Dinners

The Dirtbagger's Deluxe

Home What's New? E-Mail the Guys

Know your limits! Push your limits! Free your mind!

Lightweight Hiking

Gear

Food

Hiking Techniques

Trip Journals

Links

NEW!

Where To Go

NEW!

A Lesson From the Trail

Dinners

NEW! Trail Artist's French Onion Soup

Ok here is my version for backpacking:

bouillon cubes
dehyradeted onions
provolone cheese slices
bread torn into chunks
water

Boil the water in a pan and add bouillon and onions. Simmer until onions are cooked and bouillon is dissolved. Throw in bread chunks and cheese. Stir a bit and eat the gewwwy mess! Yummy!

Trailartist

Stuffed Baked Onions

Take a BIG onion, cut it in two at its' equator. Cut out center of each half and create two onion "cups", leaving a couple layers of onion for the cup sidewall. Be careful and don't cut clear thru the side. If you cut the side, the juicy goodies will leak out....

Save 2/3 of onion meat for something else, dice the rest fine and put the diced onion in a bowl or plastic bag. Add to the onion meat: equal quantities of diced mushrooms and celery. Crumble in some Feta cheese for flavor, and a little string cheese to glue things together. Add 2 cloves diced or smashed garlic, and dribble in a few drops of olive oil.

Now you have the basic mix. From this point, add whatever suits you. Canned shrimp. Canned smoked salmon, or clams, or oysters. Diced ham or bacon. In fact, most anything works just fine, as long as you only pick one primary ingredient. I don't think bacon and canned clams would work well together....

If you want some color in the cup, toss in a bit of diced red pepper, or some pimento's, or maybe a few black olives.

Black pepper to taste, but I avoid adding salt. It's too easy to oversalt, and that kills the other flavors. Salt to taste after cooking.

Mix well, then stuff the onion cups with the mix. Stuff 'em full but not heaping, and pack 'em tight. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese all over the top.

Wrap the stuffed onion cups in foil. Bake in coals just like you would bake a potato, until foil pack is nice and soft.

The foil wrapped onion cups can be prepped at home and carried in. Makes for simple dinner prep, just toss in the coals and drink a beer while steak is grilling.

These bake up just as well at home, although it's a real pain cleaning all the campfire ashes off the kitchen floor.

Strider

[My friends, every once in a while there comes along a recipe that is neither light or practical but is so wonderful that it becomes a mainstay in the old recipe arsenal. This is one of those recipes! Plus it will impress the pants off of your hiking buddies (OK, not always a good thing)!This is such a wonderful recipe that it just must be tried by one and all. I make them at home in my fire place out on my deck and have tried a few different stuffing concoctions. One of my personal favorites is using onion, green pepper, feta cheese, parmesan cheese, and a bit of olive oil. This would be worth the weight of fresh food for an over-nighter or the first dinner out. Make them up at home and pre wrap them in foil. Worth every single ounce! And isn't this why we go light? To enjoy the finer things!]

Posole (Hominy Corn with Tomatoes Onion and Spices)

A slightly rich, low-fat main or side dish.

Serves about two

At home, over medium heat cook together for 20 minutes,:

2 10 oz. cans of White Hominy (in its’ liquid)

4 cloves chopped and mashed garlic

½ 10. Oz. can Mexican Style stewed tomatoes

½ c. chopped onion

1 tsp. cumin

1.tsp. sweet basil

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tbsp. olive oil

Allow to cool, then pour onto plastic dehydrator sheets and dry.

Place in a quart size freezer bag.

In camp:

In 1 quart pot, boil 2 cups water, add posole, stir, cover and let sit for about ten minutes.

Return to heat, add a little water if necessary and season with salt and pepper.

You should be able to eat this with a spoon, or a fork, it is a thick and hearty corn stew.

Serve plain, or over white, brown, or Mexican Style rice.

[This dish is KILLER! I have this at home as well as when I camp. I will make up a batch and put it in a gallon sized zip lock when I go kar kamping and eat it for lunch all weekend. I like to add jalapenos for heat.]

Sierramel

10 Bears' Back Country Burrito's

Ingredients:

(1) 12 oz. Can of beef with gravy.

(1) 16 oz. Can of pinto beans with jalapenos.

(1) 6 oz. Can salsa.

½ cup of instant rice.

¾ cup grated dry peppercorn jack cheese.

Two burrito size flour tortillas.

Makes two BURLY burrito's

Add-ons:

Use some or all of the following ingredients to spice up the base

recipe, or skip them altogether. These items are not required to make a tasty

dish.

¼ cup dried black olives.

¼ cup dried white onions.

¼ cup dried sweet red or yellow bell pepper.

2 tsp. Cumin added to the meat or beans before drying.

Variations:

Canned chicken or turkey. Any of your favorite canned beans. Green or

red salsa, of your desired heat level. Your favorite cheese. Your

favorite veggies. Note: Corn is an item I have deliberately skipped,

as it does not do well when cooking in a cup. If you must have corn, I would

recommend freeze dried.

Preparation:

The beef is the parboiled variety that comes canned with gravy. The

canned meat easily shreds with a fork, and it should be shredded prior to

dehydrating to make the drying more even and distribute the gravy

evenly. The beans described above are one of my favorites for Mexican food,

and are sold under the Ranch Style brand name. Open the can and stir.

The salsa used for this recipe was the fresca style or Pico de gallo

(sp?): tomato, onion, serrano chilies and cilantro. Open the can and

stir. The cheese described above is a dry variety of Monterey Jack, and can

be grated prior to packaging. The olives mentioned in the add- on's are the sliced and canned variety. Open the can and drain off the juice. The veggies mentioned in the add-on's are fresh. Chop them into approximately ¼" pieces, removing any seeds, and sauté in spray type cooking oil until soft but not flimsy. Add a splash of water if they begin to stick to the pan. Never sauté veggies in cooking oil.

Dehydrating:

Spread the ingredients evenly on separate dehydrator sheets, and

dehydrate for approximately 7 ½ hours. My dehydrator does not have a temperature dial so no specific temperature is available.

Monitor your food every hour or so after 6 hours. After 6 hours if the

food is dry only on one side, rotate it, wet side up to help with more

even drying. When dry the meat is hard and crumbly, the beans are dry

through and crumbly inside, the salsa is a thin film that flakes off

the sheet and the add-ons' are dry through but still a little flexible.

Packaging:

Package all ingredients in separate ziploc bags except add-ons. These

can be packaged together. Package ¼ of a sheet of dry salsa, or less depending on your heat tolerance, in a ziploc. If your not sure of how hot your burrito will

be, go easy on the salsa. About 12 hours after you eat, you'll be glad you

did. Note: This recipe can be made for one easily. Just halve the recipe

when packaging.

In camp:

Use 10 Bears' Cooking in a Cup technique.

Layer in an insulated cup in this order: 1) rice 2) beef 3) add-ons

(if used) 4) beans 5) salsa. Add boiling water to cover food by

approximately ¼ inch. Cover cup with its lid and let "cook" for 15 minutes.

Remove cover after 15 minutes and stir ingredients together.

Spread burrito mix onto tortilla, top with cheese, and wrap burrito

style.

Yummy!

10 Bears

Parsley Pasta

1 lb. pasta (thinner the better)

3 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

3 tbls. parsley

3 tbls. virgin olive oil

Boil pasta until it's done the way you like. Drain the water off and add all the ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste.

[It almost sounds too simple to be good but it is wonderful. I eat this at home all the time.]

Back to Food

Dirtbag Hikin'

Gear

Food

Hikin' Techniques

Trips N' Stuff

Linxs