Open Kitchen

WOODLAND SPICE: Carry this couscous, with mango, cranberries and a curry zing, in your backpack, and enjoy real hot food on your camping trip.
Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Using dried ingredients, eating well in the wilderness can be dirt cheap and easy.

by Adrienne Saunders

Some people are outdoors types. They hike, bike and camp in their spare time. I cook. That's my thing. But I've explored nature myself on occasion. Hiking through the forests, lava formations and waterfalls of Kauai far surpassed even my all-time best cooking moment, the time I tasted my first home-cooked coq au vin, Julia Child-style.

Now that spring is nearly over, the outdoors (and my outdoorsy friends) call me away from the kitchen more often. Surely there must be a compromise here. A weekend hike or overnight camping trip doesn't mean leaving behind my world of culinary bliss right?

Think about it: All the essential elements of cooking are available on the trail, provided we plan ahead. There's heat, utensils and ingredients. If it's so simple, perhaps we can re-create kitchen wizardry outside the kitchen. Last weekend, I decided to give the gourmet-backpacking concept a spin. I ventured into the Pine Barrens, the Jersey Devil's turf, and set about preparing an outdoor feast.

Because hiking requires so much physical exertion, the tools and rations should be simple, few and light. If you don't have a camping stove, just cook over the campfire. As for utensils, just bring a pot and a spoon. Plenty of people who say they "can't cook" have made macaroni and cheese with these very implements since childhood. Finally, when it comes to the food, many quality dried ingredients provide more flavor than their fresh counterparts because of the concentrated flavors that come from dehydration, and they're all available at the grocery store — no need for freeze-dried moon food from camping retailers. Sun-dried tomatoes and dried mushrooms are used by professional chefs specifically for their flavor impact.

I devised some tasty one-pot meals for my trip using many of these products. I came up with four dishes: an Asian soup with cellophane noodles and veggies; orzo with toasted pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes; creamy mushroom pasta; and a spicy couscous with sweet dried mango and cranberries. I bought a box of zip-top bags and the groceries for about $35. That's for four meals serving two people each.

I picked up my hiking companion/sous chef and got to work. We measured out all the ingredients and dumped them into baggies. Two of the meals require two steps each, so we divided certain ingredients into their own baggies, then zipped them inside the bag containing the other ingredients — kind of like the spice packet in ramen noodles. The noodle soup's optional portion of frozen vegetables can be packed in a soft cooler bag with an ice pack for a day trip. We loaded the bags, none weighing more than a few ounces, into a backpack with a gallon of water, matches, a pot, two spoons and a Coleman stove, and headed down the Atlantic City Expressway.

The soil lining the road to historic Batsto Village became sandier as we drove east. Reaching Wharton State Forest, we approached the nearby creek, dyed dark red from the cedar roots upriver. We lit the stove, popped open the bags and got cooking. As each meal came together, we improvised: pulling the pot away from the heat for a simmer (no temperature controls here), adding a little extra water if the pasta needed it, stirring constantly.

The Asian noodle bowl came together the quickest, and turned out to be quite filling. Dried mushrooms gave the broth depth, and once the noodles sat for a few minutes, they absorbed the flavors and thickened the whole pot. I was uncertain how the dried milk combination would come together for the mushroom pasta, but it turned out surprisingly well. It wasn't your standard Alfredo consistency, but the starch from the pasta helped the sauce coat each noodle. We added a little extra water and had to stir constantly to keep the dish from sticking to the bottom of the pot, but the piquant bite of the red chile was a perfect match for the flavorful porcinis and shiitakes.

Sun-dried tomatoes gave the orzo an appealing sweetness, and toasting the pine nuts lent a nice earthy quality. With the right ratio of water to pasta, the orzo absorbed all the liquid and created a creamy consistency. But the spicy couscous with fruit turned out to be our hands-down favorite. Given the proper amount of time to plump up and regain some chewable texture, the dried fruit added an intense sweetness that complemented the savory curry. The lemon zest, toasted with the spices at the beginning, did not give flavor as much as a fresh component to the overall heavenly aroma.

As we packed out all our leftovers and trash, we were both surprised to find our taste buds sated and our bellies full. The Jersey Devil may not have shown up, but it wasn't because our menu didn't tempt him.

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there