Food and Nutrition for tramping by Julie-Ann Stacey

On Wednesday November 20, 2013, Julie-Ann Stacey spoke at club night. Her presentation was introduced in the newsletter as follows:

I am an ex Chef and have combined my passion for food with my love of herbs and nutrition. Recently I have moved to Christchurch from the North Island and now work as a Naturopath, Nutritionist and Herbalist,my focus is on food as medicine. The topics I will be discussing include: Energy requirements for a one day hike, overnight and multi day hike, Menu planning and preparation, High energy and sustained energy foods, Nutrients required for endurance and recovery.

See here for the full set of slides from Julie's presentation.

• 1 packet of soup (flavour up to you)
• 6 dessertspoons of Backcountry Cuisine freeze dried mince (1 full packet does 4 - 6 meals)
• Some dried peas
• 6 dessertspoons of dried couscous

Into cold water put peas, soup and mince.  Bring the mixture to the boil and follow the directions on the soup packet. Take off the cooker and add the couscous.  Sit until the couscous is soft.

Ingredients (quantities up to you)

• Rice
• 2-minute noodles
• 1 tin anchovies (a 50 gram tin is good for 1 person)
• Fresh garlic
• Maggie seafood soup (1per person)
• Cube of Cheese per person (2 cm x 2 cm x2 cm)
• Seaweed

Add the rice and garlic to cold water and bring to the boil.  Add the noodles a couple of minutes before the rice is ready.  Remove from heat and add everything else and stir.

Lynette’s Tararua biscuit recipe

There are several recipes on the CTC website under tramplore. I usually start with one of these recipes and change it depending what ingredients I have. The point is to make a tasty, energy-filled biscuit that is robust enough to not fall apart in your pack

Butter 150 g
Golden syrup 1 tablespoon
Peanut butter 1 tablespoon (optional)
Baking soda 1 teaspoon
Flour 1 cup
Rolled oats 1 cup
Oatmeal or oatbran ½ cup (optional)
Sugar ¼ cup (less or more if you have a sweet tooth)
Salt ½ teaspoon
Sunflower seeds ¾ cup (optional)

(You can put fruit in but I find the lumps of fruit compromise the structural integrity of the biscuits)

Spices to flavour – my favourite is cardamom.

Melt together the butter and golden syrup (in microwave, it doesn’t need to be very hot). Add the baking soda. Add everything into a large bowl. The original recipe says press into a tray, bake and cut while hot. I prefer to give everything a good mix in the bowl and then roll out all the mixture and cut out circles with a glass so they all end up all the same shape and are more efficient to pack. To do this you need to get the mix to the right consistency so I add more flour or milk until I can press/roll it onto a floured bench and it stays together. I then press a glass in to it and cut out circular biscuits about 1 cm thick. I re-roll the scraps and cut out more biscuits.

Bake 180 degrees C for 30 minutes. Sometimes I leave the biscuits in the warm oven as it cools down to make sure they are as dry (light ) as possible.

Other good tramping snacks to bake

Chocolate chip muesli bars

125 g butter
½ cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1 ¼ cup toasted or plain muesli
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup raisins
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Melt the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan large enough to hold all the ingredients. Remove from the heat and add the muesli, chocolate chips and raisins.

Sift the flour, baking powder and the cocoa and stir to combine.

Press into a greased 18 cm x 28 cm tin.

Bake 180 degrees C for 20 minutes

Cool and cut in to bars.

Savoury biscuits (based on water cracker recipe)

3 ½ cups pure flour
Large pinch of salt
40 g packet of poppy seeds (optional)
50 g butter
50g cheese
1 cup milk
You can add ½ teaspoon of dried herbs (optional)

Put the flour, salt and poppy seeds into a food processor and pulse to sift. Add the butter and cheese and process until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. (You may need to grate the cheese first).

Pour the milk in until it has all been absorbed. Process for a full minute

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and bring it together. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest for 10 minutes

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface as thinly as possible (2 mm). Cut into circles of your preferred size (by pressing a glass into the dough). Place on to a greased baking tray and prick thoroughly with a fork all over.

Bake 190 degrees C for 10 – 12 minutes until the biscuits are golden. Cool the biscuits on a wire rack. (put back in the cooling oven to make sure they are completely dry if you want)

Lebkuchen (Christmas spice biscuits)

These biscuits are hard so travel well

50 g butter
1 cup honey
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon grounds cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon baking soda
3 – 4 cups of flour

These biscuits taste delicious before they are cooked so the challenge is getting them to the oven.

Measure all ingredients except the baking soda and flour into a medium –sized saucepan. Stir over a low heat until all the ingredients are blended and the sugar is no longer grainy. Do not boil. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Stir in the baking soda sifted with 1 cup of the flour. Stir well then all more flour, about half a cup at a time until the dough is firm enough to roll out onto a floured board. The more flour you add the longer lasting and harder the biscuits will be.

Rollout the dough to about 5 mm thick and cut out your biscuit shapes.

Bake 170 degrees C for about 10 – 20 minutes. Be really carefull as they burn easily. The longer you leave them the harder they become. You can over do this in my experience. Cool on a rack.

Advice for how much food to take on tramping trips

These biscuits are hard so travel well.  The challenge is getting them to the oven as the raw mixture tastes delicious.

These make good alternatives to Tararua biscuits.  The recipe is based on based on a water recipe. 

3 ½ cups pure flour

Large pinch of salt

40 g packet of poppy seeds (optional)

50 g butter

50g cheese

1 cup milk

You can add ½ teaspoon of dried herbs (optional)

Put the flour, salt and poppy seeds into a food processor and pulse to sift.  Add the butter and cheese and process until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.  (You may need to grate the cheese first). 

Pour the milk in until it has all been absorbed.  Process for a full minute

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and bring it together.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest for 10 minutes

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface as thinly as possible (2 mm).  Cut into circles of your preferred size (by pressing a glass into the dough).  Place on to a greased baking tray and prick thoroughly with a fork all over.

Bake 190 degrees C for 10 – 12 minutes until the biscuits are golden.  Cool the biscuits on a wire rack. (put back in the cooling oven to make sure they are completely dry if you want)

These make good tramping snack bars

125 g butter

½ cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons golden syrup

1 ¼ cup  toasted or plain muesli

½  cup chocolate chips

½ cup raisins

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking  powder

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Melt the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan large enough to hold all the ingredients.  Remove from the heat and add the muesli, chocolate chips and raisins.

Sift the flour, baking powder and the cocoa and stir to combine.

Press into a greased 18 cm x 28 cm tin.

Bake 180 degrees C for 20 minutes

Cool and cut in to bars.

There are several recipes on the CTC website under tramplore.  I usually start with one of these recipes and change it depending what ingredients I have.  The point is to make a tasty, energy-filled  biscuit that is robust enough to not fall apart in your pack.  The following is the recipe I have been using lately.

Butter                                   150 g

Golden syrup                     1 tablespoon

Peanut butter                   1 tablespoon (optional)

Baking soda                        1 teaspoon

Flour                                      1 cup

Rolled oats                          1 cup

Oatmeal or oatbran        ½ cup (optional)

Sugar                                     ¼ cup (less or more if you have a sweet tooth)

Salt                                         ½ teaspoon

Sunflower seeds              ¾ cup (optional)

(You can put fruit in but I find the lumps of fruit compromise the structural integrity of the biscuits)

Spices to flavour – my favourite is cardamom. 

Melt together the butter and golden syrup (in microwave, it doesn’t need to be very hot).  Add the baking soda.  Add everything into a large bowl.  The original recipe says press into a tray, bake and cut while hot.  I prefer to give everything a good mix in the bowl and then roll out all the mixture and cut out circles with a glass so they all end up all the same shape and are more efficient to pack.  To do this you need to get the mix to the right consistency so I add more flour or milk until I can press/roll  it onto a floured bench and it stays together.  I then press a glass in to it and cut out circular biscuits about 1 cm thick.  I re-roll the scraps and cut out more biscuits.

Bake 180 degrees C for 30 minutes.  Sometimes I leave the biscuits in the warm oven as it cools down to make sure they are as dry (light ) as possible.

For long trips I started using Geoff Spearpoint’s quantities for meals and I have modified this over the years to suit my tastes.  I weigh out all my food as I don’t want to carry any more than necessary but also I want to make sure I have enough food.  All the weights below are for one person.  Obviously you can modify the quantities to suit your tastes.  Try to get a balance of sweet and savoury for snacks and lunch.