Healthy campsite food

[Galactic]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of a grater! How big is it? Do you have a link to something similar so we can see what you're talking about, size wise etc?

For some reason I can't upload images here, but it's a little hand grater, there are plenty of variations and sizes out there. On mine the grating surface is maybe 9 or 10cm long and about 6cm wide, and it has a handle about the same length. I saw a similar sized one in a local supermarket the other day, I think it was a Co-op but it could have been Sainsbury's. Worth its weight in food.

[Bmblbzzz]

Thanks.

Worth its weight in food.

[simonineaston]

I have just cooked the following and was mightily impressed by the excellent flavour, thus I pass it on. Its cardinal virtue is simplicity.
1 large onion, thin sliced
1 5cm piece of good quality chorizo, diced
1 cup of puy * lentils
2 cups of water
Having sweated the sausage and the onion gently until the onion was soft, I added the cup of lentils, 2 cups of water, 2t freshly ground pepper & 1/2t salt. Simmer till lentils are soft.
I’ve cooked this many, many times before and it always results in an excellent savoury-tasting bowl of food, somewhere between a stew and a soup in texture. Energetic cyclists will likely enjoy it with a couple of hunks of thickly buttered bread…
* any firm lentil will do - brown or green, for example. Wouldn't be nearly as nice with a lentil that goes mushy, like some yellow varieties do…
I suppose 1 criticism is that the cooking time can be lengthy - 20 mins simmer, for example, depending on the type of lentil, but on the plus side, they will soften under the lowest of simmers, at least in my experience.

[jackt]

I tend to use cous-cous or bulgur wheat as a grainy base, because they just need soaking in boiling water, rather than actual boiling themselves. Then some veg, cooked in the pot, and maybe some sauce or canned beans or similar. I'm not sure this is really healthy but it does at least include fresh veg.

I'm with Bmblbzzz on this, base carbs plus fresh veg and some bean or other legume based protein plus herbs/spices see me right, even over long tours of several months.

Cous-cous is ever so handy (pasta works, too, and some kinds of rice can cook in a thermos during the day - just pour boiling water in at breakfast time and it'll be ready by lunch). I also like the baby-muesli type stuff you get in Germany and other countries. Basically it's ground up muesli (oat flakes and dried fruit and seeds). Because it's ground up it's very compact compared to normal mueslis and makes for a handy, space-saving breakky.

Beans/pulses can be bought ready-cooked in cans or jars and are added at the end of cooking to warm up. Otherwise hummus, tofu, quorn etc along with nuts are other sources of protein that I use during the day (breakfast, tea, snacks).

Fresh veg, if it is to be cooked, is often the most difficult element in one-pot Trangia cooking. The thing that really maximised my fresh-veg intake while on tour was a small grater. Root veg and fruit like carrots, beet, apples, fennel root etc can be grated into the pot and are cooked through in just a minute or two. The grater itself is big enough to use easily, but small enough to fit into the top of my Trangia when I pack it away. Highly recommended!

Nice! I like this. Also good for cheese. Parmesan is a good hard cheese to add that certain salty, umami kick that I seem to crave after a day's cycling. Very good taste-to-weight ratio.

A vegetable peeler can be used to slice vegetables into very fine ribbons for faster cooking, or even eating raw (also works on parmesan!). It's all about increasing surface area. Some peelers have a julienne blade if that's your thing.

[simonineaston]

Talking of cheese & camps, a woodsman friend of mine and I were chatting about comestables prior to his popping off to land in mid-Wales this week-end. We recalled fondly that a trip to your local Italian deli was often fruitful. We both like hard cheeses other than the somewhat clichéd parmesan. We like pecorino & parmigiano, too. All three seem to keep well, especially in cooler seasons, like we’re in now. All three grate well and provide that umami hit referred to upthread.
https://www.tasteatlas.com/italy/hard-cheeses
Here in Bristol, the delightful family-run Licata deli in Picton Street, sell suitable rough chunks at reasonable prices.

[jackt]

Talking of cheese & camps, a woodsman friend of mine and I were chatting about comestables prior to his popping off to land in mid-Wales this week-end. We recalled fondly that a trip to your local Italian deli was often fruitful. We both like hard cheeses other than the somewhat clichéd parmesan. We like pecorino & parmigiano, too. All three seem to keep well, especially in cooler seasons, like we’re in now. All three grate well and provide that umami hit referred to upthread.
https://www.tasteatlas.com/italy/hard-cheeses
Here in Bristol, the delightful family-run Licata deli in Picton Street, sell suitable rough chunks at reasonable prices.

Cheese (and good food in general) being one of the big draws of touring on the continent, especially in France, Spain and Italy.

Pedantic point, isn't parmesan just the anglicised name for parmigiano? t's the same cheese, and protected by EU law (not to be confused with the nasty cheesy dandruff that we used to shake from a can back in the 1980s).

Some claim Parmigiano Reggiano is the perfect food: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2019 ... rfect-food

EDIT:

I see there is a fierce and long-running debate over whether parmesan is a generic term for a hard cheese (a bit like how Cheddar is used as a generic term for a kind of white cheese, it doesn't have to come from Cheddar in Somerset).

Italian parmesan/parmigiano producers appear to have won the argument in the EU, where parmigiano and parmesan are both protected and can only used to describe a very particular produce. In the US, this is not the case and parmesan can be used for any hard cheese. In the UK, post-Brexit, Parmigiano Reggiano is protected (as is Feta, and Prosecco, for example). It's not clear to me whether the name "parmesan" remains protected in the UK. I've not - yet - seen any Wisconsin Parmesan in my local shops.

[mattheus]

Oh my, the CUK camping forum has changed almost overnigt. :-/

All of a sudden talk is of eating pecorino & parmigiano in place of the "somewhat clichéd parmesan".

And jackt is promoting zucchini strips for campfire fodder. I can't keep up!!!

[Bmblbzzz]

Okay Mattheus, how about this:

I've just got back from three weeks in the woods, during which I fed myself on roots and berries along with meat I shot using a homemade bow and arrow. I admit I got quite hungry in week two when I was down to my last hundred grams or so of foraged flora and fungi, but then I got lucky when my camp was invaded by a family of wild boar, which I gave me the opportunity to bag a big fat sow. After roasting some ribs, I made a nice pair of pigskin gloves, gaiters and hat – not quite as warm as sheepskin, but after I almost got caught by the farmer skinning one of his rams, I won't be doing that again. Well, I thought it was wild, I mean it didn't have ear tags or anything. Anyway, that sow I shot was an old one, tough eating, but tasted so good there in the woods. I had to scare a buzzard off the last of her though.

or:

I've just got back from three weeks on the Tour Divide, travelling fast and light. Because I only had a small saddlebag and a bar bag, I had no room for anything beyond the bare essentials: tarp, bag, spare shorts... Not even a stove. That meant I had to eat whatever I could find in the few towns on route, and it had to stuff I could eat cold. I tell you, I got to be an expert at cold-brewed coffee and I also became quite addicted to raw instant noodles. The hit of the flavour sachet is so much more intense when it's dry powder! I admit I had a low point during week two when I couldn't get my favourite flavour (Bombay Bad Boy, of course) and had to survive on chilli chicken and a few Mars bars, but boy did I live it up when I got to McDonalds! And then I saw my credit card bill...

[mattheus]

That's more like it. Thank you.

[jackt]

Oh my, the CUK camping forum has changed almost overnigt. :-/

All of a sudden talk is of eating pecorino & parmigiano in place of the "somewhat clichéd parmesan".

And jackt is promoting zucchini strips for campfire fodder. I can't keep up!!!

Ha! Yes, we were definitely verging into Pseuds' Corner.

But I do think there is a bigger story about food while touring, or while doing longer audax events or whatever. I don't eat much junk food like pot noodles and boil in the bag at home or while on holiday, so why would I want to while I'm cycle touring? Nor do I particularly want to eat freezer-to-fryer pub grub or Chinese takeways for more than the odd night. And since cutting meat out of my diet for the most part, it becomes even harder. When audaxing (and even worse, ultra cycling) there seems to be a lot of petrol station cuisine. Again, ok as a last resort, a bit grim as a lifestyle.

It is a bit more challenging to eat well with a small camp cookset, and the ingredients you can buy en route and carry with you. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Slow cycling, slow food? Pass the pecorino, please!

[mattheus]

When audaxing (and even worse, ultra cycling) there seems to be a lot of petrol station cuisine. Again, ok as a last resort, a bit grim as a lifestyle.

It is a bit more challenging to eat well with a small camp cookset, and the ingredients you can buy en route and carry with you.

Did you see the article in Arrivée about picking up roadkill? I think pheasant a l'orange was one recipe!

[Jdsk]

...
But I do think there is a bigger story about food while touring, or while doing longer audax events or whatever. I don't eat much junk food like pot noodles and boil in the bag at home or while on holiday, so why would I want to while I'm cycle touring? Nor do I particularly want to eat freezer-to-fryer pub grub or Chinese takeways for more than the odd night. And since cutting meat out of my diet for the most part, it becomes even harder. When audaxing (and even worse, ultra cycling) there seems to be a lot of petrol station cuisine. Again, ok as a last resort, a bit grim as a lifestyle.

It is a bit more challenging to eat well with a small camp cookset, and the ingredients you can buy en route and carry with you. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Slow cycling, slow food? Pass the pecorino, please!

It's very interesting. More, please.

When touring through France we got a bit bored with restaurant dinners.

And I have the same feeling about pub food in England. This year's tour in East Anglia was better than the one before, or the Cantii Way, as there was some local seafood.

Jonathan

[jackt]

When audaxing (and even worse, ultra cycling) there seems to be a lot of petrol station cuisine. Again, ok as a last resort, a bit grim as a lifestyle.

It is a bit more challenging to eat well with a small camp cookset, and the ingredients you can buy en route and carry with you.

Did you see the article in Arrivée about picking up roadkill? I think pheasant a l'orange was one recipe!

I've picked up a few roadkill pheasants over the years. While researching Lost Lanes North I picked one up and was staying at the Wasdale YHA. I felt a but sheepish about preparing it in the shared kitchen, what with all the feathers and gore. I snuck in while nobody else was about and swiftly cut out the breast fillets. Did for that day's dinner and in sandwiches for lunch the next day. Threw the remains over a dry stone wall where I'm sure something will have enjoyed it. There is a way of skinning a pheasant without a knife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neeIcV2hsl0

[Bmblbzzz]

Zucchini strips sound pretty tasty to me, though I'd probably call them courgette.

[nirakaro]

... the somewhat clichéd parmesan. We like pecorino & parmigiano, too...

Hold on - isn't parmigiano just Italian for parmesan?