We did the trip old-school and with a very limited budget. We literally carried everything we had on our backs, camped in tents and cooked our own meals on a portable metho-burner stove.This tiny little stove was both wonderful because it saved us paying a truckload of Euros on meals and less-than-wonderful because it took about half an hour to boil water... Plus, neither of us really knew how or what to cook. The way things were shaping up, I wouldn't have been surprised if we ended up eating 'pasta with sauce' for the entire four months.
'Pasta with sauce'
But then something beautiful happened.
As it turned out, 'pasta with sauce' got pretty boring after a while (read: 3 days) and we had to get creative. Now I'm not pretending we became professional chefs whilst we were gone, but we definitely picked up a few tips for becoming professional camp-stove chefs.
*Tip 1: Invest in pepper and garlic. No matter how boring your meal is (eg- pasta with sauce), it will instantly become 100 times better with some pepper and garlic.
*Tip 2: Don't shake pepper/salt/spice containers directly over a boiling saucepan. Steam gets inside the container and condenses, causing your spice to become wet and a real pain in the butt to shake out. Shake onto a teaspoon instead and use the teaspoon to add the condiment.
*Tip 3: Pasta sauce can be a yummy dip for chips and crackers. The spicy, arrabiata kind is the best.
*Tip 4: Always, and I mean, ALWAYS have a tin of cream of tomato soup on hand in case of emergencies. Especially if you're traveling in a country where it's common practice to shut everything between the hours of 1pm and 5pm, Saturdays after midday and on Sundays. Cream of tomato soup can be added to pasta for flavour, soften stale campsite bread, heated up with a little pepper for a tasty meal by itself or (in dire circumstances such as being stuck on a train platform somewhere in Germany) drunk straight from the tin.
Tuna was an amazingly versatile (and cheap) ingredient as well. Mix 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 1 tin of plain tuna and pepper to taste for a yummy sandwich filling. This is an especially handy filling if you're dealing with slightly stale bread, as the mayo will moisten (moist - lol) the bread. It's also equally good mixed in with pasta or rice.
As for alternatives for 'pasta with sauce', I've included a few of my favourites:
This originally began as another way to soften stale bread, but since returning home I've found it works so much better on toast.
Cucumber and Cream Cheese Toast (5 mins cooking time!)
- Sliced Lebanese cucumber
- Cream cheese (creamed cottage cheese is a healthier alternative)
- Pepper
1. Spread cream cheese onto toast and layer cucumber slices on top. Sprinkle pepper over toast slices and enjoy!
- 1/2 packet pasta (shells work best, but feel free to use any pasta you like)
- 1/2 cucumber
- 1/2 capsicum
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- Pepper to taste
- 2 chicken breasts (optional - equally yummy as a vegetarian dish)
1. Boil pasta until cooked.
2. Chop cucumber and capsicum into small chunks. If cooking with chicken, chop up the chicken as well and fry in a pan until cooked.
3. Stir chopped ingredients into drained pasta with the mayo and pepper.
4. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
Lazy Fried Rice (10 minutes cooking time)
- 1/2 cup cooked rice (rice made by placing in a microwave-safe container with 1 cup of boiling water and cooking for 10 mins)
- 1 packet sliced ham/turkey (sliced into little squares)
- 1 tin of corn
- 2 eggs (whisked in a bowl)
- Soy sauce and pepper to taste
1. With a little cooking oil, gently fry the ham/turkey and with the corn.
2. Add the eggs, stirring quickly to make them scramble and separate.
3. Add cooked rice, stir for 2 minutes.
4. Stir in soy sauce and pepper. Serve hot.
Of course, no trip to Europe is complete without an alcoholic experience...
Watermelon Cocktail:- 1 large watermelon
- 1 small carton of pineapple juice
- 1 small carton of coconut juice
- Vodka to taste
1. Cut a small hole into the top of the watermelon.
2. Using a corkscrew (or whatever other instrument you have at your disposal), mush up the inside of the watermelon until it is a relatively smooth juice.
3. Pour juice and vodka into the watermelon.
4. Stir (as best you can) and drink.
With any luck, none of you will experience being stranded in an Austrian campsite at 5.30pm on a Saturday with a supermarket that doesn't open until Monday morning, but if you do - remember the cream of tomato soup!
Lots of love,
(broke) Masterchef Mel
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