Here is the post I promised on what to do with that dehydrated food I talked about in the previous post. I am also going to include some more visual and "fanny" research that I've done since the last post.
Let's start with the additional dry food I found locally. I found that Drug Emporium carries a pretty wide selection of organic foods. Among these is a wide selection of dried fruits, like mangos, blueberries, strawberries and many other more common fruits. They also had a few dried vegetables that could be put to use in stews and such. The fruit also had the added advantage of not having any added sugar, unlike the store brands. My local health food store also had a few things that I picked up, some honey granules and some dry soup mixes where the ingredients were packaged separately. I live in a relatively small town so my sources are limited. Depending on where you are, your possibilities may be more readily available.
So now you have some dry food, what to do with it? In it's current form it doesn't look very appetizing. The first thing you need to know about cooking dried foods is that it's not instant. It takes some planning ahead. You will have to soak those potatoes in water for a bit before you can pan fry them. If you want onions in it you must throw them in with the potatoes too. If you are making a soup or stew then it's just a matter of a longer cooking time. Dried foods lend themselves to soups the best, but that doesn't mean you can't use them other ways. You can use most dried foods any way you would use fresh, if you understand that their texture maybe slightly different.
If you chose to live in a van, hopefully you planned for how you were going to cook. If you didn't choose it, then maybe this will help. The last few days I have been experimenting with minimal cooking. The one that intrigued me the most was thermos cooking. I own this Thermos (17.00 at walmart). It's not the cadillac of thermoses but neither is it the spiderman lunch box variety (which won't work). According to some of the sites I read, this is not the best one to use because of the wide mouth top and heat loss. I did not find this to be true. Also I did somethings intentionally less than perfect. I started with a simple chicken noodle soup that had dried carrots, noodles, and powdered soup base. Everything I read said to preheat the thermos with boiling water... I used hot tap water. But I did use boiling water when I actually made the soup. In 20 minutes I had chicken noodle soup. Everything was done, but the carrots still had just a hint of crispiness to them. My next try I used Bear Creek potato soup mix, lately I have been craving a good potato soup. These soup mixes make a half gallon of soup... waaay too much for me. The first order was to divide this into four snack size bags (1 cup each). This mixed with two cups of water will make enough for 1 hearty appetite or 2 smaller ones. Since I am in the latter category I chose to divide one of those bags in half again. Once again I used hot tap water to preheat the thermos, then used boiling water and the soup mix for making the actual soup. After adding the soup mix (water first), I sealed the thermos and put it's cap on, then gave it a good shake. My final step was to roll it in a towel and lay it on it's side. Laying it on the side gives you more even cooking. For the next three hours I basically ignored it, except for an occasional shake. When I opened the thermos I had a nice creamy potato soup that was still entirely too hot to eat. This was my first experience with Bear Creek brand soups, but I have to say this one was surprisingly good for prepackaged. My only complaint was that it was a bit shy on the potatoes. To remedy this deficiency, I added a heaping spoonful of dried hash brown potatoes to the next batch I cooked. Much better, but I can also see this with some added bacon bits.
As a family of one, I can see great potential for thermos cooking and dried foods. Some of the things I envision making in the thermos are broccoli and rice casserole, mac and cheese, pot roast for one and of course soups. Almost anything that can be cooked in a crock pot would work this way. Also this could be useful in extreme situations, such as being without cooking facilities. In theory you should be able to fill a thermos with water and heat it in the sun on the dash. Although I should add a few words of caution here. A thermos on the dash has the potential to become extremely hot, don't grab it with bare hands. Also never leave it unattended. In doing this you have created your own miniature pressure cooker. If it gets too hot, the pressure inside will build and it will push the top off with force. This is a polite way of saying that it will explode all over your dash or worse. Anyway it is something I will experiment with in the future.
Ultimately this experiment proved to me that my thermos will now go where I do. It also shows that dehydrated food would be of great benefit to a vandweller. I don't mean just dried beans and rice, but also the more exotic staples such as powder whole eggs, whole milk and sour cream. Am I going to live on dried foods alone, NO, but I will be sure to carry a basic supply of staples and vegetables.
If you are interested on learning more here are some reference links:
http://theboatgalley.com/thermos-cooking/
http://www.ehow.com/how_2275972_cook-thermos-save-energy-money.html
Here is a link that has some "just add water" mug recipes
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/recipex/msg0522281311215.html
And last is a link for a free downloadable shelf stable recipe book
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2011/04/25/surprise-3-shelf-stable-cookbook/
on this last one keep in mind this was a member created book by proponents of survivalist food storage. Some of them still had a bit of problem thinking in terms of not having a fully stocked kitchen with all of the latest gadgets. But it is still an amazingly good representation of what you can do with dried and shelf stable food.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Just Add Water
Years ago, I used to spend a couple of weeks dehydrating food for my son's yearly camping trip into the mountains with his uncle. My uncle would get all of the kids in the family, 5 or 6 at the time, load them in a van with tents and camping gear and off they would go for a couple of weeks. We're not talking high tech camping in a state park, but primitive dispersed camping in the wilderness. For this trip I would dehydrate fruits, vegetables and meats.
I am not a fan of prepackaged food or can soup. I would rather cook my own with the ingredients I want in it. So I got to thinking about applying food dehydration to vandwelling. It seems it would be eminently suitable. It is light weight, compact and most re-hydrated things are almost as good as their fresh counterparts. Well thinking for me always equates to researching... so off to the internet I go.
The first thought is how are you going to get or dehydrate food? There are any number of instructables on solar food dehydrators. But this is not something I'm really interested in. So my choice would be to buy it. Unfortunately most of the suppliers of this type of product are survivalist, who want you to buy a years supply (or more) to feed a family of 4. Although I have found a few where you can get stuff in smaller quantities. Another source for these products are backpacking suppliers. But here the quantities are so small and expensive as to be prohibitive. And then there are the gourmet food suppliers. GOURMET equals at least double your money, so not much help there.
Ok so I have now done my "fanny" research (sitting on my butt behind the computer). I thought it time to check out the local Walmart Supercenter. Most of us eat dehydrated foods on a regular basis. When you buy that bag of noodles for a casserole, you are eating dehydrated food. After a couple of hours wondering the aisles of the store, poking, prodding and inspecting products I had never paid attention to before and keeping in mind that I only wanted to prepare food for one with a small appetite. I found that there is quite a bit you can get locally before you have to move on to more expensive or internet based suppliers. The first thing I can tell you is that the potatoes are covered. You can get dehydrated potatoes in almost any fashion you desire. You just have to think outside of the box (pardon the pun). That box of au gratin potatoes is nothing more than dehydrated potatoes, cheese powder, powder milk, powder spices, thickener and a few chemicals for good measure. Basically the same with just about any other flavor such as sour cream and chives. Once you have that box you can use those potatoes for about anything you want after you have re-hydrated them. Once re-hydrated you can pan fry them if you choose and save the cheese packet for something else. That box is also designed to feed a family of 3-4. So as a solo, use only what you need and put the rest in a zipper bag, removing as much air as possible. Ok, now that we have covered the most abundant dried vegetable, and a different way to look at the packaging. I will endeavor to list some more of the shelf stable items you can find in many local stores.
Whole Milk Powder - Nido - Generally found in the Spanish food section -- Plentiful in the south, not sure about in the north.
Some other useful items found in the Spanish food sections are tomato/chicken, cilantro, garlic and onion bullion. Bullion cubes last for years, but go lightly as they are full of sodium.
There is dried fruit and nuts in the snack section, many of which could be re-hydrated for desserts and smoothies.
Buttermilk powder - in the baking section along with that nasty non-fat powered milk (ok, so some might actually like it).
There are the noodles mentioned earlier and instant rice now comes in white or brown... I know, not as good for you as the other... but the object of this exercise is small portion, light, compact, eatable, shelf stable food.
In the spice section you can get, dried celery, chopped onions, dried chives, among other more commonly used spices. Oh, and there is Molly Butter which won't give you actual butter but will give you butter flavor.
Let us not forget beef jerky and bacon bits. I know many would be tempted by the "real" bacon bits. Don't they won't last as long as the imitation. The imitation are tolerable if used for cooking with and actually impart more of a bacon flavor to your recipe. There are some more shelf stable meats available in the grocery but they usually spoil shortly after you open them. Remember I am looking for long term stability. Things that will last at least a month or more. I don't think I would want to eat shelf stable bacon after it had been open and without refrigeration for a month.
I am intentionally skipping the canned goods since most of them are not small enough proportioned for me. I am concentrating on items that you can use as much or as little as you wish and the remainder stays stable till further use. The only one I will include is can cheese. You know the kind with the spout on top so that you can make fancy designs on your cracker. This is real cheese that can be used for a variety of cooking applications. It generally comes in american, cheddar and sharp cheddar, it also needs no refrigeration.
What I did not find in the grocery was readily dehydrated quantities of carrots, broccoli, green beans, peas, some of the more obscure powders like tomato, butter, whole egg, and sour cream. For those I found a couple of websites that deal in smaller quantities. The first one sells it quart sizes... a quart of diced carrots at the moment is $6.45. You have to remember these are dehydrated so you are talking around 3 quarts once they have been re-hydrated. It would take me a few months to use that many carrots as a single person. If I bought can carrots and discarded what I did not use, I would ultimately spend more that $6.45 for the equivalent amount. Here is the link if you are interested in checking them out: http://www.internet-grocer.net/2-half.htm . The other place I found has even smaller quantities and smaller prices, so that you could try some of the stuff before you bought for longer term. It is located here: http://www.barryfarm.com/our_store.htm. The items this place carries are a little more limited though.
The last dietary staple necessary for some (not all) is meat. This one you will most likely have to bite the bullet and get in the #10 (gallon) can from a survivalist store. The place above only carries canned meat and TVP (textured vegetable protein). You can get actual freeze dried (another form of dehydration) meat and cheese at many survivalist stores.
Ok now that I have shown you where to get the dried food. My next post will deal with what to do with it once you have it ......... buen viaje (safe travels)
I am not a fan of prepackaged food or can soup. I would rather cook my own with the ingredients I want in it. So I got to thinking about applying food dehydration to vandwelling. It seems it would be eminently suitable. It is light weight, compact and most re-hydrated things are almost as good as their fresh counterparts. Well thinking for me always equates to researching... so off to the internet I go.
The first thought is how are you going to get or dehydrate food? There are any number of instructables on solar food dehydrators. But this is not something I'm really interested in. So my choice would be to buy it. Unfortunately most of the suppliers of this type of product are survivalist, who want you to buy a years supply (or more) to feed a family of 4. Although I have found a few where you can get stuff in smaller quantities. Another source for these products are backpacking suppliers. But here the quantities are so small and expensive as to be prohibitive. And then there are the gourmet food suppliers. GOURMET equals at least double your money, so not much help there.
Ok so I have now done my "fanny" research (sitting on my butt behind the computer). I thought it time to check out the local Walmart Supercenter. Most of us eat dehydrated foods on a regular basis. When you buy that bag of noodles for a casserole, you are eating dehydrated food. After a couple of hours wondering the aisles of the store, poking, prodding and inspecting products I had never paid attention to before and keeping in mind that I only wanted to prepare food for one with a small appetite. I found that there is quite a bit you can get locally before you have to move on to more expensive or internet based suppliers. The first thing I can tell you is that the potatoes are covered. You can get dehydrated potatoes in almost any fashion you desire. You just have to think outside of the box (pardon the pun). That box of au gratin potatoes is nothing more than dehydrated potatoes, cheese powder, powder milk, powder spices, thickener and a few chemicals for good measure. Basically the same with just about any other flavor such as sour cream and chives. Once you have that box you can use those potatoes for about anything you want after you have re-hydrated them. Once re-hydrated you can pan fry them if you choose and save the cheese packet for something else. That box is also designed to feed a family of 3-4. So as a solo, use only what you need and put the rest in a zipper bag, removing as much air as possible. Ok, now that we have covered the most abundant dried vegetable, and a different way to look at the packaging. I will endeavor to list some more of the shelf stable items you can find in many local stores.
Whole Milk Powder - Nido - Generally found in the Spanish food section -- Plentiful in the south, not sure about in the north.
Some other useful items found in the Spanish food sections are tomato/chicken, cilantro, garlic and onion bullion. Bullion cubes last for years, but go lightly as they are full of sodium.
There is dried fruit and nuts in the snack section, many of which could be re-hydrated for desserts and smoothies.
Buttermilk powder - in the baking section along with that nasty non-fat powered milk (ok, so some might actually like it).
There are the noodles mentioned earlier and instant rice now comes in white or brown... I know, not as good for you as the other... but the object of this exercise is small portion, light, compact, eatable, shelf stable food.
In the spice section you can get, dried celery, chopped onions, dried chives, among other more commonly used spices. Oh, and there is Molly Butter which won't give you actual butter but will give you butter flavor.
Let us not forget beef jerky and bacon bits. I know many would be tempted by the "real" bacon bits. Don't they won't last as long as the imitation. The imitation are tolerable if used for cooking with and actually impart more of a bacon flavor to your recipe. There are some more shelf stable meats available in the grocery but they usually spoil shortly after you open them. Remember I am looking for long term stability. Things that will last at least a month or more. I don't think I would want to eat shelf stable bacon after it had been open and without refrigeration for a month.
I am intentionally skipping the canned goods since most of them are not small enough proportioned for me. I am concentrating on items that you can use as much or as little as you wish and the remainder stays stable till further use. The only one I will include is can cheese. You know the kind with the spout on top so that you can make fancy designs on your cracker. This is real cheese that can be used for a variety of cooking applications. It generally comes in american, cheddar and sharp cheddar, it also needs no refrigeration.
What I did not find in the grocery was readily dehydrated quantities of carrots, broccoli, green beans, peas, some of the more obscure powders like tomato, butter, whole egg, and sour cream. For those I found a couple of websites that deal in smaller quantities. The first one sells it quart sizes... a quart of diced carrots at the moment is $6.45. You have to remember these are dehydrated so you are talking around 3 quarts once they have been re-hydrated. It would take me a few months to use that many carrots as a single person. If I bought can carrots and discarded what I did not use, I would ultimately spend more that $6.45 for the equivalent amount. Here is the link if you are interested in checking them out: http://www.internet-grocer.net/2-half.htm . The other place I found has even smaller quantities and smaller prices, so that you could try some of the stuff before you bought for longer term. It is located here: http://www.barryfarm.com/our_store.htm. The items this place carries are a little more limited though.
The last dietary staple necessary for some (not all) is meat. This one you will most likely have to bite the bullet and get in the #10 (gallon) can from a survivalist store. The place above only carries canned meat and TVP (textured vegetable protein). You can get actual freeze dried (another form of dehydration) meat and cheese at many survivalist stores.
Ok now that I have shown you where to get the dried food. My next post will deal with what to do with it once you have it ......... buen viaje (safe travels)
Monday, January 9, 2012
Update: 2011 is Gone... YAH!
So I know it has been a few months since my last update. With the loss of 2 loved ones in 2011, I just had absolutely no time. Especially since the settlement of both estates has fallen to me almost solely. Mother's house is almost cleared out (thanks to some good friends). It doesn't look like that white elephant is going to sell and no family wants it. So it looks like the finance company will get it. It is just to much to maintain it all. Especially for someone who was and is trying to simplify their life (me :)).
I have been living in my uncle's house for a bit now. I have been trying to get things organized and cleaned up. He was a bachelor that lived on the road about 50% of the year doing his food concession business. Needless to say the house was a place that he crashed and recouped once the work was over. That being said most of the house was used for storage and just a small bit to live in. I now have the storage contained to one room, the rest of the house back to looking sort of like a house. There is still much to do and lots to liquidate, but I am starting to get a handle on it.
All of this has also included dealing with the lawyers and my three week stint of selling fireworks at the end of this year. So as you can see I have been pretty busy and with intermittent internet, it has been extremely hard to update my blog....but I have not and will not abandon it.
I have been living in my uncle's house for a bit now. I have been trying to get things organized and cleaned up. He was a bachelor that lived on the road about 50% of the year doing his food concession business. Needless to say the house was a place that he crashed and recouped once the work was over. That being said most of the house was used for storage and just a small bit to live in. I now have the storage contained to one room, the rest of the house back to looking sort of like a house. There is still much to do and lots to liquidate, but I am starting to get a handle on it.
All of this has also included dealing with the lawyers and my three week stint of selling fireworks at the end of this year. So as you can see I have been pretty busy and with intermittent internet, it has been extremely hard to update my blog....but I have not and will not abandon it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)