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Campsite Cooking » Dehydrating Rice » 12/19/2019 2:02 pm

kkosik
Replies: 8

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My wife dehydrates jasmine rice in our dehydrator on every trip, either by itself, or mixed with casseroles, burritos, etc..  She typically cooks everything in an Instant Pot to make it easier.  Plus, when you pressure cook chicken, you can easily shred it and dehydrate it and it will come back really well compared to other cooking methods.  Almost every Instant Pot recipe we've tried works well since it's basically all one-pot stuff that tastes good together.

We use a basic 4-tray Excalibur dehydrator that I got from Walmart a few years ago and the food always re-hydrates really well in ~20 mins after boiling.  I'm fairly certain she soaks the rice first to remove most of the starch before cooking, but then we just dehydrate like normal on parchment paper squares on the trays.  Sometimes she separates the beef/chicken from the meal, depending on what we're making but most of the time, it's just all in together.  She does break up any clumps once it starts firming up to make sure it dehydrates evenly.

We either cook in a single pot for canoe camping or re-hydrate with boiling water in a screw top Ziploc container in Reflectix-style cozies for backpacking with equally good results.  Even when bringing to a boil in a single pot, letting it sit for ~15-20 mins sealed in a cozy (or your toque) is the key to allowing the food to fully absorb the water.

I used to weigh before/after to get the water volume exact but have since evolved to just barely covering the food and adding more cold water after re-hydrating if it comes out too dry.  It makes it so much easier and eliminates the need for a measuring cup.  Plus, it is quicker to eat since a touch of cold water cools it down just enough not to scald you.

Another tip we've found is that if you're cooking right in the pot, it's best cold-soak for ~10 mins before you're ready to cook.  It ensures that even the harder to re-hydrate ingredients come back without having to simmer and waste fuel.

Trip Planning » New campsite reservation system is rolling out soon! » 11/12/2019 8:49 am

kkosik
Replies: 52

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ShawnD wrote:

Do you have the email of the developers. ? If enough of us write them maybe it will get put back sooner than later. Thx

Sorry, I don't have the developer's direct email, I just filled out a contact form like Barry did.

Here's the response I got:

op-reservations@ontarioparks.com wrote:

Hello Kyle,

Thanks so much for your feedback and information!

Hearing from those who use the new reservation service will help us make improvements. We have flagged this backcountry details item that you note below to our reservation service team to look into.

Thanks again and happy camping!

Ontario Parks

I'm a developer myself and this should be an easy change as long as the database structure hasn't changed in their back-end.

Trip Planning » New campsite reservation system is rolling out soon! » 11/08/2019 10:00 am

kkosik
Replies: 52

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The system looks like it works pretty well for the most part, but I guess I won't know for sure until I actually start booking for the first spring trip.

I did notice that it's lacking the ability to check how many sites are available/occupied for each lake like the old system had.  I, along with I'm sure many of you, often use this to determine how "crowded" certain lakes will be and plan our trip accordingly.  I've emailed the developers and they said they will look into exposing that detail so hopefully it gets implemented before next season.

Fishing » Do you ever boil trout? » 10/10/2019 11:00 am

kkosik
Replies: 7

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Caught two Brook/Splake (can't really tell the difference) on our recent September trip.

First one was quite large so I gutted it (cut/scrape out the blood line or it will taste fishy), then cut into steaks about 1/2-3/4" thick and pan fried it in olive oil with salt and pepper.  Fillet near the tail when it gets too small to cut into steaks.

Second one was smaller (~13").  I gutted it, removed the head, then rubbed with oil and salt/pepper and  cooked on a grate over the fire.  The best part of this method is that all the bones pull right out when done.  This is the easiest method by far, but hard to penetrate with seasoning if that's what you're in to.  Still tastes great, just different than pan fried, more like baked I suppose.  You can stuff the cavity with garlic/lemon/etc. if you have it with you.

Cleaning like that is much easier than trying to fillet in my opinion.  I'm not great at filleting (especially trout) so this works out well for me since it's really hard to mess up and has virtually zero waste.  Since there are no scales, I just leave the skin on.  When cutting the head, don't cut all the way down and you can pull everything out together with your thumb for easy disposal.

Board footera

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