Dehydrated Meals For Your Trip

Sonya Muhlsimmer

On my recent ski trip, for two nights I was designated cook for five people so I decided to experiment with some dehydrated recipes. I borrowed and slightly altered one recipe from my friend Lisa, who is a big foodie and experiments with a lot of dehydrating, and has done many multi-day hikes so I was pretty confident that the meal would be great. I also experimented with dehydrating some dips. Note, I do not carry fine crockery when out on the trails - the photos were taken at home in my kitchen. I didn’t take a photo of the food on the trail, and I had to replicate the meals, you know to be sure, to be sure they worked out. Well I can say on the second time around trying these recipes I was still impressed, and I want to share them with you so you can have a feast on your next trip out. Enjoy, I know you will!

Breakfast with a view at Mawsons Hut, Kosciuszko National Park, NSWSonya Muhlsimmer

54 | BWA October 2018

I have not included the weight of the vegetables for the tagine as that is quite subjective, but just a list and an approximate of the ingredients. The weight only matters when you come to dehydrate the meal, and for the side serving of cous cous. When I made this dish I made it for five people. The cooked meal was 1.75 kilograms, and after dehydrating it was 220 grams. That was only the tagine, without the chorizo, then I carried two chorizo and cooked them prior to adding the rehydrated tagine. I didn’t add the chorizo to the tagine when cooking the dish as I thought the vegetables were going to be enough. But the night before our trip I was worried that this was not going to be enough for the five of us so I bought two chorizo to add to the dish, and I am glad I did this. With the side serving of cous cous, this meal was ample for five hungry skiers, oh also with a bit of chocolate for dessert of course …

This recipe makes two serves.

At home preparationChop the chorizo and all vegetables into 1 cm x 1 cm chunks. Finely chop the mixed peel.

In a frypan, add the oil, then chorizo, onion and garlic and fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until the onion is soft. Then add the vegetables, spices and mixed peel and cook for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Now add the tinned tomatoes, stir through and cook for about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft. Spread over baking paper and dehydrate for around 12 to 14 hours at 70 °C or until dry. Break up and place in a sealed container for about a week to condition the dehydrated meal. If droplets of condensation are found, dehydrate for a few more hours. Place into a zip-lock bag marking the bag as Bag 1.

Method at campTagine In a pot add the dehydrated tagine and 2 cups of water, leave for about 15 minutes to rehydrate. Heat and serve over the cous cous. If the sauce is too thick you can add more water, or if you want the sauce thicker, cook it for longer.

Cous cous In a pot boil 1 cup of water, add the cous cous and cover with a lid. Sit for 5 mins or until the water has absorbed.

Bag 1 (dehydrated vegetable tagine)

Bag 2 (cous cous)

Water 2 cups for rehydrating tagine1 cup for cous cous

BWA October 2018 | 55

For lunch, the food was divided between the five of us, and gee we had a feast every day. We did not go hungry at all. I took this eggplant dip, some hummus dip and other food such as falafels – which I made into bite size bits, sun dried tomato and sun dried olives to add to the spread. By the way, I cooked the falafels at home before the trip as they will last a few days on the trail, especially in skiing weather. Can I just say that the bite size falafels went really well with the dips. When I made this dip, the starting weight was 700 grams, and it dehydrated down to 130 grams, a small weight to carry for some delicious food, it was a real crowd pleaser. By the way, this recipe will make a smaller quantity from the 700 grams that I made which was for five people. Serves two to three people.

At home preparationPreheat the oven to 180 °C, or 160 °C for fan forced. Pierce the eggplant with a fork, place it on a tray and cook for 30 minutes, or until the eggplant is soft. Remove the tray from the oven and cool the eggplant for about 20 minutes or until you can pick it up and handle it with ease. Peel the skin away and discard of it, then add the eggplant to the blender. Add the garlic, tahini, lemon, cumin, chilli, salt to the blender and blend until smooth. Weigh the dip and take note of the weight, spread the dip over solid dehydrator trays or baking paper over mesh trays and dehydrate for about 10 to 12 hours at 70 °C, or until the dip is crisp, like corn flakes. Check your dehydrator settings and use the recommended settings accordingly. Then place the dehydrated dip into the blender and blend it till it becomes a powder. Weigh the dip again and take note of the weight. Place the powder into a bag.

Method at campIn a bowl or the bag you are carrying it in, add about ½ to 1 cup of water to rehydrate the dip. Generally the amount of water will be the amount of water that was dehydrated out of the dip from the starting weight to the dried weight. Or as an alternative, and what I do, I just add enough water to make a smooth paste to the consistency you like dip to be. I start out with about ½ cup of water, mix the water through then add in extra water in increments of about ¼ cup till I get the dip consistency that I like. Note, it may not be the same amount that was dehydrated out of the dip, more than likely it would be less.

Bag 1 (dehydrated eggplant dip)

Water - add enough water to make into a paste.