Tip`s and Trick`s

Honora, what brand is the corn based couscous and is it relatively easy to find? I'd be keen to give it a try.

Hi Stunted - It's Freelicious. Here's a recipe for corn couscous salad which I tried out. I think it's quite tasty because there's loads of butter and olive oil in it (the tramper's friend)! Serves 2 greedy trampers... 1c chicken or vegie stock 1 1/2 c couscous 2 tabs butter 1/2c chopped green onions big handful basil leaves 1/4 c olive oil (yes!) 2 tabs red wine vinegar 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes 1/4 tsp salt black pepper 1c half cherry tomatoes 150g feta broken into small pieces For trampers wanting to reduce their weight, I guess the substitution would be dried tomatoes and dried shallots soaked in a cup of water which is then heated to boil with a stock cube in. The couscous is added to this and rested for 2 minutes. Then you add the rest and mix it well. You can leave it to chill and add the feta and cherry tomatoes if you want to use them after it's cooled down but hey, either way works. They suggest pine nuts for the vegans/non diary folks instead of feta. They would be lighter to carry.

Keep an eye out for flavoured Cous Cous, I have tried chicken, garlic and lemon varieties before and they are all good. Also, crumbling half a stock cube into plain cous cous before adding the hot water will give you the same effect (add a little extra water- an extra teaspoon full or so). Dehydrated rice is quite cheap, buy a $5 bag and seperate into smaller plastic bags just before you leave. Add hot water, seal and sit for 8-10 mins. I also mix dehy rice/vege and chicken stock to make a basic pilaf. Just add salami and cashews. Beautiful!

Dehydrated rice Isnt this normal rice? Ok I know uncle ben do a nice quick cooking parboil rice but I just use standard basmati rice

By the way, powdered garlic from Bin Inn is handy when you want to get all fancy.

You can buy dehydrated rice from Backcountry Cuisine, no cooking at all, just add hot water and rest. No messing around with pots, cookin' etc etc. Very simple. The bag is a 5 serve, cost $4.95, break it down into seperate bags and you are away.

Im buying a kilo of basmati rice for under 5 bucks