Coffee on the trail

On one of my recent hikes, I tested three different ways of making coffee on a backpacking trip... 

Here's my review of all three methods:

The first item is a pouch from Trader Joe's that weighs 37g and makes two cups of coffee. You just have to fill the pouch with hot water and it comes with a spout. It doesn't seem great for the environment but itis easy to use. It was less than 3$ at the store.

The middle one is a silicone collapsible filter that works with #2 filters. It weighs 90g and you will need ground coffee on the side. It's probably better for longer multi-days hikes and it's the most time consuming method. It is however the most eco-friendly solution since you have no trash left after brewing your coffee... but you do have to clean the filter before slipping it back in your backpack. The silicone filter was about 13$ on Amazon.

The instant coffee packets on the right are from Starbucks. They are easy to use but not cheap. Each packet makes one cup. They weigh 4g each and are great to carry around all the time. They're 9.95$ for 12 packets on their website. 

The Starbucks packets and the Trader Joe's are both water resistant but make sure you bring a tightly sealed ziplock bag for your loose coffee if you decide to carry the collapsible filter.

(I have no affiliation with any of the stores mentioned in this post)

Vegan Pies

Mini Vegan Pies

Crust
(for 6 4.75 inch quiches or one 9 inch quiche)
2 cup bread flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup walnut oil
1/2 cup ice water
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp cumin

(you can make it easier by replacing walnut oil with same amount of olive oil)

Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix water and oil and pour slowly as you mix with fork.
knead the dough briefly and cut it in 6 equal pieces.

Roll the dough out with a baking pin or a bottle of wine into 6 circles bigger than the quiche pans and press the dough into the pans.

Tips: Score the bottom of the quiche with a fork and blind bake the crusts for at least 15 mn at 325 degrees, or until crust is golden/hard


Crispy Baked Tofu

Now this one is an easy way to always have delicious tofu at home with almost no work but a little bit of patience. (It's a great addition to salads, a topping for pizzas, a healthy snack on the go...)

Cut two or three blocks of tofu (Firm tofu is better) into small cubes and marinate the batch with olive oil, soy sauce, thyme, black pepper, salt and ground ginger. (I add Herbes de Provence later on while it's baking but adding that seasoning too early would just burn the herbs since the tofu will be in the oven for a long time).

Bake the tofu at 275 degrees for a few hours (from 4-6 hours depending on the size of the batch). Stir the tofu every half hour to make sure all side of the cubes are baked and I take it out of the oven when the bigger pieces have a crunch to it and the small bits are crispy. You can speed up the process by pressing all the water out of the blocks of tofu between two plates before cutting it into pieces.

You can them keep the batch of Tofu for days afterwards since all the moisture is gone and it is essentially Tofu Jerky.

Ratatouille (serves 4)

1 onion
2 green peppers
2 zucchinis
1 eggplant
2 tomatoes
1  small can of Tomato sauce (around 15 oz)
Thyme /Italian seasoning

Making ratatouille is easy and is always a crowd pleaser, it's all about cutting and prepping all the veggies and cooking them in the right order.

In a pan, starts with olive oil and add the copped onions. Stir until onions are soft and add the chopped green peppers. Stir for another few minutes and add the chopped zucchinis followed by the pieces of eggplant. You can now add seasoning (thyme, salt, pepper). Add the tomatoes and stir for a while until all veggies are cooked. Finish by adding the can of tomato sauce and let it simmer for a half hour.

Mashed Cauliflower with mushrooms (serves 4)


1 cauliflower head
1/2 cup Almond milk
1/2 cup water
1 garlic clove
1 bunch of Italian Parsley
4 oz mushrooms
Olive oil
Seasoning

In a food processor add the peeled garlic, the parsley and the mushrooms and chop the mixture.

Chop cauliflower in small pieces. In a large sauce pan add 1 tsp of olive oil, water and cauliflower and cook until it's soft enough to mash. Add the almond mild, the mushroom mixture and seasoning (salt, pepper, and anything else you fancy) and stir for a couple more minutes on low heat.

Once the crusts are cool and ready to serve, fill them with the ratatouille and the mashed cauliflower and top with the baked tofu.

Mini set of quiche pans with removable bottom

Regular 9 inch quiche pan

Lunch at the San Antonio Falls

Mount Baldy is one of my favorite hikes near Los Angeles not only because reaching the summit of this prestigious landmark is a serious workout but it also offers a fun wet canyon to explore if you're into canyoneering: San Antonio Falls. It doesn't hurt that on a normal day (or very early in the morning) it takes about an hour and a half from the Airport and about an hour from Pasadena to get to the trailhead, which makes it a strenuous day trip. 

Even though we had a late start for this kind of adventure I still decided to pack my bag with all my canyoneering gear and my portable kitchen hoping that I could make a quick meal after the ascent to the drop off point while my friend set up the first rappel. To top it off, I decided to take my favorite hiking buddy (A.K.A my dog) along with me for the ride since he had already gone on a canyoneering trip with me and seemed to love it. The water flow was low but decent enough to get wet and dirty while making our way down the canyon. 

But the adventure didn't go as planned and the puppy was not feeling well that day after trying to eat an ice pack that was left on the kitchen counter earlier in the day (I only found out about this when I returned home later in the day). It was the one and only time that I had to pull him on the leash instead of the other way around. Needless to say, I was worried about him and after ascending for a while on the trail leading to the top of the waterfalls, we decided to turn around and take it easy. 

So I did get a chance to cook the meal that I had brought along. It was nothing too fancy since I was supposed to carry all that gear and the ingredients up a steep trail and down a wet canyon but it ended up tasting delicious.

I had previously mixed olive oil with minced garlic, black pepper and 24 herbs and spices seasoning in a mini water bottle (10 oz) before leaving my apartment and poured a small amount of Vegan bacon bits in a small container. I also grabbed a pack of pre-cooked polenta from Trader Joe's, a few cornichons and some Tomato Jam made by Bare Republic Preserves.

We set up the cooking station near the waterfalls and after frying the slices of polenta for a few minutes in the seasoned olive oil we added all the toppings and enjoyed a quick meal with a beautiful view.

 

The puppy also enjoyed my cooking and when we came back home that night he was back to his normal self again and seeing him drink and eat again was a great way to end the day.

Testing the Gosun Stove in Griffith Park

Hiking is a term loosely used in L.A

Some people feel like the mere idea of walking instead of driving to go to the liquor store down the street is "Hiking" while others will run up and down the Malibu trails without breaking a sweat. I'm somewhere in the middle....

I recently purchased a fun toy called the Gosun Solar oven that first appeared as a Kickstarter campaign, and I decided to finally give it a try after a few weeks of staring at it in the middle of my living-room. 

My first impression is that it was a bit heavier than I expected which meant that I was probably never going to take it on longer hikes but it is a great item to have in the trunk of the car when going camping or going on road trips.

I decided to take it to the top of Griffith park where a few tables welcome hikers with a 360 degree view of Los Angeles. I met some friends at the trailhead and we were all surprised by the parking signs along the road that shortened our hiking time since we had to be back before 1pm or our cars would get towed.

After debating if we were going to go hike somewhere else we decided to make it a short day and started heading up the gruesome trail. It's a fairly steep ascent to the top especially with a backpack filled with a solar oven. I was worried about the results of my first experiment with the Gosun since....there was no sun and the manual clearly said that on a cloudy day cooking time is at least an hour. But it did not deter me.

After picking a table and unpacking all my gear I geared up to make some easy but yummy vegan Tacos with previously cut red and yellow peppers, minced garlic, basil, mushrooms, olive oil and seasoning. I had packed too much food to fit in the relatively small tube of the oven and had so little time to cook my meal that I decided to not add the pack of seasoned Jackfruit I brought along. A bit of a disappointment.

After waiting around for about forty minutes and guzzling one beer it was time to wrap up the experiment because I did not want to eat the most expensive Tacos in the world (the price of recovering a towed car in L,A is not cheap). The packed oven made enough filling for three tacos which was a good thing since there were three of us but it was definitely a light lunch. The end result was decent but it could have used another half hour in the sun because the peppers were still quite crunchy. 

We packed everything in a rush and raced down the mountain to our cars before enjoying a few more beers at a local tavern to celebrate our short hike.

I can't wait to try it again next and hopefully the sun will join us on our next adventure.

You can get your own Gosun stove on their website: http://www.gosunstove.com/