Beanfeast Outdoor recipe - trial run.

I have followed Tracksterman's adventures for sometime now. You can read his blog here if you havn't come across it before. Oh and here too, (thanks to Martin Rye.).
He certainly gets about and seemingly spends most of the year outdoors. Switching between China and Scotland. I wish i knew how he did it. He certainly has an opinion though.

At this time he is in Scotland, around Glendoe recently.

His recent posts and excellent video's i may add, was about trail food. It's in 2 parts. Beanfeast ala Tracksterman part un and part deux.
1st here
and the 2nd here.

It's not often i cook food whilst backpacking. I tend to just boil water and re-hydrate packet stuff. Usually i'm too tired to bother. Unlike Mike Knipe who has been known to take, Potato's, cheese, onions, sausage, bacon, beans, muffins, frying pans and god knows what else.

But these 2 video's i found interesting and thought i would try the recipe before i went out walking. So chose to cook it at home. I didn't want to chance hating it and then chucking it away leaving me with no meal.

It's simple to make, if i can do it anyone can. It's quick and its cheaper than buying packet meals.

So what did i use.

1 pan, (everything can be done in 1 pan)
A small knife
A spoon or spatula.
In the field a pot cosy would be required.

Ingredients.
3 tablespoons or a good slug of canola oil (rapeseed oil) its better for you as it doesn't oxidise.
1/2 small white onion - chopped small
1/2 tomato - chopped small
1/4 red pepper. - sliced thin
1/4 tea spoon of garlic but garlic flake would do the job
pinch of salt and pepper.
dried mixed herbs to taste
Tomato sauce available in small pouches or Tomato puree.
Dried chilli flakes or powder.
1/2 packet of microwave rice
1/2 packet of Batchellors beanfeast bolognase.
1 cup of water

Now you might look at the above list and think that's a lot of stuff but in reality it's not and it's not heavy.
My recipe is not exactly the same as Trackstermans, you can use any seasoning you fancy or have at hand and also any veg that you can get hold of.

To cook.
Boil a cup of water and put it in the pot cosy.
Slice the onion, tomato and pepper. and put it all in the pan with the oil.
Quick fry until going soft. A couple of minutes.
Add in the various seasoning and herbs.
Then pour in the hot water and bring back to the boil.

Pour in 1/2 packet of Beanfeast bolognase and stir, then add 1/2 packet of Microwave rice and stir.
I used microwave rice because it's already part reconstituted.

Once boiling put the pan in the cosy again for about 10-15 minutes. Tracksterman suggests 20 minutes but that long is not required with using microwave rice.

 {Chopped Tomato, pepper and onion in the pan with oil, garlic, mixed herbs, seasoning.}

 {Meal with water, rice and beanfeast added and almost ready to eat.}

Meal complete and its a generous portion. Too much for me today but then again i'm not on the hill. It's probably perfect after a long day out.

What did i think.
I have tried trail foods at home before and admit that they never taste as good as when your out. It must be the fresh air or the tiredness. I'm not sure which.
However, i found this tasted superb in the house so on the hill it's a treat i can't wait to try.
It set my taste buds on fire and i was licking my lips for about 10 minutes after. I managed to leave some for Sheila to try later on today.

I must say Tracksterman, (sorry i don't know your name), i'm glad you posted this on your blog. It has lots of connotations which i will look forward to investigating. Thanks very much. I give it and you  10/10.

For those of us who only get short periods of time out on the hill there is no reason why the ingredients cannot be made at home and put into an air tight pour and store bag. This would save time in camp.

I think it would also suit vegetarians. (Apology if i am wrong). I'm sure fellow blogger Judith will let me know if i'm wrong.

Bla Band Dehydrated Foods

  Outdoors Grub, who sell Drytech Real Turmat dehydrated foods are now UK supplier of these cook in the bag Scandinavian Meals from
Bla Band Dehydrated Foods. (That’s "Blue Ribbon" in English).

Currently they are offering 5 Main Meals only, which you can check out below.

  What caught my eye was the excellent Kcal count for the meals being a rounded 650 per meal, precisely what you need after a day in the hills.
  The price is a bit high at £6.95, but that is in line with other high quality meals, such as Real Turmat.
My current favourite is still Fuizion freeze dried foods but i am going to give these a try. Outdoors Grub have always been an excellent supplier so i am expecting good things from these too.

  One thing i liked was the package, the bag is wider than the depth and so easier to rehydrate and get every last morsel out of the bag without getting hands covered in food.

  The average weight per packaged meal is 169.2 gr.

Wayfayrer Meals walk

  A delightful, if somewhat chilly day meant we were out in the hills. All wrapped up and probably wearing to much.
  Our walk today included a chance to try out the Wayfayrer meal and pudding which they had sent to me earlier in the week prior to their release into the shops.

As we left the car, a couple of dogs from some small holdings, which were in our direction started to bark loudly. Sheila was hoping they couldn’t get out. As it happened we skirted away from them and then peace was restored and we were left with job of a short incline up to the mast on Hunger Hill. The views were exceptionally clear today. And as we turned 360 degrees to admire the landscape only the wind turbines on the next ridge line broke the scenery.

 On the way to Middle Naden reservoir

 Greenbooth Reservoir

 The outflow of Middle Naden Reservoir

Upper Naden Reservoir

  Our way up onto the moorland was via Naden Brook, where 3/4 of the way up we found a suitable spot to set up the stove and try the Wayfayrer Spicey Meatballs and the Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Wayfayrer Meatballs almost ready.

  Wayfayrer has been around for a long time but for us, it was a first try.

Cooking the Meatballs.
Notably the food is ready made so no rehydrating to do.
The meals can be eaten cold if all else fails but preparation is easy enough. You can boil them in the bag for around 7 mins or pour them into a pot and heat them.
 We chose to pour them into our 600ml pot. The meatballs were small in size which is what i was hoping for. Simply because it would take a lot longer to heat through if they were any bigger and of course your gas is at a premium.
Taste
Good aroma whilst cooking and a good colour too. I kept trying some of the sauce as it was cooking and it was nice and spicy with a good consistency without being overpowering.
The meatballs had good texture and didn't fall apart during transportation or cooking so that was a bonus.

Tips
If you cook these in the hills as we did then best method is to boil in the bag. But a larger pot would be required than we had with us on this occasion. 1Litre minimum.
If you would rather heat them in the pot then a non stick pan is recommended.
We used a titanium pot which heats up very very quickly and i had to be really careful not to burn the food. Simmering on most small camping stoves is also not easy when the wind is swirling around the stove, so this doesn’t help and takes a bit longer to cook through.

We thought that the single serving was a little small for us. If we had done a hard days hike rather than a couple of hours we would definitely require more.

Surprisingly, the energy per gram was a little disappointing. Per 100gr the Kcal was only 125. Or 1.25Kcal/gr. I would want much more for backpacking.

That's me washing the pan between courses.

Cooking the sticky toffee pudding.

I was a little worried when i packed this into the rucksack. I expected the pudding to fall apart.

This wasn’t the case. The oblong pudding was robust and still well covered with syrup.

Due to the problems i flagged up earlier with the cooking pot i had to break the pudding into smaller cubes so that it would cook properly.

 It may/may not look appetising in the photo below but it was in fact very tasty. There was actually more of it than i expected.

Taste

  My thoughts are that it was very much like a syrup sponge which i also like but a little stickier as you would expect.

  The pudding itself was a bit chewy, a bit tougher than i expected which shows why it had remained in one piece during transportation in the pack. 

  The sticky toffee was very nice.

  I found the quantity a bit too much and i couldn’t finish the portion. 

Tips,

Same as the main meal.

Again the energy amount per gram was disappointing but better than the meatballs. 2.93Kcal/gr.

Sticky toffee pudding.

Costs.
Main Meal £4 RRP and £3.50 RRP for the Pudding. Available at outlets like Blacks and Millets.

Our lunch spot was in bathed in sunshine and so good to feel the rays. The view (below) was indeed worthy of lingering while we had a second helping of coffee.

And then it was onward and upwards to Ding Quarry. Just visible on the skyline. (Pic below)

Leaving the paths behind the colours of the moorland bathed in sunshine and dry at this time were an absolute pleasure. We saw nobody for quite some time, so peaceful except for the odd ewe we disturbed.

Coming across a small beck winter still reminded us that it wasn’t over yet. With the lovely crisp day we could expect a probable frost this evening.

New Wayfayrer meals for 2012

  The doorbell rang and i spotted it was the postman. I wasn’t expecting anything and so it was a bit of a surprise to find that Wayfayrer had kindly sent me a sample of their new foods for 2012.
The accompanying letter states that these products are so hot off the stove that the printing of the packaging has yet to be done. So new in fact that i’m surprised that the postman didn’t burn his hands.

 The product that i have received is a sample of a main course and also a sweet. Both being to my liking, Spicy Meatballs and Pasta in a Tomato sauce and also Sticky Toffee pudding.
 As i always do, i weight the products that i am asked to review because sometimes things have a habit of changing between sample and Outdoor shop.

 The Sticky Toffee Pud weight is 208gr.

And the Meat Balls weigh 298gr.

  You may be reading this and thinking those weights are high but let me reasure you, these are not dehydrated meals. 

  As far as i am aware the new range for 2012, which is additional to existing product includes:-  Thai Green Curry and Rice, Chicken Jalfrezi and Rice, Spicy Meatballs and Pasta in Tomato sauce, and Vegetable Curry and rice and the Sticky Toffee Pudding.

  Cooking the above is either boil in the bag for approx. 7-8 minutes or just pour into the pan and heat thoroughly.

  We are both looking forward to trying these out. Sheila says the Sticky Toffee pudding is hers alone. We will see about that!

 More to follow after i receive requested images of the new range and pricing and of course when they have been sampled.