Backpacking doesn't mean you have to leave good taste at home

While it's true that I loved camping as a kid, I'll be honest with you: It wasn't clambering around waterfalls or watching black bears and sunsets that stoked my love of the outdoors. What I really cherished most, what I remember best, was eating outdoors.

Those were the carefree days when Mom did all the camping cooking, before Clif Bars and GU Energy Gel became standard fare in my pack, and the only thing dehydrated on our trips was usually my sister, who always managed to get sick on the drive to Yosemite or Lake Tahoe.

Mom grilled marinated steaks and thick hamburgers on cruddy steel grates. When our crab pots caged juicy ones, she boiled them up in a big pot over the campfire. We had eggs and slabs of bacon for breakfast, fat sandwiches for lunch and never, ever, did we eat out of a pouch.

How would I survive, years later, venturing into the backcountry without the benefit of a 30-gallon ice chest stocked full of food?

Over the years, I've slowly learned to adapt to such demands without sacrificing taste. Aided by a freakish obsession with food, I'm learning to make dinners that are high in calories, relatively lightweight (though my gram-geek friends may disagree) and don't taste like packing materials.

Weight is always an issue when you have to strap on a 30- to 50-pound backpack and hit the trail.

You wouldn't want to haul a lot of weight on physically challenging trips. Those are times when freeze-dried food saves the day. They're convenient, tastier than they were years ago and a godsend when you arrive at camp late and famished. Mountain House Beef Stew never tasted as good as it did last summer when I arrived at Camp Schurman after an attempt on Mount Rainier.

I like to find a happy medium between packing fresh food and going light(er)weight.

If I make angel hair pasta with clams, taking along garlic cloves, a small Nalgene bottle of olive oil and good-quality grated Parmesan cheese is well worth the effort. Same with adding real cheddar cheese to instant grits or real coconut flakes to breakfast granola.

Niki Desautels / P-I

A yellow bell pepper brings a little added zip to the Smoked-Salmon Pasta.

On a May trip to Shi Shi Beach on the northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula, weight wasn't an issue because of the easy, three-mile hike to camp. So my companions and I packed in lots of fresh foods and carried extra canisters of fuel.

We made two kinds of curry with onions, bamboo shoots, red bell pepper, basil and coconut milk in two aluminum pots. In Jen's 4-liter titanium pot, we cooked jasmine rice. On harder trips, I'd use instant rice and fewer ingredients to lighten the load.

For breakfast, we scrambled up a dozen eggs with onions, bell peppers and cheddar cheese on a lightweight aluminum frying pan. We wrapped the eggs in flour tortillas with apple-chicken sausages, and washed it down with coffee brewed in a Lexan French press.

It was one trip on which we hiked out weighing more than when we hiked in.

Last month, when my friends and I headed to Spider Meadow in the Glacier Peak Wilderness for a weekend trip, we left the cans at home.

Smoked-salmon pasta was on the night's menu. The night before, I bought a 5-ounce piece of smoked salmon, froze it and kept it in a small cooler until we hit the Phelps Creek trailhead. (A lighter, easier option is to buy packaged salmon that doesn't require refrigeration.)

Niki Desautels / P-I

Other ingredients for the smoked salmon pasta include garlic, shallots, Parmesan cheese and basil.

It was a five-mile, relatively flat hike into the Glacier Peak Wilderness, so I nested a fresh yellow bell pepper in my cooking pot, sliced sun dried tomatoes into a plastic bag with a chicken bouillon. I wrapped basil in a paper towel, tossed it in with a couple of shallots and garlic cloves, poured olive oil into a plastic bottle and repackaged angel hair pasta.

All ingredients went into one large Ziploc bag, which I marked with instructions: "Saute shallots and garlic. Toss all. Add 1/2 cup water" or "Boil pasta for 5 minutes."

After a three-hour drive from Seattle, we arrived at the crowded trailhead, then split up some group gear and hit the trail. We hiked about five miles through forest, encountering a few deer, before the trail opened into a spectacular meadow with a stunning view of Red Mountain.

When we got to camp, we dropped our packs, dipped our feet in the ice-cold river and napped in the sun for about a half-hour. After hiking farther to Phelps Basin, we turned back for dinner.

For me, the best time of day is just before sunset, when your body aches a little, your stomach rumbles a lot and the hissing of an MSR backpacker stove brings genuine comfort.

That night I learned the cardinal rule of backcountry cooking: Be flexible and take things as they come.

As I prepared to drain the pasta, the hot aluminum pot dropped out of my hands, dumping dinner into a neat pile on the ground. My hungry companions heard me scream, "Oh no!!" but didn't flinch. A little dirt in the pasta never hurt anybody, we all agreed, as I scooped most of the pasta back into the pot, spooned smoked salmon mixture on top and sprinkled it with Parmesan cheese. Dinner was served and happily eaten.

The next morning, buckwheat pancakes with blueberries and real maple syrup made up for the dirt in our dinner. The lid of one of our hard-anodized aluminum pots worked as a great frying pan. A lightweight fold-up spatula flipped perfectly round, golden pancakes.

Niki Desautels / P-I

And for breakfast ... how about buckwheat pancakes with blueberries and real maple syrup? P-I reporter Phuong Cat Le, left, and editor Chris Grygiel whip out a Spider Meadow wake-up meal that's tough to beat, especially if you're not in a hurry.

Pancakes are great on leisurely trips when you don't have to get up early and hit the trail like we did the next morning. Instant oatmeal, granola or couscous -- jazzed up with dried fruits, nuts, wheat germ and protein powder -- makes more sense when you're short on time.

"We suggest eating what you want when you want and how much you want to keep up energy," said Claudia Pearson, food rations manager of National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) Rocky Mountain and co-author of the paperback "NOLS Cookery." "I suggest no dieting and being flexible with what you'll eat."

Variety is important, she said, as well as having a combination of carbohydrates, proteins and fats and keeping hydrated.

Pay attention to red flags such as headaches, soreness or grumpiness, which often mean you need to drink more water or eat more frequently.

Carry lots of nutritious snack foods that are easy to access and that you don't have to cook, including dried fruits, unroasted nuts, beef jerky, bagels, tortillas, hard crackers and peanut butter, she said.

On a weekend trip to summit Mount Adams, the second highest peak in the state at 12,276 feet, I whipped up an easy one-pot meal of ginger-cashew chicken with rice.

Niki Desautels / P-I

Seattle P-I reporter Phuong Le adds frozen blueberries to the buckwheat pancakes she is cooking at her campsite at Spider Meadows on Sunday, June 26, 2005. Niki Desautels / Seattle P-I

At home I had packaged all the dried goods, so when we got to camp we dumped the plastic bag of food into our pot, poured in water, added dehydrated chicken and waited for about 10 minutes.

But the real treat that night was a special dessert of tiramisu.

Spoons flew as we tucked into the pot that I had layered with Kahlua-soaked ladyfingers and instant chocolate pudding. Everything tastes better when you're camping, but tiramisu served at 8,500 feet with a twilight view of Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens is absolutely divine.

SMOKED-SALMON PASTA

SERVES 2

4 cloves garlic

2 shallots

Few sprigs basil, wrapped in paper towel

1 cube chicken bouillon

Parmesan cheese

Handful of slivered, sun-dried tomatoes

Smoked salmon in small bag (freeze overnight if possible)

8 ounces angel hair or spiral pasta

Olive oil

OPTIONAL:

1/4 cup capers

1 yellow or orange bell pepper, uncut

At camp: chop the garlic and shallots; saute with a little olive oil or butter. Add yellow pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, 1/2 cup water and salmon. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Add basil. Remove from heat and cover for at least 5 minutes.

Bring a separate pot of water to boil and cook pasta. When pasta is done, drain and then pour salmon mixture over. Top with Parmesan.

Adapted from "Beyond Gorp"

CASHEW-GINGER CHICKEN AND RICE

SERVES 2

1/2 cup cashews (packed in separate bag)

1 cup instant brown rice

2/3 cup freeze-dried corn

1/2 cup dry shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup onion flakes

1 foil package of chicken (found at Safeway)

1 packet Thai Coconut Ginger Soup Mix paste.

On the trail: place dry ingredients, chicken and soup mix in pot and cover with water; mix well. Bring to a boil; simmer 5 minutes. Simmer 5 minutes more (adding more water as needed) or until done.

From "More Backcountry Cooking"

BACKCOUNTRY COOKING TIPS

• Repackage everything to get rid of bulk.
• Follow the "leave no trace" philosophy; empty bags are good for packing out your trash.
• Consult your partners about food allergies or foods they like or don't like. "The biggest thing is to get everyone's input," Claudia Pearson of NOLS said. "A big part of backcountry cooking is having something to look forward to." It could be something as small as specialty teas or a summer sausage.
• When planning meals, group all bags containing ingredients for a meal in one large, marked bag, i.e. "Saturday's dinner." Write cooking directions on your plastic bag so anyone can follow them, i.e. "Add 1 cup hot water, let sit 5 min."
• Bring along foods you like and buy the best. They may be more expensive, but your favorite type of cheese or good-quality salami will taste better on the trail.
• Wrap vegetables in brown paper (not plastic) and leave them uncut so they stay fresh longer. Store them in a pot to prevent bruising.
• Consider fresh foods that give you bang for the weight. Garlic, shallots, a small onion or herbs like basil add lots of flavor.
• Scan labels for nutritional content and pay attention to cooking times. Choose quick-cooking grains, such as couscous, or find pasta that cooks in less than 5 minutes. Garden Time makes an organic spiral pasta that takes 3 minutes on the stove and 2 minutes off. (Find it at PCC and Larry's Markets).
• Consider what kind of activity you will be doing. NOLS recommends from 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 pounds of food per person, per day, depending on the time of year and activity.
• Bring at least one quick, no-cook meal in case of emergency.
• Jazz it up. Add dehydrated vegetables or chicken to standard macaroni and cheese; doctor ramen noodles with dehydrated tofu or a handful of fresh spinach. Add wheat germ to breakfast granola or textured vegetable protein to dinners.
• Keep a clean, healthy camp by making sure you boil the water you use to clean pots and pans; use biodegradable soap, and avoid sharing utensils.
• Uwajimaya and other Asian markets carry powdered coconut milk, dried sliced shiitake mushrooms, dehydrated tofu chunks, packaged curry paste and interesting soups, such as Tom Yum or hot and sour.
• Metropolitan Market, QFC and REI carry Just Tomatoes brand of dehydrated fruits and vegetables, including corn, peas, peaches, peppers and raspberries. They're a bit pricey, but terrific if you want to keep the weight down and can't dehydrate your own vegetables.
• Betty Crocker makes great instant hash browns and creamy mashed potatoes. You can find them at most grocery stores, along with Milkman powdered milk, Fantastic Food's instant mixes of hummus, black beans and refried beans. You also can pick up sun-dried tomatoes, tubes of pesto or tomato paste, soup bases such as ginger Thai, packaged peanut sauce, instant brown and white rice, along with Lipton soup mixes and Knorr pasta or pesto sauces at any grocery store. Salmon, chicken, tuna and even clams now come in convenient foil packets. Hormel sells a 2-ounce package of precooked bacon slices.
• I like Trader Joe's for dried mushrooms, Tasty Bites Indian entrees, whole-wheat couscous and a fantastic line of nuts and dried fruits, such as cranberries, cherries, sliced pineapple and mango.
• At PCC Natural Markets, I've found organic pastas that are high in nutrients and cook fast.
• Ballard Market carries bulk black bean soup flakes, lentil soup flakes and other bulk mixes. It sells frozen seafood and chicken chunks in bulk, which are great for any first-night meal.
• Whole Foods sells bulk textured vegetable protein, wheat germ, protein powder and granola.

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