About quinoa-- I buy it at the health food store. I rinse it to get it
free of dust and dirt. Then I boil 3 parts water, add 1 part quinoa,
lower the heat, cover, and wait 15 minutes. In a camping situation
where I didn't have all my equipment, I'd boil extra water and strain
off the excess. My basic recipe is a sort of quinoa tabouleh. I add
chopped parsley and salad dressing. As I said in my earlier post, feta
cheese or thinly chopped vegetables go nicely. I've never put eggs with
quinoa. That's not to say that it doesn't work, only that I've never
done it.


Polenta! <dope slap> I didn't think of polenta. Perfect. I eat it as
porridge, but it is also nice with tomato sauce. Again, this works for
camping since there are good canned or jarred tomato sauces that don't
require cooking or refrigeration.


You may know more about camping than I do, but I don't recommend deep
frying because you don't have a lot of control over temperature with
camping equipment. At least with water, you can boil it, then remove it
from the fire altogether. If your food gets too cold, you can always
bring it to a boil again. With oil, you don't want it to smoke, but
frying in too-cold oil is horrible. Besides, I'm female, and I'm not
impressed with fried food.


You can make pesto (any sort) with a mortar and pestle, but I really
recommend the food processor. Pesto doesn't keep that well. I don't
recommend it for camping. But just for general knowledge, spinach pesto
is made by combining spinach, garlic, nuts, cheese and oil in a food
processor. Google for an exact recipe.


If you really want to thank us for the ideas, tell us how the trip went
when you get back. I'd like to hear which ideas were a hit and which
ones flopped, how the equipment worked, what you wished you'd done
differently, etc.


--Lia


Wharfrat wrote:
> How would you recommend using quinoa in a camping situation? At the
> restaurant I work in we use it quite frequently but it usually involves
> eggs...quinoa cakes.
>
> I LOVE your response!!!! Thank You!!!
>
> Maybe I could pre-make a Polenta and slowly warm it over a grill? But what
> would I serve that with?
>
> You opened up the door to making this a "Fine Dining" experience, which I
> was hoping for since I want to impress this girl.
>
> I really want to hear more ideas from you!
>
> Perhaps I could have Portobellas encrusted with a Panko/Asiago
> mixture....deep-fried over the grill (will that work? can I try to "deep-
> fry" portas over a tiny gas grill? or fry in a pan?) and stuffed with
> ummmmm some sort of spinach pesto?
>
> ok...now I have to figure out how to make a spinach pesto.
>
> Thanks for opening up the doors....Please open more!!
>