Paddle Meals

Summer 2008

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

To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

Yogurt: Keeping the culture alive

by Hillary Masson

While planning a paddling expedition in a new place, try breaking out of the normal camp cooking paradigm and get inspiration from other cuisines around the world. Having a diversity of meals that are beautiful, healthy and practical to prepare will expand your appreciation of cooking in the outdoors. Ultimately the diversity and beauty of your paddle meal options should be consistent with the diversity of your paddling destinations.

Lorraine Sahagian, a fellow “foodie” and sea kayaker, and I traveled together for ten days in a double kayak in the Sea of Cortez from Loreto down to La Paz. On this remote stretch of coastline, the beaches blurred together, but remembering each meal on the trip helped bring back images of the beautiful landscapes of each campsite. On some of our six-hour paddles we had lots of opportunity to discuss favorite family recipes and to dwell on the interconnection of cultural identity and sharing meals.

Lorraine had some wonderful tips for healthy and balanced Middle Eastern cuisine, where tangy homemade yogurt is used as a condiment for any meal. Yogurt is the connecting thread of her cultural identity through her association with traditional Armenian cooking. Yogurt in Lorraine's home was the responsibility of her father, a survivor of the Armenian genocide in 1915. He would make each batch of yogurt from the remainder in the bottom of the jar. This starter batch of bacterial culture was continually being made into new batches of yogurt thus “keeping the culture alive.”

Making fresh yogurt while kayaking is simple to do and will be thoroughly enjoyed with your meals.

You’ll Need:

½ cup plain store bought yogurt

1 litre (quart) milk

A thermos

Make sure that the yogurt has “active live cultures” written on the label. This will be your starter of friendly bacteria, which will turn your milk into yogurt.

The good thing about store bought yogurt is that it will not spoil traveling in the kayak if it is fully sealed. In Baja we can store it for a full six days with no problem. Once open, the store bought yogurt can go bad without refrigeration.

The Process

1. If you are making this yogurt for Day One of a paddling trip, you can use fresh, unopened milk. To make yogurt later in the journey, bring powered whole milk and follow the directions for mixing up the milk powder. Bring the milk slowly to just under a boil with low to moderate heat. The goal is to NOT bring it to a complete boil. The best test is when you put your pinky finger in and can withstand the heat for 10 seconds, the milk is at the right temperature to add the yogurt.

2. Blend well.

3. Preheat the thermos—boil water and pour it into the thermos while you are mixing the yogurt with the hot milk, then pour out the hot water, saving it to wash dishes or make tea.

4. Put the yogurt/milk mixture into the thermos, close the thermos and store in your kayak hatch for about 8 – 10 hours. The longer you leave it closed up, the more tart it will become.

5. Eat and enjoy this yogurt, and when there is 1/2 a cup left over you can use that as your own starter to keep the bacteria alive.

This style of unsweetened yogurt is what you will find anywhere in the Middle East. Traditionally it is not sweetened, but is treated like a condiment to drizzle over all types of food, three meals a day. Of course you can sweeten it with honey, and mixed with fruit and granola it can be a fabulous dessert.

So when you are traveling this summer in your kayak, you can continuously make yogurt, without refrigeration. It is only that first starter batch of active bacteria culture that has to be store bought. After that point you could be making yogurt every second night of your kayak journey. Thus, never running out of bacteria culture, you can keep the culture alive!