Cooking aboard or outdoors

Thinking people warned of the bubble years ago. The mega construction companies knew and deversified into Heathrow Airport, Shipping lines.......

 

Like most convenience or liquor stores in Southern California, the one down the street carries Mexican dried shrimp in among the peanuts and other snacks.

It occurred to me tonight that those dried shrimp could probably be combined with a basic white sauce and some seasonings, to make a very tasty pasta sauce.

Pasta, dried shrimp, canned evaporated milk, flour, butter or margarine in a squirt bottle, dried green onions, herbs and spices... all ingredients not needing refrigeration or a lot of space.

Are you there, James? This sounds like something that could use your expertise.

 

Hmm...dried shrimp. Ive never seen it. Are they salty?

 

They are salty and not very big ,--I can get about 100 in my mouth in one go.


But dont get them wet or they wont be dried shrimp any more and look more like mushy peas which is much cheaper anyway

 

Your quite right Troy.

I've had great success with dried shrimp, fried shallots, dried peas and dried egg powder along with some rice and seasonings to make a reasonable copy of an asian fried rice type of meal.

Similarly I've made risotto too, using dried mushrooms, fried shallots and a UHT box of stock. A stock cube might work, but are generally of a poor quality.

Penne pasta and a small box of UHT cream, dehydrated bacon flakes and dried egg powder make a reasonable carbonara dish.

No refrigeration required and all ingredients have at least a 2 year shelf life.

I must apologise for being rather absent. The change of career has me working some crazy hours. Thankfully culinary school has yet to begin.

I do have these to share though. A putanesca potato salad from ingredients having a shelf stable life of not less than 12 months.

Using a putanesca sauce as a potato dressing is not uncommon and solves the problem of a typical mayo potato salad dressing splitting under the hot sun. It's a rather salty dish so little or few seasonings are required for the meat.

We have a decent brand of canned baby potatoes here (Edgel), so I can avoid having to boil potatoes aboard. About 300ml of starchy water can be recovered from the drained potatoes for use as an excellent soup base.

And finally a chicken in a cream and green peppercorn sauce. This is not a long life shelf stable dish, but did use UHT cream.

 

Yes, they're a bit salty, and have a stronger seafood flavor than fresh shrimp. The tiny ones commonly sold around here are usually just eaten as beer snacks. But apparently in Mexico you can get them up to three inches long...

http://patismexicantable.com/2011/01/caldo-de-camaron-1.html

 

Oh, on the topic of things that can be had from a convenience store, I put this granola together from dried ingredients and a fake maple syrup like product recently.

 

My Hamster would love that. He would try to stuff most of that in his cheeks I dont eat hamster food mysel fbut then hes just a rat really .

 

I had to look that up; I had never run into puttanesca sauce before. Sounds good....

But speaking of canned potatoes: I was late starting my usual post-Thanksgiving turkey and rice soup the other day, and realized it wasn't going to be done nearly in time for dinner. So I raided the wife's pantry, and made a pot pie completely from shelf goods except for the turkey.

FILLING
2 cups leftover turkey, diced
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can sliced new potatoes, drained and diced
1/2 can sliced carrots, drained and diced
1/2 can whole black olives, drained and sliced
1 can green peas, drained
1 packet of Lipton's dry onion soup mix
2 cans chicken gravy
ground poultry seasoning
Cajun spice mix

TOPPING CRUST
2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup milk

I brought the filling to a simmer in a large frying pan and transferred it to a buttered glass baking pan, spread the muffin mix on top, and put it in the oven until the crust was very dark and done through.

 

A brilliant concept. May I borrow and embellish it?

Chicken and leek pot pies are one of those universal favourites. Making a flakey english puff pastry is not hard but a multi-step frustration.

Time to invent a sensible equivalent of few ingredients using long life products, aside from the chicken.

 

jiffy cornbread mix is a great and versatile mainstay.
I use it to thicken giblet gravy ( turkey or chicken). Also, it makes good spoon bread, cooked in a slow cooker till brown, with creamed corn and diced hot peppers added to mix recipe (printed on box). But best is corn muffins baked in the oven, and a pat of butter on top when eating. A great accompainment to chilli.

 

Well...nothing wrong with meatballs..... simple , round so they are easy to push around, bite size, great with many sauces.......

Yum Yum, think Ill have another one...............

 

Of course you may. I suspect you'll come up with something a little classier than the results of me spending five minutes digging through the wife's pantry....

 

My only complaint about Jiffy mix is that it's so sweet the muffins come out tasting more like corn cupcakes....

Surprisingly, the sweetness worked well on top of my pot pie mixture. But generally I agree with what I heard one of my uncles tell my mother (his sister), back when I was about five years old: "if you want to make cake, Erlene, make cake. But by God... if you're going to make cornbread, make cornbread!"

I like my cornbread unsweetened, sturdy, a little dry and a little crumbly, with a slab of butter stuffed into it while it's still hot out of the oven. And I agree that it's the perfect accompaniment to beans and/or chile. When I was a kid, we skipped the butter and crumbled it straight into our bean bowls. Set a jar of small yellow wax peppers in the middle of the table, and we were in hog heaven....

Speaking of crumbling: for lunch on hot summer days, I like leftover cornbread crumbled into ice-cold milk and eaten with a spoon, like cold cereal.

The best cornbread I've ever made used home-ground whole wheat flour and bacon grease. But the whole wheat flour mixed with yellow cornmeal made a very strange grey color....

 

Apparently I'm not the only one who uses dinner plates for pot lids.....