Here's the menu as I emailed it to them before the trip:
- Day 1 Dinner: Bengal Chicken Curry & Rice (with experimental chook)
- Day 2 Brekky: Porridge with fruity bites
- Day 2 Lunch: Cucumber & Cream cheese mountain sandwiches (and other varieties)
- Day 2 Dinner: Stir Fry vegetables in Asian sauce with Dahl on the side and a possibilité of fresh trout
- Day 3 Brekky: Pancakes with sugar and lemon or maple syrup
- Day 3 Lunch: Cucumber & Cream cheese mountain sandwiches (and other varieties)
The 'experimental chook' was my first ever attempt at dehydrating chicken. It worked reasonably well, but I need to cut it thinner, I think. I couldn't get it thin enough to avoid being a bit chewy, but my wife suggested that if I let it cool before slicing I might be able to slice it thinner.
The Dahl is a fantastic bushwalking meal. It dehydrates to weigh almost nothing, and rehydrates in a bout 1 minute flat! A genuine home made, home dried, just add boiling water meal. However, I tend to use it as a side dish, because although it's very good, it needs to have something else with it.
The stir fry was all fresh vegetables (onion, carrot, broccoli, capsicum, mushrooms, snow peas), except for the baby corn which I'd removed from the can before leaving home, draining, and putting into a zip lock bag.
The cucumber was an idea from somebody else who'd posted it to this forum. A fantastic idea, which I will use for most of my walks in the future. It's a bit on the heavy side, but the cool, fresh, crunchy slices of cucumber in the middle of a hot day's walking are exceptionally good, and the cucumber does keep for a few days.
The porridge was real porridge of course, with some dried fruit added. Soaking overnight, makes it quicker to cook in the morning, and the dried fruit will also be nicer if soaked with the oats.
Note that some of these meals required a large wok to cook properly for 3 people, and could not be done on any standard bushwalking cooking gear that I'm aware of. I don't enjoy the extra weight of carrying the wok and all the fresh veges, but it was not a long walk to the campsite where we spent both nights, and the fantastic food (just as good as anything I'd have eaten at home) makes it so worthwhile.
Bushwalking is a great experience, and where possible I like to avoid ruining it with horrible food. Unfortunately, on longer walks, it's a lot more difficult to have an interesting menu. And where walking solo (or self catering), I'll often get lazy and compromise on the quality of my food then too.
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