Wednesday 21 April 2010

A heavy load to carry

I need to reduce the weight of my pack. I'm at 10Kg before I add food and water, and I'm still shy a couple of essentials.

Also: need walking poles.

Jetboil cookery

After being disappointed with the recipes on offer at the Jetboil site, I wanted to have a go at my own. These were both made in the PCS cup and will serve one person nicely. In both cases I periodically re-start the flame to reheat the Jetboil, but given how well the cozy keeps the heat in the pot this might even be redundant. Anyway, I present: risotto, and sponge with custard!

Mushroom and Sundried Tomato Risotto

Equipment:
  • Jetboil PCS cup


Ingredients:
  • 20g butter or oil
  • 100g Risotto rice
  • 5 dried porcini mushrooms
  • 5 dry sun-dried tomato pieces
  • 1 chicken stock cube


Method:

Put the butter in the bottom of the Jetboil cup and melt it over a low heat. Add the rice and fry gently for up to 1 minute.

Add water up to the maximum fill line and stir to make sure the rice isn't sticking to the bottom.

Crumble the stock cube and add it to the water. Turn up the heat a little and place the lid on the pot until the water boils. Keep an eye on it at this point as it will boil over quickly if left unattended.

Remove the lid and stir again to make sure the rice isn't sticking. Add the mushroom and sun-dried tomato pieces.

Bring back to the boil with the lid on then turn the gas off completely.

Let sit for 5 or so minutes then stir, making sure to scrape the bottom of the cup. Replace the lid and return to the boil again before once more extinguishing the flame.

Repeat this process 3 or 4 times until the water is almost completely absorbed by the rice. The rice grains should be soft but with a hint of hardness at the centre.

Add pepper to taste, and if you've got some, a teaspoon or two of lemon juice. Magic.

Steamed syrup sponge with custard

Equipment:
  • Jetboil PCS cup
  • Jetboil pot support
  • Jetboil measuring cup/fluxring cover
  • Cup or small metal ramekin


Sponge Ingredients:
  • 20g butter
  • 20g self-raising flour
  • 20g caster sugar
  • 1 Tbsp milk powder
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 1 Tbsp Golden syrup, honey, jam or whatever


Custard Ingredients:
  • 1 heaped Tbsp milk powder
  • 1 heaped Tbsp custard powder
  • 2 tsp sugar


Method:

Mix the dry ingredients together in advance and add the egg and butter on the trail. Or, if you're game, you can add the butter and/or the egg in advance too!

Put the put support, or another suitable frame (an egg ring would do,) in to the bottom of the PCS cup. The ramekin is going to sit on top of it. Add water to the PCS cup up to the top of the pot support.

Put the Golden syrup into the bottom of the ramekin.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together in the measuring cup and spoon them in to the ramekin on top of the syrup. Lower the ramekin down on top of the pot support. If it floats, you've got too much water in your Jetboil!

Pop the lid on and light the flame. Bring the water to a gentle boil then turn off the flame. Wait 5 minutes. Turn the flame on again and bring the water back to the boil. Turn off the flame. Repeat. In 15-20 minutes you should have a nice fluffy looking sponge in your ramekin! If you resisted taking the lid off to peek, and you blocked the holes in the lid to create a pressure cooker environment, it'll cook faster.

Give it a moment to cool down, then lift the ramekin out of the PCS cup.

Now at this point I removed the pot support from the PCS cup but left the water in for making the custard, because I'm hardcore. If you don't like that idea, replace it and start again. 1 cup (250ml) of water will yield a lot of custard!

Add the milk powder, custard powder, and sugar to the water and stir vigorously to ensure it dissolves instead of clumping. Bring the water to a boil to thicken the custard.

If you turn the ramekin upside-down the sponge should pop right out, covered in gooey syrup. You can either drop it straight into the custard and eat from the pot, or use a separate bowl.

Bon appetit.