peas – BackCountry Cuisine

Meal: Tuna Casserole

After a long day of hiking nothing is better then jumping into a cool alpine lake. My wife and I swam for almost an hour before we decided that it was time to make some dinner. As we rummaged through the bear canister, we found our packet of tuna casserole. Perfect, for such a great long day. Filling and tastes amazing. Very creamy in texture thanks to the cream of mushroom soup mix that I put in. I use rice, but you could also use egg noodles. The egg noodles are more bulky and we only had so much room in our bear canister. Add some peas and some dried tuna and you are ready to go! Here is the recipe(all measures are per person):

1/2 cup dried or instant rice
1/4 cup dried tuna
1/4 cup dried peas
1/4 cup powdered cream of mushroom soup mix
1/4 cup cheddar cheese powder(optional)

You can use more soup mix to make it more creamy. By the way, the soup mix is great as a winter lunch too! It was an amazing meal, if you don’t have a dehydrator, then you can use foil pouch tuna, but it adds weight.

Tips and Tricks

The peas can take a longer time to rehydrate then other vegetables. I have been using a simmer ring on my alcohol stove lately to increase the heated time, but you could just as easy keep your meal in the cozy for longer too, if you are patient enough.

Gear Corner

We needed a bear canister for our trip into the Olympic National Park and instead of renting one, I decided to look for light weight options. The Lighter1 cam out on top for us. Not only was it the lightest bear canister I could find that was certified for use in Yosemite, but it also uses a metal lid that can double as a cooking pot. It is a great system and it worked perfectly for us. If you are in the market, check it out!

We may be creating World peas, but if your not careful, you may lose some knuckle hair in the process! I certainly did this week when lighting my new alcohol stove. Those mini bic lighters get you close to the action!

I made a youtube video showing how the new stove system works.

Meal of the Week

The featured meal of the week is World Peas with Chicken TVP (textured vegetable protein) and veggies. This meal comes from “Recipies for Adventure” by Glenn Mcallister. I added medium salsa to the recipe, so it had a great bite to it. The recipe is really simple. You blend peas, salsa, spices, bouillon and water until creamy, then dehydrate until it is completely dry. See Glenn’s website for more information about making bark. Then you add whatever type of protein and some veggies and you are ready to go! It rehydrated very easily and tasted fantastic. Give it a try! I get all my TVP from Harmony House Foods.

In the Gear Corner

I have been playing around a lot this weekend with different alcohol stove set ups. The tea light stove is crazy simple, but in order to boil 3 cups of water, I would have to refill it in the middle of cooking. It also takes a long time to get that little stove to boil the water. I made a Super Cat stove from a fancy feast can in the past, but that was way too hot for my little compact system. I decided to try the slower cooking Simmer Cat design with only one row of holes and it worked perfect! It takes about 9 minutes to boil 3 cups of water. This gives the food a long slow cook time. The stove only weighs 0.25 oz. Twice that of the tea light stove, but still so light that you barely notice the thing. The whole stove system with pot support, reflector, stove, windscreen and cozy weighs in at only 3.3 oz! If I add my pot and ultralight lid I get up to 9oz. Not bad at all for 2 people cooking dinner. You still need to add fuel of course, but that will depend on how long you are out for. It burned really well for my meal this week and was super easy to use.

Tips and Tricks

For my tip and trick this week I am going to save some of the knuckle hair you love so dearly. When lighting an alcohol stove with a small lighter, you end up putting your hand right over the stove. To keep your hand at a distance, use your lighter to light an eight inch long stick that is 1/16 inch in diameter and use that to light your stove. We all know how attractive that knuckle hair is, so be careful!

Have a great week everyone and remember to keep cook’n!

Dustin

Tuna Casserole at Hart Lake

World peas, a new stove and some lost knuckle hair!