Recipes

I have just bought a great little book called the New Zealand Outdoor Cookbook off TradeMe. Its a bit dated (1980's), but it does have some interesting recipies that I hadnt thought of before. I also have a GREAT camp bread recipie - its a little sweet (almost like a scone), but weighs about 75g for 6-8 servings and boils in an oven bag for about 25 minutes. Will see if I can find it tonight at home and post it tomorrow for you. Amelia :)

I've just managed to find a Camp Cookery Book written by the NZFS for long-duration trips (most older Forestry Service Huts still have camp ovens) I have recipes for: *Baking *Bread Making *Pies and Pastries *Scones *Fish *Fresh Meat *Venison *Vegetables *Soups *Puddings *Bindings, sauces & stuffings I'll post them all as they are in the book. If you want any recipe typed out, give me a yell and I will do it for you. To start things off and to act as a appetiser: PANCAKES OR EGGLESS PIKELETS: - 175g+/-of Flour - 1 Heaped teaspoon baking powder - 2 Heaped Dessertspoons of milk powder - 2 Level Dessertspoons of sugar Mix with water to a medium paste, then leave to stand for a few minutes. Drop tablespoons onto a hot, greased camp oven, turn over when many bubbles appear on top, serve hot with golden syrup or butter. SCONES: For good scones, the following tips should be noted: *Do not roll dough out hard-this makes tough scones. *Too much baking powder gives a salty taste. *Thoroughly rub butter into dry ingredients. (When flour feels like breadcrumbs, it's right) *After mixing with water, handle mixture as little as possible. *Cook immediately on mixing-waiting destroys baking powder raising effect *Test baking powder(bp) by placing a little in a small amount of water; it should bubble. Discard if it does not. Girdled: - 350g of flour - 55g of butter - 2 level tsp baking powder - Pinch salt - 1 heaped Tbspn milk powder Mix dry ingredients together and rub butter well into the mixture. Add water and mix to a light dough. Press out with the hand on a floured bench to about 12mm thick. DO NOT ROLL OUT HARD. Cut off squares with a floured knife, place into a greased camp oven and cook over hot embers for 5min each side or until brown. They can be cooked as bread, with the oven on and well covered with hot embers. This takes about 20mins. Fried: Mixture as above and fry squares in deep hot fat until golden brown. Alternatively, fry in shallow fat and turn when brown underneath. My apologies for being long winded but I hope you enjoy these recipes and if there is more demand, recipes will come. See you on the trail. Enjoy Scott

Here's another dinner meal for you hungry souls out there. MACARONI CHEESE Boil half a 1 pint mug of macaroni in a pint of water until tender. When ready-strain and add the following: - 170g Cheese cut up finely or grated - 2 Tbsp tomato sauce and 2 Tbsp of water - Pinch of Salt - Pinch of Pepper - Pinch of Mixed Herbs - 1 Small Onion(Cut up fine or Onion Flakes) Mix all ingredients together and lay evenly on the greased bottom of a small camp-oven. Place a few small knobs of butter here and there over the top of the mixture and cover only the lid of the camp oven with red hot coals. NOTE: Do not place camp-oven over the fire-just leave it in the hearth. Leave like this for 1/2 hour and serve. The above mixture can be used as a pie filling if so desired.

I too have just come into the ownership of what I believe is the same aforementioned The NZ Cook Book, this contains a lot of recipes ranging from Outdoor Cheesecakes to Tararua Biscuits (there are probably more recipes for Tararua Biscuits then peaks in the Tararua Ranges!) to omelets. Once again just PM me and I'll respond with recipes for the masses. Hope to here from you soon. Scott

This is a great treat for after a long day hiking plus a good way to make a few friends! Bring some wine biscuits and bang around to break up, mix with some melted butter and honey to bind together. Push into a shallow pot, we found the fry pan the best. Mix together cream cheese, condensed milk and sour cream and maybe some jam or anything else you may like. Pour over biscuit base and leave out side (with a lid on to stop pests!) until set. Delicious! Often best to have on the first few nights cause it requires a few ingredients. But if you dont mind carrying them its well worth it!

Here are a couple of recipes but you need a dehydrator - a must for anyone doing longer tramps. Long tramps have some specific requirements where food is concerned : lightweight, high food value, fast and simple cooking and, of course, they must taste good! For my money, this requires dehydrating your own. 1. baba ganoush spread for lunch – 2 eggplant (aubergine), quarter cup tahini (sesame paste), third cup lime (lemon) juice, garlic – grill, bake or roast sliced eggplant until soft, remove skin – blend all ingredients in food processor. Dehydrate until totally dry. Grind to fine powder (in mortar/pestle or food processor). Package in 30g lots. The reason for the fine powder is so that it will rehydrate instantly – only a few teaspoons of water are needed. 2. Anchovy Pasta – cook up a basic tomato sauce (can of tomatoes or fresh toms and tomato paste, garlic, chilli, garlic, herbs) add anchovy, sliced black olives and zucchini (diced). Cook until the sauce has thickened. Dehydrate and package into 70g portions. Add separately dehydrated straws of kumara (sweet potato), dehy beans, dried sliced shitake mushroom to make a total weight between 90 to 120g (depending on appetite). To rehydrate, put the blend into a reliable container, add a cup of water and put it in your pack for the day. It will be ready to heat and serve at dinnertime. Serve with soba noodles (pour on hot water and let sit for 2 minutes and they are done!) Add salami if you can afford the extra weight. A comment about the merits of noodles, couscous, rice and mashed potato : the 1st three are roughly equivalent in energy density (kJ/g dry weight). Mashed potato is just one third the energy (ie 3 times the weight for the same energy). Rice takes too much energy/time to cook (you can pre-cook and dehydrate rice but you need to be careful of bacillus cereus – it grows very well in warm moist rice and can make you very ill). Dehydrating your own means you can control the flavour and eat good, tasty and nutritious food – even on the last day of a 10 day tramp – selamat makan !

I have just picked up a copy of Andrew Crowe's book about native NZ edible plants. Unfortunately it does not have large illustrations characteristic of his more basic plant identification books - meaning you will need to have identify each plant and only use this book as a reference as to how to eat it. This is probably a lot safer than finding random plants and checking if they're edible though. Once I have made some nice meals supplemented with wild food, I'll report back. I'm thinking the first one I'll try will be a stew from dehydrated meat (possibly tuna) and bracken roots and some seasoning.

Good luck on the bracken roots. A staple for the Maori, it gave them liver cancer apparently from the alkaloids. I've heard it took a bit of processing, roasting etc. and that job may have fallen to the slaves. When the pakeha came with potatoes which they freely gave out so they could be cultivated by Maori for trade, the Maori were very enthusiastic to get this no-fuss easy grow food source. I'm all for free food and once collected a colony of golden mushrooms found on a rata stump. A Maori bushman from near Mt Maungatautari had told me it was edible and was called Harore. I later found out that's the generic name for all fungi but it certainly was fine to eat albeit a little worm-infested but after 5 weeks of no fresh food, we were happy to have it, flavoured with mushroom soup. He also gave me 'millionaires salad' from a nikau palm that he was planning to cut down.

I've borrowed "Simple Foods for the Pack", which is 200+ recipes for the trail (US). Yet to try any of them out but I think for gluten-free biccies using a dehydrator, they may be da bomb.