Camping Food: Curried beef with brown rice and mangos

Last weekend (Halloween 2010) my friend, Adam, and I embarked on a canoe trip down Delaware Creek into the Kansas River to Lawrence, Kansas. The two day trip was a true adventure with lots of wildlife including a lone coyote, bald eagle, and the elusive big, fat beaver. I took charge of cooking due to the fact I'd just receive a copy of One Pan Wonders, a nice little cookbook for backpackers. Two meals were prepared from the guide, both being light weight, simple to prepare and pretty tasty. Home prep was key. I'll discuss one meal today as I recreated it this morning in the comfort of my own kitchen.

Curried beef with brown rice and mango
1/2 cup instant brown rice
2 tbls dried mango, chopped fine
1 tbls beef jerky, chopped fine
1/2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp group ginger

In the kitchen I put everything in my Stanley mug and covered with boiling water. Ten minutes later I had a nice mug of chewy, spicy goodness. While camping I packed all of the ingredients in a zip top bag. We ate this for breakfast and stuffed the bags of food in a beer coozie then added boiling water to the bag. The coozie provided stability while my Stanley mug held coffee. After 10 or so minutes we mushed the contents of the bag to mix and ate straight from the bag. Minimal mess. Minimal clean up. We were both happy.