THE OPINIONATED COOK -- Breakfast and
Other Tips
For many of us, April is the month that
the tarps come off the RV, and with a
few mechanical preparations, clean-up, and re-stocking of the
galley, it's
time to hit the road. This edition of the OC (in three parts;
each part will
appear whenever Tom has time, room and inclination to put it on
the site)
offers more recipes for "uncomplicated" food, and even
a few tips on ideas
and subjects that may never have occurred to you, and probably
would not if I
didn't bring them up. Anyway, these first two recipes have been
old "camp"
staples since canvas tents and sawdust-insulated "ice chests".
Every June
for several years before and during the 1920s, my grandparents
and their two
young daughters drove from Los Angeles (and later from the Central
Valley )
to a little town along the Hood Canal in Washington state to visit
family.
They made the "two weeks and then some" trip in a Model
T, converted
(temporarily) by my grandfather into a "camper" with
fold-down table, racks
for cots and the tent, and space for the food and cooking supplies.
My
grandfather loved to cook, and this breakfast dish was a favorite
on and off
the road...
"THROW YOUR LIP OVER THIS"
CAMP EGGS (serves 2 - can be multiplied, but
don't crowd the frying pan)
2-4 potatoes ("Idaho," or
baking potatoes, work best, but lower- starch
potatoes like red-skinned, Yukon Gold, White Rose, etc, work fine,
too; the
finished dish just has a little different texture. The number
used depends on
their size.)
1 medium onion (red onion is preferred, but a mild yellow or white
is fine.)
1 small red or green pepper (the original "recipe" calls
for "bell" pepper -
green; I use any color I have)
2-3 cloves garlic
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese (packed into a measuring cup, or as
I "measure",
two good handfuls)
2-3 eggs
1/4 cup chopped parsley (optional, but nice)
salt and pepper to taste
vegetable oil, butter or ...margarine?*
Scrub the potatoes well, or peel them
if desired. Cut into rough "cubes" of
about one-half inch or so. Peel and cut onion the same way, or
rough-chop.
Scrub the whatever-colored pepper, seed it, and cut into lengthwise
strips.
Then cut these into pieces about an inch long. Chop garlic finely.
Grate
cheese and set aside. Beat eggs until well-combined; set aside.
Heat a good
tablespoonful of butter or unflavored vegetable oil in the skillet;
heat just
until it starts to sizzle, but don't burn the butter, is used.
Add potatoes,
onion, pepper, garlic and saute over medium heat just until light
brown,
lifting and turning frequently with a spatula; it burns easily,
on the stove
or over the campfire. When potatoes are "brown", cover
the skillet with a
piece of foil or a lid, and cook over very low heat just until
potatoes are
tender. Scatter cheese and parsley (if used) over, add eggs, and
cook just
until cheese is melted and eggs are set. Add salt and pepper to
taste. I
usually serve this with fruit and muffins or biscuits and jam.
And, it's
pretty good with salsa, too.
A "note" on margarine...a
margarine which advertises itself as "cholesterol
free" is not free of saturated fats; most margarines contain
significant
amounts of this. If the words "hydrogenated vegetable oils"
appear in the
list of ingredients, the margarine contains saturated fats. Look
at the
label to see how much saturated fat and total fat the product
contains (and
the portion size); generally, the harder the margarine, the more
saturated
fat it contains.
CAMP HOTCAKES
One recipe makes about 8 4" hotcakes.
I make up multiple recipes of dry
ingredients depending on how many I am going to feed or how long
the trip is;
keep the dry mix in a zip-lock bag in the refrigerator, and dip
out about a
"rounded" cupful for each batch.
1 cup unbleached flour
one-half cup oats
(The "old" way was to chop the oats with a French knife;
it doesn't take
very long to hack them up a bit so they'll cook more easily, but
I prefer to
"buzz" them for about 10-15 seconds in the Cuisinart
or blender; use
"quick-cooking" oats if you don't want to chop or don't
have a food processor
or blender.)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
one-half teaspoon each salt and baking soda
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil
2 cups buttermilk (or less - adjust for thickness of batter wanted)
Mix dry ingedients thoroughly in a bowl
and set aside. Heat heavy griddle or
skillet over "medium high" heat. Oil the griddle lightly;
remove excess with
a paper towel; save this for re-oiling between batches, if needed.
Lightly
beat egg, and add it, buttermilk and melted butter or oil to dry
ingredients.
Stir just until all is blended - a few small lumps ar OK; don't
beat or
overmix. Test griddle for heat by sprinkling a few drops of water
on it; the
water should "dance" about a minute before the correct
heat is reached.*
Bake hotcakes until undersides are brown - lift an edge and look;
the old
"bubbles breaking on top" test for doneness isn't reliable
- turn and cook
other side. Serve immediately or keep cakes warm on a plate covered
with foil
until batter is all cooked; you won't have to use the oven if
you're making
only one batch. Try adding about a dozen or so fresh blueberries
( the
frozen/canned ones tend to "bleed" and turn the batter
grey - not pretty) to
the top of each hotcake just as soon as you have the griddle full;
brown and
turn the hotcakes as usual.
* Some practice is needed to get the
heat right; heat sources and griddle
materials do make a difference. Sometimes I make what I call a
"dog hotcake"
to test the heat - I'll bet you can guess the reason for the name!
"STUFF"
To get deposits from "hard water"
out of your teakettle, try putting a cup of white or cider vinegar
and 4-6 cups of water in the kettle, bringing this to a boil and
boiling for about 15 m minutes, then letting the mixture sit overnight.
Repeat if necessary, and
rinse thoroughly before using the kettle. This also works to "clean"
most
coffee makers - read the manufacturer's directions for use/cleaning.
Be sure
to rinse or run clear water through the coffee maker to get all
the vinegar
out.
Read product labels for "hidden"
sugar - dextrose, fructose/corn syrup/high
fructose corn syrup, and sucrose are all forms of sugar. Also,
more and more
manufacturers are resorting to this sneaky wording to hide the
fact that
their product contains sugar - "crystallized evaporated cane
juice"! In
other words, SUGAR!
More next time...