Food, glorious, food.
A Von Blog
So, the other day I recorded a Podcast about leadership with Dave Wheatley of Humanergy (Humanergy Leadership Podcast)(mine is likely to be published in mid December).
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| Me doing the Blog with the help of Dennis |
I have known Dave since I was 18 and a volunteer Instructor at Camp Windermere where he also volunteered. Camp Windermere was a Sea Cadet (ie Royal Navy) funded outdoor education place that, as far as I can remember, ran on the smell of an oily rag and the sheer dedication of the many people who volunteered their time and knowledge. It provided an outdoor experience to kids and young adults from a variety of backgrounds but who were often from towns and cities where there was not much green adventure to be had. I was introduced to Camp by Karen Cahill, who had been a Sea Cadet and, I hope she won't mind me saying this, whose life was changed and shaped by going to Camp. Anyhoo, Karen and I were in the same College accommodation in Ambleside and on the first free day we were given, she took me along to this wondrous place at Low Wray. I must admit that my first full summer there, in 1988, I did not volunteer and nor was I Instructing outdoor pursuits instead I was working as the Galley Slave in the Camp kitchen (because I needed the thirty pounds a week that it paid....)
Why bring all this up? Twofold, after we had recorded the interview I spent the day worrying about what I had said and what I had not said (but had planned to) and this worry danced around my head all day. Initially, I could not understand why this was taking so much brain time and then I realised it was because I had the time and the brain capacity to do such a thing. A year ago, when I was still working, I was juggling so many things in my head (is that even possible?!) that such a discussion would have been done, dusted and forgotten about with perhaps a cursory review in my head during my cycle ride home. So, there's that and then the other thing I realised was that much of my brain time at the moment is spent deciding what we are going to eat. No, really. I will think about what I will do for lunch and then what I will do for dinner (or in Northern parlance what we'll have for dinner and then what we'll have for tea)(confused? you will be). The first breakfast that I cooked at Camp was for 156 people. It was bacon, scrambled egg and tinned tomatoes. For 156 people! Can you even imagine it? On my own! As the Galley Slave I worked for the Head Chef, Liz, a formidable woman who you would not want to be on the wrong side of and then there was the Assistant Chef, Richard, who was very tall, a cyclist and very affable. We took it in turns to do breakfast as it was an early start. I learnt a great deal about cooking and feeding people during the summer of 1988. Fast forward 32 years (can it really be that long ago?!) and here we are in the van and those things I learnt at Camp, along with what my Grandma Gray taught me about cooking and what I learned when I cooked with Irene at Chakola and the intervening years of eating (!), those experiences have culminated in me really enjoying the challenge of producing meals each day and that's what I thought I would blog about, #vanlife cooking.
As you might recall, we don't have much space in the van and so any ingredient really has to be worth its' salt, if you'll excuse the pun. At home I used to have staple ingredients in my pantry and fridge supplemented by lots of other yummy ingredients, well, nowadays it's the staples that feed us along with one or two luxuries when they are on special (!). Our diet is almost vegetarian as meat is both expensive and a pain to prepare and cook when there is limited bench space and access to water (my chopping area sitting over the sink). Certainly we have not eaten much chicken so it tends to be the 'go to' meal option whenever we eat out (it's not just the masses of melted cheese on the Chicken Parmy's!).
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| The not so large prepping and cooking area |
The fridge, for all it looks small, has a surprising capacity and does enable me to carry quite a few condiments, fresh veggies and lots and lots of Cheeses 'of Nazareth'. In addition, I have a spice/herb basket in a drawer and, in the cupboard above the fridge, I have a basket of tins and a basket of dried goods. From this I am managing to put together a reasonable array of meals (I will put a list of what I carry at the end of this blog should you be wondering what you might carry during your own van adventure). I have one recipe book with me, chosen for obvious reasons and I have also amended or written in my own recipes as well as sticking in other recipes that I have clipped from the print media. If all else fails, either make it up as you go along or turn to our old friend, google.
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| Hee, hee, she said Bush |
As with the ingredients, each piece of cookware or kitchen gadgetry has also got to prove its' worth. There is little point carrying a gadget which can only be used for one thing especially if that one thing could easily be done by a knife (I'm looking at you wire avocado slicer/carrot spirallers...). Here's what I have available to me for preparing and cooking a meal...probably quite a lot less than what is in your average kitchen!
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| The coloured stick things are for sealing plastic packaging and are AMAZING |
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| The addition of green felt is to try and reduce rattling whilst underway |
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| The chopping board had an altercation with a hot pan... |
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| That's it, just three pans... |
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| Although, to be fair, I do have this marvellous device too |
The final requirement when cooking is, of course, the heat source. I think we have mentioned before that the cook top in the van is diesel powered and looks a lot like an induction hob given the glass surface. However, the way in which the diesel works means it is a LOT slower to heat up than an induction hob (and I mean SLOW) so I tend not to use it for cooking main meals. Additionally, although we have an extractor fan, cooking in the van also means it can start to smell like the kitchen (think cooked onions and garlic) and I'd prefer not to imbue our soft furnishings (including bedding) with the smell of onions and garlic no matter how much I like to eat such things. My alternative source of heat is the gas canister stove that I can use outside, either on the ground, on our little table or on the handy bench which fits to the sliding door. This cooker is very useful but only having one ring does mean I have to either juggle the order in which things are cooked or, more often than not, create one pot meals. Oh, those heady days of Pot Mess onboard Her Majesty's warships have not been wasted! (I would add a footnote here to explain what is Pot Mess but Blogger doesn't stretch to footnotes.)
A typical meal day will consist of a breakfast of muesli for Shazza and oats with coconut flakes for me. Recently we have been getting cheap blueberries which has been a nice addition. Full fat milk - life is too short not to! Lunch is likely to be some sort of salad in a bowl; a protein and at least 3 serves of veggies, along with an apple. Dinner favourites include Butter Bean chilli with corn chips (I use my basic chilli recipe but have replaced the minced beef with the tin of butter beans. I have to say, I think I actually prefer the veggie version although I made one the other week where I was a little heavy handed with the chilli powder and even I was struggling to enjoy the 'mouth feel'...never mind the after effects the next day 😂.)
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| If you feel you'd like to give it a go yourself... |
Chicken, chorizo and rice but this tends to be negative chicken and sometimes negative chicken and negative chorizo. Sag Paneer using halloumi and kale. Cauliflower with pasta (Poh's orecchiette-cauliflower) is fast becoming a favourite and I have enjoyed playing around with Poh's basic ingredients when I haven't had something in. I love making Puttanesca and we're likely to have it at least weekly (!). I recently tried cooking the pasta in the tomato sauce (as suggested by Ronni), it certainly makes it easier than trying to cook the pasta before doing the sauce and gives the sauce a lovely 'unctuousness'.
I have found the key to van life cooking is to follow the KISS principle. Sometimes it will just be slaw and sausages (where Shazza and her extraordinary barbecuing skills come in). Keeping it simple means less prep, less washing up and less knocking things over (because there's just not enough room! ). I still like reading recipes in magazines and the papers but these days I am likely to just look at the combination of flavours and reduce any cumbersome cooking steps to 'throw it all into the pan'. Most of the time it produces something edible and, hopefully, tasty too. There you have it, a little insight into how we sustain ourselves.
As for the journey. The blue spot is where we are right now (Maleny), the red line is what we have done, and the green line is where we are headed...
Take care all, until next time...
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Ingredients which I carry:
Spices
Black Pepper
Tomatoes
Dried Goods
Pre-cooked rice packets (yes, I know dried rice is a great deal cheaper per meal but see previous comments about juggling pans)
Fridge/Freezer
Halloumi
Pecorino
Milk
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