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Posts Tagged ‘recipe’

04 Jul 2012 | 2 Comments

Damper

Damper Giving it the Tap Test

Damper is an iconic Australian bush bread – a staple for stockmen, swagmen, drovers and indigenous Australians alike. It is similar to bannock but is traditionally cooked directly on campfire coals or in a Dutch oven. The recipe is simply water and self raising flour, but everyone seems to have their own unique spin. The recipe I followed is from Viv Moon’s incredible “Outdoor Cookbook”

Basic damper recipe

3 ⅓ cups self raising flour

Pinch of Salf

Beer (any kind)

Place flour into a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre

Add any other ingredients you wish to add. Mix in enough beer to form a soft pliable dough. This is usually more easily done with hands rather than spoons. If the mixture feels too moist, sprinkle over more flour. If too dry simple add more liquid.

Do not overwork the mixture as it will become tough

Roll into a ball shape that will fit into your camp oven. The camp oven can be lined with foil to protect the base, if desired.

Place in a moderate preheated camp oven and bake for at least 20 minutes before checking

Mixing the Dough

This was very simple and very tasty, I followed Viv’s recipe to the note. I used a trivet in my oven just to lift the bread a little and get the heat circulating. As ever with a Dutch oven it took a while to get the really good coals ready but it can’t be rushed. I preheated the oven and dropped the dough in, checking after 20 minutes – the bread had risen nicely and giving it a tap I got the tell-tale hollow sound. I added more coals and increased the heat to try and get a little more colour and gave it another ten minutes.

The Finished Product

The results were great. It seemed to rise more than bannock but didn’t quite get the colour of the skillet bread. Taste wise it was light, fluffy and delicious. We ate it with campfire chilli and had enough left for breakfast the next day. I will definitely be making this again.

Head to head against bannock I preferred damper; although it tasted similar it was a much lighter bread. It does however take longer to cook and requires a camp oven not just a frying pan or skillet.

If any body else has tried damper or has their own spin on it I’d love to hear about it.

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Categories: Recipe Tags: baking, bannock, camping, cooking, damper, dutch oven, recipe, Viv Moon

19 Mar 2012 | 1 Comment

New Hampshire Maple Syrup

The long wait. Syrup making into the night.

We did it, we made our own maple syrup! Myself and the Mrs we’re invited to New Hampshire to spend a day (and a lot of a night) making syrup. We had a fantastic time. While I’m sure most serious syrup makers would frown upon some of the finer points of our process, we gathered sap and boiled and bottled our very own syrup.

Although very time consuming it was really easy. We helped gather 14 gallons (53 litres) of sap from some pre-tapped sugar maples. We then built a big fire and sat out all day with some local beers tending and topping up the reducing syrup. From our 14 gallons we ended up with just 1.8 pints (850ml.)

Collecting Sap

This was put into the token, sterilized, maple leaf shaped bottles and left to cool. An initial tasting was unlike any syrup I’ve ever had. It is often said the real deal is a million miles from the store bought stuff, and while we do buy local Maine syrup, this was indeed very different. Unmistakable as maple syrup but with a caramel taste to it as well. Lighter in colour and a little less brash, it is fantastic and will be treasured through-out the year.

VHD Syrup

Big thanks to the Nimmos in New Hampshire for showing us the ropes and letting us take more than our share of the finished product. I can’t wait to do it again next year.

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Categories: Recipe Tags: fire, maple, maple syrup, New Hampshire, recipe

28 Feb 2012 | 2 Comments

Bannock

Bannock Cooking

Living in a city (a small one none the less) I rarely get chance to have a fire and it just didn’t feel right making my first bannock without one. Fortunately I was invited to New Hampshire to make maple syrup. This was the perfect excuse to try out my frying pan bread skills.

Bannock is an easy to make, no nonsense bread. Although it has Scottish roots it was also a favorite among native Americans as well as hikers, woodsmen and outdoors types. I came across a great number of recipes online and in various publications, they all have a similar base with other flourishes. The most detailed documentation was in Bradford Angier’s “Home in Your Pack.”

Angier’s basic recipe and his method are as follows.

One cup flour

One teaspoon baking powder

One fourth teaspoon salt

Mix these dry ingredient if starting from scratch, taking all the time you need to do this thoroughly. Have the hands floured and everything ready to go before you add liquid. Make sure your frying pan is warm and greased.

Working quickly from now on, stir in enough water to make a firm dough. Shape this, with as little handling as possible, into a cake about an inch thick.

Lay the bannock in the warm frying pan. Hold it over the heat until the bottom crust forms, rotating the pan a little so the loaf will shift and not become stuck.

Once the dough has hardened enough to hold together, you can turn the bannock. This, if you’ve practiced a bit and have the confidence to flip strongly enough, can easily be accomplished with a slight swing of the arm and a snap of the wrist. Or you can use one of the plate from your cooking outfit, sliding the bannock onto this and reversing the frypan over the plate and turning both together.

When is the bannock done? After you’ve been cooking for them a while, you will be able to tap on one and gauge this by the hollowness of the sound. Meanwhile test by shoving in a clean straw or sliver. If any dough adheres, the loaf needs more heat. Cooking can be accomplished in about 15 minutes.

I made a double batch and also added: fresh blueberries, 3 tablespoons of butter and an extra pinch of baking powder. These are all Angier’s recommendations for a tastier loaf.

Bannock Ready To Eat

I cooked exactly as advised and the results were fantastic. Crusty and toasted on the outside, fluffy in the middle with small blueberry explosions. Awesome with a little butter and some maple syrup. Looking forward to experimenting with different flavors. Cheese and olive spring to mind.

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Categories: Recipe Tags: bannock, books, Bradford Angier, bread, cooking, fire, Home In Your Pack, recipe

12 Jan 2012 | 4 Comments

Tea Chronicles Pt.4 – Colin Fletcher

Fletcher at camp from Complete Walker pt.3 illustration by Vanna Prince

This is a tea story I’ve been looking forward to posting but has taken a little preperation.

As a British ex-pat Colin Fletcher upheld the “Britanic Afternoon Tea” ritual despite having lived away from Blighty for more than a quarter of a century. In “The Complete Walker Pt. 3″ Fletcher details his approach to tea and hiking.

“A little to my surprise, I find plain, straightforward Lipton tea the best for sheer resuscitation power. Thirty bags see even me through the thirstiest week. I normally include a few fancier jobs, mint- or orange- or cinnamon flavored, for rest-day kicks.”

Fletcher goes on, in his unique and entertaining way, to detail the use of both tea, coffee and cocoa. He quotes a paper by the Addictions Research Foundation of Ontario. This gives the hard line on the effects of caffeine. Fletcher however jumps to the defence of tea calling coffee and cocoa “mere foods” and “such calumnies against tea are enough to depress the mood, if not the performance of an Un-British Activities Committee”

In weighing up the pluses and minuses of loose leaf vs. tea bags vs. tea powder he provides a recipe for a blend given to him by “a lover of tea and a hater of tea bags”

The blend is

3 parts Darjeeling

3 parts Keemun

1 part Ceylon

A dash of Lapsang Suchong

which, he avers can actually be smoked and “will cure all ills, including future smoking of anything. You carry such leaves in a Ziploc plastic bag and steep by means of a lightweight metal basket.

This I had to try, I sourced the various teas and the blend is complete. It’s a delicious hearty black tea- a no-nonsense blend. I am a big fan of Russian Caravan Tea and this is similar with Keemun and the dash of Lapsang Suchong but the Celyon gives it a lighter edge steering it a little closer to an English style tea.

A lover of tea and a hater of tea bags blend

I was so impressed I’ve made a full batch if anyone out there is interested in trying some shoot me an email and I’ll figure the best way to get it out to you.

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Categories: Tea Tags: Colin Fletcher, recipe, Tea, The Complete Walker

14 Nov 2011 | No Comments

Treeless Maple Syrup

After pack weight, trail food would have to be one of the most talked about hiking subjects. I am fascinated by the creative recipes written in older hiking books. The most interesting come from a time before commercial hiking food, when hikers managed with some fresh produce and dry staples, adding to their larder by hunting and gathering. Most recipes are fairly predictable rabbit stew, fish, beans and breads.

There is one recipe, however, that stuck in my head more than any other. Treeless Maple Syrup from Bradford Angier’s 1967 publication “Taming the Wilds.”

This recipe is for those living outside the North East who do not have access to maple trees.

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes
2 cups water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar

Peel the potatoes. Boil uncovered with 2 cups of water until one cup of fluid remains. Remove the potatoes and use any way you want. Stirring the liquid until the boiling point has been once again reached, slowly add the sugar. Once this has entirely dissolved set the pan off the heat to cool slowly.

It can then be bottled.

Being a newcomer to New England, and not having had the chance to make my own maple syrup yet, I thought I would give it a try. I’d love to report it was incredible but as per Angier’s instructions I am leaving it to mature. An initial tasting was accurate to Angier’s prediction, realising my “worst fears” flavour wise. He advised placing it in a dark place for several days the results of which he promises will be surprising. I shall report back once ready.

UPDATE: Results are in.

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Categories: Books, Recipe Tags: 1960s, Bradford Angier, cooking, maple syrup, recipe, Taming the Wilds