Out” is dedicated to two interesting and delicious food items that come right from the coast we love to kayak on- sea asparagus and herring roe on kelp (“k’aaw in the Haida language) . Sea asparagus and k’aaw are traditional foods of the First Nations people of coastal BC including the Haida, the Tlingit, the Tsimshian, the Heiltsuk and the Haisla as well as other nations. These foods continued to be eaten and harvested today by First Nations people as well as others who live along the coast and could be a unique and tasty edition to your kayaking diet.

K’aaw has a bit of an acquired taste but is highly prized by many Haida People.  If you are in the right area at the right time (ask the locals when the herring will be spawning) you can easily harvest it by pulling up and cutting the fronds (leaves) of the giant perennial kelp that are covered in hundreds of small herring eggs. If you arrive at other times of year you may be lucky enough to have someone that will share their harvest with you. K’aaw can be eaten raw, cooked or frozen to be eaten later in the year. To cook it, cut the fronds in to small squares and fry for 1-2 minutes with butter until the eggs turn from translucent to white. It is really good then dipped in soy sauce or Bragg’s. K’aaw has a rich taste with the eggs having a crunchy burst when you bite in to them and the seaweed adding nicely to the mix

Sea asparagus (also called beach asparagus, pickleweed, samphire, sea beans and a bunch of other names) looks like a cross between fat grass and really small asparagus. Sea asparagus belongs to the Salicornia family which is comprised of 60 species that grow in salty waters from the intertidal zone of the Pacific Ocean to marshes in Europe and mangroves in South Asia.  Two varieties that are found on the BC coast are Red glasswort (Salicornia rubra) and American glasswort (Salicornia virginica).

Sea asparagus can be harvested by picking (or snipping with scissors which makes the harvesting faster) the small shoots from sandy intertidal zones that are away from areas heavily trafficked by boats or other pollutants. It is good to soak the sea asparagus in fresh water for 20 minutes or half an hour to get rid of some of the saltiness before you cook it. To cook it up all you need is a frying pan and some butter or oil, and maybe some minced garlic. Cook it for just a few minutes so it keeps crunchy and no extra salt is needed.

Another great way to eat sea asparagus, and to bring home some goodness from the sea is to make pickled sea asparagus. This is a recipe for pickled sea asparagus from spectacularlydelicious.com

2 quarts of fresh picked sea asparagus
3 c. white vinegar
3 c. water
16 small hot red chile peppers
8 garlic cloves, each sliced long ways into 3-4 pieces
black pepper corns
whole coriander seeds
whole yellow mustard seeds
dill seeds

Trim the sea asparagus to fit into sterilized 1/2 pint jars. Into the bottom of each jar add pinches of black peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seeds and then the tiniest sprinkle of dill seed. Stuff in the sea asparagus, packing as tightly as you can. Then shove the chiles and garlic slices into the jars along side the glass, so they show.

Bring water and vinegar to the boil. Ladle into the jars, leaving 1/2″ head space. Seal with sterilized lids and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Best when left for a couple of weeks for the flavors to fully develop.

Makes 8 1/2 pint jars.

Thanks to Heather Lacey for the post and Jo Hager of Green Coast Kayaking for generously sharing the food (pictured) she harvested from her home!

Here we continue our Cook Out series with guest blogger Heather Lacey.  Each month we will feature a tried and tested recipe that is great for kayaking and eating well outdoors.  Enjoy!

Moroccan Stew

(for 4 people…or 3 really hungry people)

Stew

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 large zucchini
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium yellow onion
• ½   bouillon cube (veg or chicken)
• 1 cup of water
• 1 can of chickpeas (398ml)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (398 ml)
• 15 dried apricots
• 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper (or 1 tsp if you like it fairly hot)

Boil 1 cup of water and add the ½ bouillon cube. Stir to dissolve and make stock.

Mince the garlic and chop the onion. Heat oil in your pan (camping wok is good as it has so much space) on medium heat. Add the garlic, onions, cinnamon, cumin and cayenne, stir well, and cook until the onions become translucent. Chop the zucchini and eggplant in to bite size pieces (smaller is better for faster cooking). Dice the apricots. Add the zucchini, eggplant, apricots, chickpeas, diced tomatoes and cup of stock. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the eggplant is tender and the liquid is mostly gone.

Couscous

• 1.5 cups of water
• 1 cup of couscous
• A handful of raisins

Boil water. Stir in couscous and raisins and cover with a lid . Let sit for 5-7 minutes until soft.  Fluff with a fork and serve with the stew on top.

Welcome to Dam Good Logistics’ blog special feature on kayaking cooking by a backcountry chef (aka kayaker who likes to eat really good food on trip), Heather Lacey.  Once a month check out a new recipe perfect for the campfire or camp stove. To start the series off we are going to cover some of the great products for your outdoor kitchen.

This wok is a great compromise between a frying pan and a pot. With a non-stick surface it easily makes scrambled eggs and pancakes and the lid allows for boiling water. This was our main pot/pan on a five week kayak trip and there was just enough space to make pasta or curry for five hungry paddlers .  The handle folds in for storage.  The downside is you need to be careful if using it on a stove with a smaller cooking surface as it is a bit tippy.
GSI WOK HAE- $23 at MEC

One of the great advantages of kayaking compared to hiking is the ability to bring along those luxuries that take up too much weight in a pack- like bottles of wine. Somehow drinking wine in a Nalgene bottle just isn’t right. These stainless steel wine glasses class up any kayak dinner and make for the prefect sunset. Plus the bottom screws off and fits inside so there is lots of room in your hatch for that second wine bottle.
GSI Stainless Steel Nesting Wine Glass- $11.50 at MEC

You just feel special using this spoon-fork combo. The spoon part is big enough for soup and the fork tines are pokey enough to allow it to be used as a fork. The handle is long so it is comfortable to hold and folds in half for easy storage.  And best of all it comes in different colours so you don’t have to fight over who left their spork at the last campsite.
MSR Spork - $3.90 at MEC

One of those cooking utensils that is hard to replace with your eating spoon or a stick is a spatula. Essential for proper pancake flipping the spatula should be in every backcountry cook’s kit. This is my favourite one as it is sturdy and packs up small as the handle twists around.
GSI Pivot Spatual – $5.00 at MEC

Eggs are great for the backcountry kitchen as the keep well without needing to be refrigerated. This handy holder increases your chances that they won’t arrive at your campsite pre-scrambled. A tip for using it is to buy smaller eggs so that it will close properly.

Coghlan’s Egg Holder (6 Egg Size)- $1.90 at MEC

Here is what makes up the rest of my kitchen dry bag:

• cutting board (it is worth the space!)
• good, sharp, foldable knife
• wooden spoon
• plastic mug for each person
• MSR Deep Dish Plate (flat bottom, but high sides, hold more food than a regular plastic bowl but also does liquids) for each person
• cutlery for each person (sporks are the way to go)
• mesh bag to hold all of the cutlery
• pot (good to have an extra, use the wok for making the sauce and the pot for the rice/noodles/etc) and pot grip if needed.
• large Tupperware container (good for holding the cut up veggies before they go in the wok or for making salads in or storing leftovers if animals are not a worry)- optional if you have space
• wash kit (sea suds and cloth- thinner is better so it actually has a chance of drying)

Join me next month for a delicious recipe to try on your next kayak trip.