First night backpacking food
So on a backpacking trip, usually we are talking dehydrated stuff, bisquick, etc... I try to make up one really good meal, and freeze it in ziplocks, for that first night dinner. Can't last the trip, but the first day (and I try to schedule the first day for a long bit of hard hiking) a really good fuel heavy meal is fantastic.
So here is the recipe for one of my favorites
First day on the trail Ravioli!
I make up my own ravioli for this, but you can substitute store bought. Just make sure they are meaty and awesome, I mean, you are backpacking! No need to scrimp or count calories.
For the dough:
3 cups flour (should be the all purpose variety, I use whole wheat and bread flour interchangeably with this, and the recipe doesn't notice)
4 eggs if you really want to up the protein use five
1tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
some water
So the idea here is to add the eggs bit by bit until you have a reasonable dough. At that point roll it out and make little rounds, those are the ravioli, and need stuffing so where we go next is:
Stuffing
OK for this get Medieval. Forget that 99% lean organic free range beef from whole foods. You want ground beef that comes in a tube, should be like 20% fat. Fat is important here. Yeah it might have some horse meat in it, deal.
1 lb questionable ground beef
1tsp cloves
1tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 finely chopped onion
1tbsp chopped fresh parsley
as much garlic as you can bear
if you want to firm this up with some bread crumbs, or spice it different, I won't complain.
so for obvious this gets cooked in a pan, If you add bread crumbs do it at the end AFTER you drain the fat. One thing is that this, if you took my advice and bought the cheapest fattiest ground beef you can find, will end up with a lot of fat, drain that off and save it.
So congratulations, you now have a rudimentary pasta and a filler for it. Fill little packages of pasta with filler in the usual fashion. Put them in a gallon ziplock and freeze.
So you should end up with a frozen ziplock bag of awesome. That is the ravioli component, we also like sauce with that, right?
Sauce:
So remember that fat we drained off our cheap ground beef? I hope you didn't throw it out! If you did, it is cool, just throw a half a stick of butter in it. (remember we are backpacking, not counting calories, need them)
two cans of Ro-Tel diced tomatoes and chili. And go for the real Ro-Tel, you cheap cheap b'tards You think you are saving by getting the 0.69 off brand version, pay the extra seventy cents worth it. I skimp on my protein, I never compromise on my Ro-tel.
the fat, add in
Basil, fresh, or another herb, can't emphasize enough the importance of this. You are about to eat freeze dried crap for a bit, get some fresh.
a bout a cup of tomato sauce
2 tbsp of lemon juice
So all this mess can go into a bag, the easiest way to deal with it I've found is to keep the sauce and ravioli separate in two bags, combine them in your cookpot at camp. If you spice this right, it will keep for several days on the trail, the idea is to make it acid as all heck so the bugs are unhappy about it. Borrow some ph testing strips from your crazy uncle that does pool maintenance, if it shows up pink or red, you are good.
Happy trails, campers!