Paddling Meals: Planning Your Trip - Some Suggestions

December 1999 - January 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

courtesy of Gabriola Cycle & Kayak

The following is what Gabriola Cycle & Kayak sends to their clients prior to the self-catered trips they run out of Loreto, in Baja. Most of this will apply equally well to trips elsewhere. Because you aren't constrained by weight and because most foods will keep for the duration of your trip, you can count on eating fresh foods. Pretty much anything you can make at home, you can make on a kayak trip, so choose a simple recipe you are comfortable with.

Breakfasts

Baked Goods: For early in the trip, these are a big hit. Get some from the grocery store or bakery in Loreto.

Eggs: They'll keep for at least ten days, and they should travel all right in their cardboard container (as long as you keep it dry).

Mexicana: Add onions, serrano or jalapeno pepper into a frying pan then the eggs, tomato, and sprinkle cilantro on top. The others ingredients should be chopped finely. Scrambled: with fries (potatoes cooked the night before) and bacon or ham.

Cereal & Fruit Salad: great for an early start. Don't underestimate how easy and original this will be (everyone else will be making pancakes!). Fruits with thick peels travel well. Adding a little orange juice, and maybe some cinnamon, is a nice touch. Mix up some powdered milk, or bring boxed or tinned milk. Toast with jam is original too you can grill it on the stove.

Rice Pudding: Great for using up leftovers add raisins, cinnamon and sweetened condensed milk, or powdered milk and sugar.

Hash Browns: Fastest if you grate the potatoes and squeeze the water out, or boil the potatoes the night before and just brown them up in the morning. Delicious with onion and garlic.

French Toast or Pancakes: You can make interesting ones by adding berries, apple, nuts, poppy, lemon peel, etc. These can be time consuming for a big group, on our two burner stove.

Cooked Cereal: Add dried fruit to the cooking mixture, so it'll re-hydrate (good for meals late in the trip). Or cook it up with coconut, milk and honey.

FOR THE AMBITIOUS CHEF:

Scones: Makes 8-12 small portions
2c flour, 1/2 tsp. salt,
1 tsp. cream of tartar,
1 tsp. sugar,
1 tsp. baking soda

Take 1 cup of above mix with enough buttermilk or sour cream to form a soft dough. Form into circle 1/2" thick. Cut into wedges. Cook on floured griddle until lightly brown (medium heat). Turn to do the other side. Peanut butter or jam or cinnamon spread on top is great.

Bannock:
4 cups flour,
3-4 tbs. baking powder,
1 tsp. salt,
1 tsp. sugar
2 eggs,
1/4 cup raisins
2 tbs. cooking oil

In large bowl stir flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Add water into a hole made in the flour. Add 2 eggs and raisins. Stir again. Knead, put grease on your hands and knead it in add more if necessary. Flatten dough, use a jar lid to cut in rounds, use griddle to cook. Makes 10 pieces.

Lunches

These are most often eaten on the go, so the simpler the better. We can pull out the stove to warm tortillas or soup, but doing a cold lunch means hungry paddlers get fed faster, and you get time for a longer siesta!

Sandwiches: For lunches early in the trip, buns from the bakery, cheese, pepperoni, & fresh tomatoes will be a big hit. You'll eat enough tortillas on the trip to make this choice unique. Buns will last 3-4 days. Avocados, if you buy them green, will travel well and ripen quickly.

Crackers & Cheese: You can serve these accompanied by fresh fruits, tinned smoked oysters, or sardines, and veggies with dip.

Macaroni Salad: Good for lunches day 5 or 6. Cook the pasta the night prior, and add at lunch time cans of tuna, mayonnaise, onion, carrot, and maybe peas. Get a small jar of Mayo, as it may not keep once opened.

Potato Salad: Good for lunches day 5 or 6. Cook the potatoes (1 big one, or 1.5 medium, per person) the night prior, and at lunch time add onions, vinegar, mustard, and hard boiled eggs.

Cabbage Salad: grate cabbage with carrots, add vinegar, Mayo, onions, raisins. This is delicious, and crunchy (which is a real asset as the trip goes on). Cabbage will keep for 9 days.

Bean Salad: Try tinned, precooked beans (a variety of colours and textures is nice) and add lots of crunchy vegetables cabbage, peppers, celery with vinegar and oil.

Tabouli Salad: You can bring a mix from home and add water and fresh veggies.

Dessert: Fresh fruit, cookies, chocolate, licorice, jelly beans, etc., are always great.

QUESADILLAS

20 burrito-size tortillas
750 gr. mozzarella or jack cheese
4 sliced tomatoes,
1 sliced onion,
3 sliced avocadoes

Over low heat warm tortilla, place ingredients on one half of it, turn it over so both sides are hot. These are also a good breakfast or dinner. Makes 20.

Dinners

Some basic principles to consider:

1. Our propane stoves are hot and it is quite easy to burn food. Plan to stir more often than you would on your stove at home. Items that will take a while to cook (e.g. potatoes) may be easier boiled in water than simmered in a sauce. Once they're almost cooked, you can add them to your sauce.

2. We carry all our fresh water for the trip with us, and have no opportunity to restock, so we try to be conservative. Meals that absorb cooking water are great e.g. rice, bulgur wheat use 100% fresh water. To cook pasta and potatoes, use 1/4 ocean water for boiling.

3. Fresh meat will not keep past day one. Chicken is good for dinner day 1 you could buy a pre-roasted chicken and just re-heat it on the grill. Beyond that first dinner, meat is always going to be dried and spiced (e.g. pepperoni) or tinned (e.g. canned ham, tinned chicken). It is best if meats can be added to the meal late in the cooking process, so vegetarians can have their portion before meat is added.

4. Fresh vegetables & fruits will travel well if you buy them free of scrapes or bruises, and if you wrap them in cloth, paper bag or newspaper, and then in plastic. If you wrap them in plastic bags alone, they'll sweat, and go bad very quickly. Citrus fruits are more forgiving, due to their thick skin.

APPETIZERS

Appetizers are not essential but helpful in keeping the hungry crowd off your back while you are cooking.

Humus: Great with bread, crackers or Vegas. You can bring this from home either tinned, or the dried, add-water variety. Once made, this won't keep, so eat up.

Chips & Salsa: You can make salsa with cilantro, tomato, cucumber & hot peppers. In the Loreto grocery you can buy round, hard tortillas that travel well and break into chips nicely.

Tinned Crab or Shrimp with Mayo on crackers is nice.

Smoked Oysters, with lemon cut in, are nice on crackers.

Stir Fry: With lots of fresh veggies, this is a real treat early in the trip. Add a few tins of cooked chicken towards the end, and serve with rice, pasta or potatoes.

Curry: Great early in the trip with fresh veggies, or late in the trip made with lentils or potatoes and carrots. You may not find chutney and all curry spices in Loreto, so bring these from home.

BBQ Chicken: A treat for dinner day one. Buy it 3 blocks toward the highway from El Pescador it comes with great salsa. Heat on grill and serve with boiled or mashed potatoes and a salad.

Chili: With or without meat, you can use tinned tomatoes and beans for a meal late in the trip.

Pasta Sauce: Tinned tomatoes are good for late in the trip. You can make a nice sauce with tinned mushroom soup, or with any dried mix (e.g. pesto) you can bring from home. If you are fishing, you might be able to add to your meal. Chorizo sausage, fried up first, is a nice addition.

BURRITOS:

900 gr. can of refried beans
20 burrito size flour tortillas chorizo sausage or some sort of spiced meat
250 gr. grated cheese,
1 medium onion (diced),
1 head of lettuce,
salsa,
250 gr. sour cream

Heat beans, in a different pot brown beef with onions and a clove of garlic (if using meat), heat tortilla on griddle, fill'em with the rest, and roll them up. These are the basic ingredients but you can add things like avocado, radishes, cucumber, etc.. These can be eaten cold as well.

SEAFOOD CHOWDER:

1 kg fish cut into bite-sized pieces (buy it frozen to keep until day 2)
1/4 cup margarine or oil,
2 garlic cloves minced,
3 onions sliced
4 cups of mixed vegetables (cooked)
3 cups of water from veggies,
3 chicken cubes
5 tomatoes diced,
1 tsp. thyme,
1 tbs. parsley flakes,
pepper to taste

In a large sauce pan over low heat melt margarine and saute onions and garlic. Add 3 cups of vegetable water, add bouillon (mashing to dissolve) and bring to a boil, reduce heat and add tomatoes. Cook 10 minutes until soft. Add fish, seasonings, & cook 5 minutes. Add cooked veggies and simmer until fish flakes readily and stew is heated through

Dessert

It is always a nice touch having something sweet at the end of the day. You can make something there are no-bake pies and cheesecakes on the market (you'll have to bring these from home) or go simple with chocolate bars or cookies.

Contact Gabriola Cycle & Kayak at 250-247-8277 or pmarcus@island.net Website: http://www.wi.bc.ca/gabriola/