Recipes and tips for the fridge-less cook

Micky Ewing wrote:

For the cook, the downside of pulses is how long they can take to cook. For the environmentally conscious, this is also a concern.

Tyler Ludens wrote:

Micky Ewing wrote:

For the cook, the downside of pulses is how long they can take to cook. For the environmentally conscious, this is also a concern.

Can they be slow-cooked in a haybox?

m louks wrote:


not unless you boil them for ten minutes first

David Lehnherr wrote:Would not avoid beans. Great source of protein. Phytic acid has some beneficial effects, though it can bind minerals. The solution is to eat a variety of plants, since some will enhance mineral absorption and counteract the effect of phytic acid.

Micky Ewing wrote:The protein question has other answers besides meat, as any vegetarian will tell you. Pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas etc.) are a great way to stock the fridge-less pantry with a load of protein rich foods. Dried, they have a shelf life of up to a year, stored in a cool, dark place (older beans gradually lose flavour and take longer to cook). They are also available in canned form, but the dried form is much cheaper. This being a Permaculture crowd, the other big selling points are that the plants are nitrogen fixers and are easy to grow and harvest.

Bring a cast iron pot of rice, beans, chickpeas or other grains to the boil. I take it outside to a wooden bench in the sun, lay it on a multi-folded towel and wrap in a blanket. Takes about 3 hours for the grain/pulses to finish absorbing all the water. Then finish it off on the fire again, adding vegies etc. Works for me!

Micky Ewing wrote:A Permie trying to live at base camp on their land (not Paul's base camp, but my own, more primitive one) is not the only sort of person working with limited kitchen resources. Others we can look to for inspiration are the many cooks at sea, working in tiny galleys with little or no cold storage and with no access to grocery stores for days or weeks at a time.  I came across a helpful article on no-fridge meals today that I want to share with you all: http://theboatgalley.com/refrigeration-meals/

The web site, "The Boat Galley", has lots of other useful articles too.  Check out the collection of links at the bottom of the article above for other tips on fridge-less living like making your own sour cream with shelf-stable ingredients or how to keep mayonnaise without a fridge.

Micky Ewing wrote:Earlier in this thread, I posted a recipe for Akara, which calls for dried shrimp.  While I was at my favorite Asian market, looking for this ingredient, I had to marvel (not for the first time) at the amazing variety of dried, preserved, canned or otherwise shelf-stable foods around me.  Many places in Asia, and China in particular, still have a large number of households without domestic refrigeration, so it makes sense that food traditions from these places would minimize the need for it.

When you're a 4th or 5th generation Canadian raised on a "meat and potatoes" diet, there's a challenge in knowing what all those foods are and how to cook with them.  Luckily for me, there are lots of people out there who really do know their way around those shelves of food, and luckier still, some of them are bloggers!

Do yourself a favour and check out The Woks Of Life guide to the Chinese grocery store at http://thewoksoflife.com/how-to/navigating-a-chinese-grocery-store/.  And while you're there, drill down a few layers and explore.  I struck gold when I headed to the Chinese Ingredients Glossary and reached the "Dried and Preserved Ingredients" section, which links to its own page where many mysteries are demystified.  And as if the blog was written specifically to answer all my questions, most of the ingredient discussions include links to at least one recipe where the ingredient is used.  That's how I found today's recipe:

Hong Kong Style Clay Pot Rice Bowl

Ingredients

1 cup long grain rice
1 cup water
3-inch piece of cured pork belly
1-2 links of sweet Chinese sausage
1 tablespoon regular soy sauce
1 tablespoon seasoned soy sauce (you can substitute this with a bit more regular soy sauce as well)
½ tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
pinch of sugar
pinch of white pepper
1 scallion, chopped

Directions

1. Soak your cup of rice in (exactly) a cup of water in your clay pot for an hour. After it's been soaked, put the pot over medium heat and bring it to a boil. When it's boiling, put the cured meats on top of the rice (don't stir). Cover the pot, turn the heat down to the lowest setting, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauces, fish sauce, sugar, and white pepper. Uncover the pot, and pour the sauce evenly over the rice evenly. Cover it back up and simmer for another 3 minutes.
3. After that, uncover the pot, slice up the meats, and add them back to the pot along with your chopped scallion. Stir everything together. You can also add more soy sauce, to taste!

You can also make this dish in a rice cooker. Just add the rice, water, and meat to the rice cooker and cook normally. When the rice is done, take the meat out and slice it. Add it back to the rice along with the sauce and the scallions!

My Notes

1. The pork belly and Chinese sausage are both cured meats that are described in detail in the ingredient glossary.  There's even a bonus link to their own directions on how to make the cured pork belly!