sauces for dinner (pre-made)

[Mike Clelland]

During the Wilderness Trekking courses in the summer’s of 08 & 09, we ate dinners made with PASTA and added pre-made SAUCES.

This was fast and easy. And, it was much appreciated by the team-mates.

The PASTA was either cous-cous, angel hair, spirals, or instant rice. Instant mashed potatoes were eaten too, and the sauces went well on those too.

We only used the PESTO and the THAI PEANUT sauce, but I (MC!) have personally used all four recipes listed below, and I can recommend them highly.

BIG BULK recipes for SAUCES
Calorie dense, with salt and vinegar and spices added as preservative.
Revised by Mike C! (april 24th 2007)
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middle eastern:
2 cups tahini
1 cup olive oil
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup falafel powder
1 TB cumin
2 TB salt
1/2 bunch green onion (finely chopped)
1 cup basil or cilantro
1/4 cup chopped sunflower seeds
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup caramelized onion mix *

(add more tahini to thicken, or more olive oil to thin)

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pesto (non-vegan):
1 cup olive oil
1 cup parmesan
1 cup Ramona
3 cups fresh basil (chopped)
1/4 cup crushed garlic
2 cups sun dried tomato (chopped)
1 cup walnuts (chopped)
1 cup sunflower seeds or pine nuts
1 tbs. salt
1/2 tbs. pepper
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup dry italian spice

(Add more parmesan to thicken, or more olive oil to thin)

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thai peanut sauce:

2 cups peanut butter
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup soy sauce/tamari
1/4 cup veg. oil
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 TB curry paste (green)
1 TB brown sugar
2" piece fresh ginger (shredded)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped nuts (almonds or walnuts)
1/4 cup hot sauce
1/2 cup caramelized onion mix *

(add more peanut butter to thicken, and more oil to thin)
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indian spice:

1 fresh chopped jalapeno
1/3 cup fresh ginger
6 cloves crushed garlic
1 cup coconut oil
1 TB nutmeg
4 TB garam masala
1 teas cayenne
1 bunch cilantro
2 TB salt
1 TB falafel powder (garbonzo powder)
1 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup Shiraka (sp?) chili/garlic hot sauce

blend and simmer 10-15 minutes

(add more falafel/garbonzo powder to thicken, or more oil to thin)
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MOLE:
2 cup tomato paste
1 cup olive oil
6 dried guajillo chilies (chopped)
2 cups almonds (chopped)
1 TB oregano
1 TB pepper
1 teas cloves
1 cup caramelized onion mix*
2 cups raisins
2 TB cinnamon
2 TB salt
1 cup roasted pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup peanut butter
(simmer 30 minutes)

after simmering blend with:
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup Shiraka (sp?) chili/garlic hot sauce
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*caramelized onion mix
(this is a very flavorful paste that can be added to several recipes)

Fill a big skillet with finely chopped onions, add a LOT of veg. oil. Simmer uncovered for an hour on low heat. Stir often, add salt & pepper. The end result will be a thick brown oily paste. The water in the onions will totally boil off, and it will be replaced by the oil.

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13-Days with NO resupply:

– We could do a long format expedition (13-days) with NO resupply.

– The NO RESUPPLY days early on will feel a little heavy, allowing for short moving and extra in-camp time. As the field time continues, the packs get lighter, and the team can hike longer with less energy.

– No resupply for 12 nights/13 days can be done and still meet the 25-30 pound pack-weight.

-The math works if we keep the base weight at 10 pounds (the definition of ultra-light, and matching our numbers from '06) we have a 30-pound pack with no resupply.

PPPPD = Pounds Per Person Per Day
13 days = 12 b’fasts, 12 dinners & 13 lunches
1.5 ppppd (x) 12 days = 16.8 pounds of food
approx. 2 pounds of stove fuel per person for 12 days
SUB-TOTAL: less than 20 pounds of consumables
Add 10 pounds of BASE weight = 30 pounds! (Yippeee!)

– (also) recommended – a small platypus as a sauce vessel.

4 different sauces evenly distributed between the vessels.

25% Pesto
25% Middle Eastern Tahini Sauce
25% Thai Peanut Sauce
25% Mexican Mole Sauce
(=)
100% of the yummy sauces

NOTE: This same thread has been posted on the WILDERNESS TREKKING SCHOOL forum header.

[Daniel Benthal]

"- (also) recommended – a small platypus as a sauce vessel."

Thanks for the new sauces to try out!

Are you dehydrating the sauces or packing them wet?

Dan

[Sam Haraldson]

These were prepared, packed, carried, and consumed "wet".

[Steve S]

What kind of weights are attributed to the sauce totals, and what kind of breakdown per meal are you using? Were there containers for each meal, or a bulk container for the total sauce recipe?
They look delicious!

[Richard Rini]

I can vouch for them…they were delicious. Mike had a platy loaded with the stuff (both PESTO and the THAI PEANUT), we all fought for them (Mike made them on the 9/2009 BPL light backpacking course). I can’t recall the size of the platy he used, maybe a .5 liter? So we all divvied it up from the Platy. I don’t remember the weight (guessing maybe 10-12oz. but it fed 7).
I went ahead and made the Pesto for a 3 day Smokey Mountain trip this November (man it was cold up on Gregory’s Bald) and we mixed it with couscous and crushed pasta shells. My only criticism, if I could find one is that the oil makes for one heck of an effort to clean your eating vessel; a small price to pay for such a delicious meal in the back country.
My only mistake in the preparation was adding way too much garlic. Luckily we were out in the woods and the trees did not mind much.

[Donna C]

Sorry to be ignorant but what is Ramona? It's listed in the pesto.

[Brad Groves]

Donna- cheese. romano.

Thanks for the recipes, Mike! These look great! Shoot, I might even make a couple up and use them at home…

[Donna C]

Thanks, Brad. These look great. Looks like the rain coming Sunday will keep me in the kitchen. : )

[David Noll]

Could these be used freezer bag style?

[Gregory Topf]

…how much the Thai peanut sauce weighs…penalty worth paying.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

On the FBC question, sure – since the sauces are premade. If you make your starch in a bag you can tuck the bag of sauce next to it in your cozy to heat it up a bit. Then toss with the starch (be it rice or pasta….)

I have done similar with a Thai inspired peanut sauce I make/carry and served tossed with baked ramen.

[Kathleen B]

Great honk, each of these recipes makes a lot! I just made the middle eastern, the pesto, and the mole. Note: I cut way back on the salt and used 1 TB of salt in the middle eastern, 1 ts in the pesto, and 1 TB in the mole. They tasted plenty salty to me with the lesser amounts. The middle eastern was an interesting new taste for me, and probably my favorite of the 3.

[Lisa Frugoli]

I also highly recommend Mike's Pesto & Thai Peanut sauces. I was part of the 2-week LDB class and we never tired of the 2 sauces. Yes, they may increase your food weight a little, but it's really worth it at dinner time! We had couscous, pasta and instant mashed potatoes to add the sauces to.

This concept works really well for car camping trips, too. Just throw a bottle of your favorite sauce in the cooler. You won't want to eat out!

[Glen Van Peski]

These were awesome on the Wind River trip. I made a batch of the pesto sauce (from the groovy-biotic article before this link with quantities went up) in preparation for a trip that was supposed to be this weekend. I thought I better test it beforehand, since I was making up the quantities, so I tried it with cous cous one night for dinner. It was so good, and the wife liked it so much that later in the week, she 'made' it again for dinner, over quinoa with some fresh broccoli mixed in. I need to make the bulk versions, I suspect it will become a 'frontcountry' favorite.

[Mike Clelland]

Yes, these are salty.

THe reason for the extra salt is to act as a preservative if you need to carry this stuff for two weeks in the host summer sun. The recipes have a lot of salt, vinagar and hot spices to keep 'em from spoiling. I've carried these for 12 days with no bad results…

Feel free to spice 'em to your own taste.

These have been VERY popular. I watched a student named Catalina drinking the peanut sauce on the trail like sports goo!

[Donna C]

I made the Thai peanut sauce and I think maybe overcooked the onions. But….it really does need lots of oil. And, I didn't find it sweet enough so I threw in honey to taste and now I really like it. Peanut butter and honey just are made for each other. Yum!

[First Last]

These sauce recipies look yummy. Thanks for posting them!

[Don Wilson]

For long term access to these recipes, it would be best to put them on the wiki, under the recipes page.

[Kathleen B]

I just wanted to thank you again, Mike!, for these wonderful sauce recipes. I've made the mideastern one twice already and alternate that one with the Thai one for lunches at work and for dinner. I've even put them on toast for breakfast. They're so satisfying, and they can revive any meal. I haven't taken them on a backpack trip yet, but occasionally on day hikes I'll take a little as a dip for crackers or smear some on a pita bread.

In case anyone hasn't seen it, do a search in the Articles section for Mike's Groovy Biotic Cooking article from a few years ago. The polenta is terrific, especially with one of the sauces. The sauces are actually mentioned in the article, but not the amounts of the ingredients. So this thread helps.

[Laurie Ann March]

What? No mushrooms? Sorry, was just being saucy… lol.

Now in all seriousness… what a great bunch of recipes. I'll have to give them a try sometime.

[David Noll]

If I wanted to make the sauces and add them to pastas etc and then dehydrate them and make individual meals for FBC I would back off on the salt. Should I do the same with the vinegar?

[Kathleen B]

I wouldn't. The vinegar is also an important part of the taste, in addition to the preservability, and is not too strong to need cutting back.

[nathan matthews]

Great looking recipies. I've made things similar to a couple of them, but I've never thought that they would keep for 12-13 days. Mike, can you provide some more detail about what conditions you've kept them in? I'm wondering how well they'd work in the late summer in the Sierras, with a possibility of routine 90 degree days.

Because I'm skittish, whenever I've done (vegan) pesto like this, I start with it frozen. Works well if you're meeting folks at the trailhead–we often have a cooler for ingredients for a "real" meal the night before anyway, and then the sauces can be frozen and stay chilled in your pack for most of the first day, at least.

[Richard Gless]

Vinegar is dilute acetic acid (bp ca. 120 deg C), I think ca. 3%. If you try to dehydrate it, it will either evaporate completely or leave a residue of a higher concentration of acetic acid that may cause acidic decomposition of some other ingredient or the packaging.

Why not just carry a bit of vinegar in a dropper bottle.

[Scott Tanner]

Anyone try freezing these then defrosting and bringing out on the trail? Do they freeze ok? Seems like they should. How would freezing effect their shelf life after defrosting?

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