Dehydrated Backcountry Cajun Corn Chowder

hey guys I'm Kevin welcome to my channel today we're gonna make a dehydrated version of Cajun corn chowder for backcountry camping [Music] so welcome back guys welcome to another episode where I'm going to feature some backcountry cooking here we're gonna make a dehydrated meal and that meal is going to be Cajun corn chowder I get a lot of requests for vegetarian meals and I do make a lot of vegetarian meals at home my daughter became a vegetarian in the spring and so it's almost a full year now and so we've been cooking a lot more vegetarian meals at home and you know lots of people are eating less meat anyways these days so I thought it was appropriate to do another episode featuring a vegetarian meal so here is what you're going to need to make this meal a couple of onions couple stalks of celery 2 to 3 medium potatoes 1 green bell pepper some garlic can of lentils two and a half to three cups of frozen corn some vegetable broth a package of coconut milk powder and some spices I have here some paprika some chili powder thyme and cayenne so let's talk a little bit about spices you can certainly use a spice blend as I'm doing myself a homemade a blend and there's lots of different recipes out there for Cajun spice some look a lot like this one some look very different than this one or you could use a pre-mixed store-bought generic Cajun spice that'll work too so let's start putting this meal together I always start with the onions the first step is going to be to peel and dice these onions [Music] there that's looking pretty good get all in the bowl [Music] then we're gonna do the same with the soda and cut off the ends and cut a few strips down the middle so that they are too wide at the bottom and I'm gonna slice away [Music] the seller can go in the same Bowl is the onions because the celery onions at bell pepper are all going to be thrown in the pot at the same time next up for dicing is the bell pepper cut some strips off the sides [Music] and remove the membrane you don't have to do this but I like to do it and I don't like to waste the flush on the ends of the pepper so I spent a few minutes going after that [Music] then I'm going to dice the rest of the pepper [Music] there we go that looks good onions celery and green peppers that's the classic flavor based in Cajun cooking that is known as the Trinity unlike classic French cooking where the flavor base is onions celery and carrots known as mirepoix in Cajun country it's a little bit different of course I'm not going for strict authenticity here I'm just trying to make a meal that tastes really good in the back country next up garlic I pull apart the cloves and cut the ends off and smash them you can smash them then cut the ends off or cut the ends off then smash them it doesn't really matter and then I'm going to slice them open remove the green shoot that's in the vet that can be a little bit bitter that little green shoot that you find in your garlic is said to give the garlic a bit of a bitter taste I don't really notice it but every professional chef I've seen on television always removes it to get rid of that bitter taste I think it's one of those things that some people might be able to taste and others can't so go ahead remove it if you like but I'm just gonna mince up the rest of the garlic as finely as I can couple passes with a knife scoop it up take another pass you just keep doing that until you get the size you want [Music] now for the potatoes I'm gonna use a grater to process these [Music] so when I make this meal at home for my family I do not grate the potatoes I will cube them and boil them for a little bit cook them that way but I do find that grated potatoes rehydrate so much better than finally even finely diced potatoes so that's a dehydration tip grate your potatoes they'll rehydrate much much better and to keep the potatoes from turning brown I'm gonna get a bowl of water and dump a little bit of lemon juice in there just a couple tablespoons that's gonna create an acidic environment for the potatoes I'm just went through soak that'll keep them from turning brown next I'm going to open up the lentils I'm gonna dump them out and give them a bit of a rinse in the sink they look good so let's start putting this meal together kind of turn on the stove put a large pot on the burner I'm gonna add a little bit of olive oil maybe a little bit more there we go once that pot is hot I'm gonna add the Trinity bell pepper celery and onion give that a bit of a stir let that cook down a little bit once it does I'm gonna add the garlic stir that in let that cook a little bit then the spices paprika thyme chili powder and cayenne [Music] a little bit more about spices sometimes I'll put the spices in as I cook the meal before I D hydrate the meal and sometimes I'll put them in after I D hydrate the meal there's no right or wrong way my tendency is if that it's a curry or a chowder like this where I want those spices to kind of cook with the meal for a while then I will add them as I cook the meal if I do that because you're gonna lose some of the spice flavor in dehydration I will generally multiply the amount of spices I put in by 1.5 so I put one-and-a-half times the amount of spices I'm gonna lose some flavor in the dehydrator in that final meal I'll have the right amount next I'm gonna add the vegetable stock and I'm gonna rinse the potatoes just get some of that lemony taste off of them and they're gonna go in the pot and I'm gonna let that cook a little bit I'm gonna stir it around bring that up to a bit of a boil I'm gonna put the lid on this and let this cook for about ten minutes oh you can see my camera there that's simmered for about ten minutes now it's time to add everything else the corn and the lentils and if I was making this at home and let that cook a bit but since we're gonna dehydrate this it is ready I'm just gonna spread this out on my dehydrator trays I go slowly because I'm really good at slopping this all over the place [Music] there we go that looks good nice even distribution when I put it in the dehydrator and set my dehydrator to 135 Fahrenheit or 57 Celsius and overnight that'll dehydrate and it should look like this in the morning I've taken the meal off the dehydrator tray and put it in a bowl and it's looking really good it's nice and dry it should last a long time as long as you keep it in an airtight container so that's the next step and I've learned the hard way that it's much easier to write the name of the meal on a flat empty ziploc bag than it is a full one [Music] I'm gonna use a scale here I always weigh my meals and I'm gonna get a bowl and tear that measurement out and I usually put about between 125 and 150 grams of dry meal so I'm gonna fill this one up to 125 grams there that's just about perfect I have not forgotten about the coconut milk powder that goes in right now 150 gram package of coconut milk powder is enough for this entire recipe so I'm gonna fraction that down a little bit on the American side that's about two ounces and on the side the rest of the world uses that's gonna be about 50 milliliters and I did not hit the record button in time so you'll have to imagine me dumping it into that bowl but there it is and the next step is to load everything into a ziploc bag properly labeled ziplock bag and there you go Cajun corn chowder ready for the backcountry or for the sake of demonstration my back deck [Music] now it's really important to give the pot a bit of a shake here that way it's easier to guesstimate the amount of water to use now normally for most meals I will just cover the the food with water and that will work fine just like that the food is just barely covered which works for most situations but because we're doing a chowder you want more of a soupy consistency we're going to add a little bit more water I'm going to cover this and let it come to a boil when it's ready remove it from the heat and I'm gonna use my asbestos hands to lift that hot pot into the pot cozy and cover it and I'm gonna let that sit for a good 10 minutes or more finally ready let's take a look yeah that's great it's got a nice creamy consistency to it that is just what I'm looking for for the sake of the video I moved the meal to a bowl and if you want to you can add a little bit of dehydrated or in this case freeze dried parsley just to brighten up the meal all right guys this looks really really good let's see how this tastes mmm that's really good it is really really good mmm the that's that's great the the coconut milk really brings it together and gives it a creamy taste the spices like I can tell and it tastes very Cajun but not overpowering and the lentils and corn give it a real real nice texture mmm that's a winner you're gonna if you make this and take it on a backcountry trip you are gonna enjoy it thanks a lot guys hope you have a great day [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Kevin Outdoors

Views: 6,656

Keywords: backcountry cooking, kevin outdoors, camping, dehydrated meal, bacpacking, backpacking meal, hiking, canoe tripping, canoeing, cajun, cajun corn chowder, chowder, corn chowder recipe, corn chowder soup, corn chowder vegetarian recipe, vegetarian, dehydrator, nesco, kevin outdoors dehydrated meals, backcountry camping cooking, dehydrated meal recipes, backpacking cooking, vegetarian recipes, camping hacks, backpacking meals, backpacking meals uk, backpacking food, dehydrator recipes

Id: bvGvZk6IVRs

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2020