Quinoa Adobo Chile

The family and I recently attended the 2014 American Adventurist Mountain Rendezvous.  This is a fantastic event, and one half of their semi-annual series that gets together over a hundred Overlanding-oriented families and their rigs. 

Photo courtesy of Brent Haywood Photography

Many recent events have featured a Dutch Oven competition, and I wanted to participate this year.  As with many potluck events that we attend as a family, my goal was  to cook something vegetarian-friendly so my wife would be assured a meal.  We never like to impose her choices on anyone else and it's frankly ridiculous to assume.  In addition to being vegetarian, this recipe is also (accidentally) gluten free and could be full-vegan by either omitting the chocolate or using semi-sweet or other milk-less chocolate.  I had a lot of positive comments on this dish, and at least a half dozen requests for the recipe, so I consider it a great success. 

Pre-heating the oven. Photo by Kimberley Newmark

The other great success of my weekend was getting to use my freshly-built firepot tripod.  This shameless DIY clone of the excellent Roadii Firegrill (prohibitively expensive in the USA since they're built in the UK), was desperately needed due to local drought-induced fire restrictions.  It is wonderfully convenient to be able to set up my lightweight fire system anywhere that's safe and not have to bend or stoop to manage the coals or the dutch oven.  I've also got an adjustable grill-grate on cables for when I want to use it for grilling. 

Notes: 
The quinoa is already a complete protein, but adding the soy meat gives nice texture, flavor, and makes it extra filling. Substituting turkey or other ground meat will add nice flavors as well! This recipe is designed for a 14″(8qt) dutch oven and produces a nice thick chili.  Obviously it can also be prepared at home over direct heat or baked in a 350° oven.  I can't take full credit for the recipe, as I adapted it from one I found at camp-cook.com, but here's my version "as prepared":

Quinoa Adobo Chili

Directions: 

Ingredients: 
1 cup quinoa (easiest to prepare in advance, per below)
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
1.5 tablespoon cumin 
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 cans of black beans (recommend unrinsed unless sodium intake is a factor)
12oz (1 package) Lightlife Smart Ground Mexican Style soy filling (alt: 3/4lb of ground Turkey or TVP)
3+ tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive oil 
1 onion, diced 
1 cup corn (For best flavor, roast your own or use Trader Joe's Roasted/frozen corn)
6 cloves garlic, minced 
1 quart of canned diced tomatoes
1-2 cups water 
2 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, diced large
1 large or 2 small zucchini, diced large
2-4 chipotle peppers and as much adobo sauce as you can drain from a small can (4 peppers makes for good heat without being overwhelming)
¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate, chips or broken into chunks (I used Belgian 75% cacao, omit or use 100%/milkless chocolate for vegan )
1 bunch of cilantro 
2 limes
salt and pepper to taste 

Photo by Kimberley Newmark

Prior to departure:

1. Rinse the quinoa in a strainer until clear water is running through it.
2. Toast the quinoa for about 3 minutes in a cast iron skillet.
3. When toasted, add 2 cups of the vegetable broth to the skillet, cover, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. The quinoa is done when it starts to split open. Resist urge to season at this point, you're just prepping an ingredient.
4. Cool and bag or vacuum pack the quinoa for the trip
5. Measure and combine cinnamon, cumin, chile powder, and paprika into a tightly sealed container or ziplock bag
6. If sodium intake is a factor, you can rinse black beans and bag them now, however I prefer to include the starchy liquid from the can to help thicken the chili and add flavor. It's also way more convenient to just bring the cans. Likely no added salt will be needed if you use the liquid.
7. You can optionally dice and bag your veggies now as well, but I am recently forbidden from transporting cut onions in our camper's fridge, so I elected to prep the veg on-site.

Simmering away over the coals. Photo by Kimberley Newmark

In camp:

1. Pre-heat the 14″ dutch oven with a solid circle of ~28 briquettes on the bottom.
2. Chop the Onion and mince garlic.
3. Dice peppers and zucchini, if not done at home.
4. When Dutch oven is hot, add the olive oil & onions. Saute the onions until they start to change color then add the garlic and veggie "meat". Just brown the soy meat for texture, but cook until no-longer pink if using real meat (about 2 min).
5. Add chipotles and adobo sauce and the dry spices. Stir mixture for about 3 minutes.
6. Add the tomatoes and their liquid, black beans, bell peppers, quinoa, zucchini, and ~1 cup of water. Mix well.
7. Move 1/2 the briquettes to the lid of the Dutch oven to form a ring. Reform the bottom briquettes into one ring.
8. Let mixture simmer for about 15 min then mix in the chocolate.
9. Check thickness of chili: If mixture is too tight, add water and let it simmer covered for another 5 min. If too loose, remove the lid and let simmer uncovered 5-10 minutes to thicken.
10. Garnish with fresh cilantro and a slice of lime. (Can't emphasize this enough - the late addition of acid really brightens up all the veggies!)

Enjoy!

Photo by Kimberley Newmark

Breakfast Quesadillas

I like think I know a fair amount about cooking. I'm no pro chef, but I'm friends with several of those, and on my good days I like to believe that the difference between them and me is less about outright knowledge and more the level of craft that they bring to the kitchen.
But every now and then, I get smacked in the face by some technique that is so simple, yet utterly brilliant, that I'm reminded how much there is left for me to learn.  I remember watching my neighbor make her German Potato salad with the intention of documenting her amorphous "recipe", only to be more struck by her ability to speed-peel five pounds of boiled potatoes in seconds flat.  Watching that simple action changed everything for me, and I pass it along whenever I can.
Well here I am again.  Someone just smacked me with a dead-simple solution to an old problem: Making breakfast (Egg) Quesadillas without dirtying two pans and without having the eggs fall out all over...
The solution from the dirty gourmet is to start the eggs like an omelette.  Let them start to setup, then apply a tortilla and flip.  Add the rest of the ingredients and the second tortilla, and voila', an egg quesadilla where the egg is a perfectly distributed fluffy pancake layer.

I was so excited by the revelation , I made these for dinner that very night.  They were perfect, and excellent.  And typically, I didn't take any pictures.

That however leads me on my normal path of "leftovers for breakfast".  Of course breakfast is a necessarily smaller meal, since I find I only need a few hundred calories to jump-start my morning, so I've experimented with reducing the portions and calories further.

Today's Breakfast: Open-faced egg quesadilla on a corn tortilla,  with chicken breast, sauteed vidalia onion, and green chiles.  Pico de gallo and avocado on the side.  

The cheese provides a large chunk of the calories, but it isn't really a quesadilla without it.  Since this method still yields good results with a single corn tortilla underneath, it's manageable.  Even so, this is a bit of a splurge at 380 calories.  Serving the same ingredients as an omelette with 1/2 as much cheese and sans tortilla would have brought this in at 275 calories.

For camping/overlanding purposes, I think I'll stick to the full "two tortilla" recipe from the Dirty Gourmet - it will be simpler to manage and easier to eat and clean-up, and the extra calories are never missed during a day on-trail.  For dieting at home, open-faced is fantastic!

Overlander's "Pita Pockets"

This recipe is another favorite of our daughter.  I make it often at home, but I originally learned it from another family while camping in Tahoe many years ago.  We call them "Pita Pockets" because our daughter loves the way that sounds, but these are pretty free-form, ethno-culinarily speaking, so you can experiment to fit your tastes.

The winning part of this meal from the kid perspective is that they get to assemble it themselves, and control what goes into their own pocket.

Like many good overlanding recipes, this one permits a lot of prep work to be done at home, making in-camp cooking a relatively easy job - makes my life easy and lets me enjoy a beer and the scenery instead of slaving away for too long.  (Although, if you have a lazy afternoon, fresh-cut veggies will retain a bit more 'snap'.)  It's also vegetarian-compatible, which is a big plus for the wife.  This recipe is basically one-pan or no-pan, but does require refrigeration (or a cooler) and a grill is better than a burner for this one.  As listed, should feed a family of 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 1lb of Lamb, Beef, or Chicken, optionally marinated (see Method)
• Substitute (or add) grilled or roasted mushroom slices or falafel for vegetarian compatibility
• 2C Lettuce - Romaine, Red-Leaf, or Spring mix (optional)
• 1-2C Tomato - dice one large tomato or halve/quarter a big handful of small grape or cherry tomatoes, depending on taste
• 1-2 Persian or Pickling Cucumbers (preferred), or 1/3 English Cucumber, 1/4" dice
• 1/4 to 1/2 Onion, white or sweet, finely diced 
• 1/2C Feta Cheese
• 1/2C Kalamata Olives, seeded & halved or sliced
• Tzatziki Sauce - Packaged fresh, or DIY for the ambitious
• 4 Whole Pitas or 4-8 Flatbread rounds
• Basque Marinade (optional)
• Garlic Salt (optional)
• Hummus (optional)

Hardware:

• Lots of ziplock bags
• Grill or heavy pan
• Heat source (grill or campfire is best, burner will work also)
• Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil
• Grilling tongs

Method:

1. Prior to departing for your trip, wash and dice all of the vegetables except tomatoes and lettuce.  Pack them individually in heavy-duty ziplock bags or Tupperware type containers.  If using bags, double-bag the onions.  Trust me on this.  
2. If using grape or cherry tomatoes, you can safely quarter or halve them as well.  If using a juicy beefsteak or roma tomato, you may be better off leaving it whole and dicing on-site, as it may just turn itself into salsa if you pre-dice.
3. Wash and tear your (optional) lettuce or spring-mix into smallish bits and bag with a paper towel to absorb extra moisture.
4. Depending on your meat preference, you may want to start a marinade at this point.  Nothing other than a little garlic salt just prior to grilling is really needed, but if you want to punch up the flavor, I highly recommend Basque Marinade/Meat Tenderizer.  It seems to be readily available in the marinade/bbq-sauce section of every mega-mart grocery store I've ever been in.  For beef or especially lamb, just put the meat in a zip top bag and splash in enough of the marinade to roughly cover.  Double-bag the meat for safety against leaks, and toss in the cooler or fridge.  For chicken, the Basque marinade still tastes great, but the marinade is slightly acidic (vinegar), so it will result in rubbery chicken if you marinade for more than a couple of hours.  Another note on chicken: I normally prefer bone-in thighs whenever I'm cooking chicken, but for general ease of preparation/eating/cleanup in-camp, boneless breasts are probably a better choice if you choose chicken.  Optionally, you could even pre-cook chicken (any cut) then slice to a large-dice before leaving, then simply re-warm in a pan then toss with 2Tsp of the Basque marinade, but this wouldn't be my preference unless you really want a dead-easy meal prep and you're eating this meal on Day 1.
5. Once in camp, prepare your fire, grill, or burner.
6. If you prefer to eat pitas as actual pockets, slice them in half now.  There are a few methods to handle the bread:  The easiest is to stack them and wrap in heavy duty foil to make a "packet".  When you start grilling the meat, place this packet near the heat source, like the corner or the grill or the side of the fire, but not over direct heat.  Turn the packet occasionally (use tongs!).  The bread should be sufficiently warm and slightly steamed at service time.  Alternatively, you can warm the bread in a pan for ~1 minute per side, then transfer to a foil packet to keep warm.  This works better for flatbread than pita.  Finally, you can simply "toast" the flatbread over an open burner.  This does NOT work for pita at all...
7. Grill your meat to preferred temperature.  On the small folding "grill" (really a brazier) we use when overlanding, only a minute or two per side is needed for most cuts of beef or lamb with the very hot fire I get from lump charcoal.  You can also pan-roast your meat if you only have a burner.
8. Rest the meat for a few minutes after cooking, then slice to a large dice
9. And finally: Pita-Pockets, Assemble!  Help the kids open up your warmed pita halves, or use a whole flatbread like a gyro wrapper, and assemble your sandwich with preferred mix of veggies, meat, Tzatziki or Hummus dip, and cheese.  Have a plate and a spoon handy for the kids to eat the filling as it falls;  my daughter, at least, has yet to master holding things horizontally and eating from the end, rather than the middle.  Usually at least half her sandwich is eaten like a salad or "bowl" after the bread is consumed, but that's half the fun.  I usually pair this meal with pita chips as it lets the family start in on the hummus  and Tzatziki dips while I do the cooking.  This keeps the hungry-kid complaints to a minimum.

Update 2014-06-10: Dietary Notes:

Wanted to add a couple of notes for any Overlanders who are counting calories, like me:  Using half-pitas in pocket form is about 40 calories per sandwich, versus ~150 calories if you use a whole flatbread.  That's a worthwhile change and the size of the pita will also force a bit or portion control in terms of filling.  Leaving out the meat or cheese is an obvious possibility, but choosing a lean bit of tri-tip steak and a good Low-Fat Feta Cheese (I like Trader Joes') doesn't add too many calories if you keep the portions reasonable.  Definitely skip the pre-dinner Pita-Chip and hummus course, though, unless you did a lot of hiking that day.

...Cajun Salmon and Pilaf a la Ara

Readers of my other blog will know that one of my hobbies is Overlanding - vehicle-based, self-reliant adventuring.  Basically it's what Car-Camping used to be, in the days before ubiquitous good roads, campgrounds, and RVs.  Get into a 4x4, and go someplace, away from other people whenever possible.  The main trade-show and annual center-of-gravity for this hobby in North America is Overland Expo.  I attended last year with the goal to "Get Outfitted. Get trained. Get inspired. Get going..." as their motto reads.

Mixed in with the training on how to safely recover a stuck vehicle using a winch, how to build your First Aid kit to avoid problems at border crossings, and how to get your wife to go with you, I took a great little class called "One Pan Cooking and Provisioning (No Fridge)".  The first half of the course title sounds like any one of hundreds of cookbooks for frustrated housewives, but the second half gives away the secret.  Ara Gureghian and his dog Spirit overland full-time on a BMW motorcycle and sidecar.  Ara is also a classically European-trained chef, so when presented a very tasty lesson on how to plan and provision for meals that don't require refrigeration, and are easy to prepare, I made sure to pay attention.

Like most great recipes, Chef Ara taught a method, more than a list of ingredients.  In fact, no recipes were ever provided for the class (although a few of his are available from his website.)  Upon returning home, I was anxious to try to replicate some of what I'd tasted - I think he'd be proud, and my wife certainly approved.

The "cajun" salmon is an ongoing favorite of mine because it's simple to prepare, packs a big flavor, and most importantly is an approved "go-to" protein for a meat-eater who has to cook for a Lacto-ovo-pesco-vegetarian every day.  I won't go into detail here but it's basically oil and some variant on a spice rub (Emeril's Bayou Blast, for example) in a hot pan.  I prepared it alongside this new side dish mostly as a hedge against culinary failure - you never want to go hungry because you blew the new side dish.  It turns out, I needn't have bothered.  Choosing a combination of quality fresh veggies and dry foodstuffs, adding some herbs, oil and a good hard cheese results in an easy one-pan meal that is filling and satisfying.  More often that not these days, I prepare this solo, instead of as a side dish, though I still usually need a standalone protein for the toddler as she has not yet latched on to the adult quality of these flavors.

As I've said, it's more of a method than a recipe, but here's my best attempt to present for those who'd wish to emulate.

Ingredients:

• ~1/2 Onion, white or yellow, coarsely chopped.
• Largeish handful or two of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved or quartered
• Handful of fresh or frozen peas
• Handful of diced carrot (when camping I just put a big handful of frozen peas & carrots mix into a zip back and toss it in the fridge, but fresh would be fine too)
• 1-2C of fresh zucchini, squash, or whatever else looks good
• At least 1/4c of a good cheese.  Hard cheeses survive w/o refrigeration, soft ok in a coldbox.
• Herbage.  I like chopped basil, but parsley or whatever else will work too.
• Whatever other sundries sound good to you: slivered Almonds, Olives, sun-dried Tomatoes, etc.
• 1C of your favorite dry starch.  I started with long-grain rice, and have also done Qinoa, but our current favorite is a wonderful "mix" from Trader Joes that includes, Rice, Orzo, Qinoa, Couscous, and some yellow lentils, IIRC.
• 1-2C of water or your favorite stock (appropriate volume for your selected starch, as this ratio varies)
• Appropriate Oil of your choice
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

1. Heat a couple tablespoons of oil in your big pan and sweat (or saute) the onion and whatever other aromatics you're using. Sweat vs. saute depends on the flavors you're going for and what your heat control is like.  My Coleman white-gas camp stove really only runs well on "high", so I work fast in the field.
2. Add in any "hard" veggies if they'll need a while to cook.  Ripe zucchini or mushrooms cook fast enough that I tend to add them after the next step:
3. Add your starch and saute the grains/pasta until GB&D.
4. Add remaining ingredients except cheese, but reserve a small handful of herbs and sliced tomato for garnish.  Season to taste. Cook briefly.
5. Add appropriate volume of liquid for your starch.  Cover, reduce heat, and cook for the appropriate amount of time.  (Pasta ~10 minutes, Qinoa/Rice ~20 minutes, etc.)
6. When starch is cooked and liquid absorbed, grate in a hefty volume of hard cheese (or crumble in soft cheese), toss, re-season, and plate up.  Garnish with reserved herbage and tomato.

Makes more than you'd expect.  Enough for 2-4 as a main, or many more as a side.