Survival Recipes

[noproblemo2]

Anyone have suggestions for survival recipes?

[noproblemo2]

Instant Refried Bean Mix

3 cups of dried beans, any variety (I have used black and pinto)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
cayenne pepper, to taste

In a coffee grinder, food mill or blender, grind beans until a flour
consistency. Mix all ingredients together until they are well blended. Store in a large airtight container or jar

TO USE:

3/4 C. Instant Refried Bean Mix 2 1/2 cups boiling water

Combine bean mix and water in a medium-sized saucepan. Mix with a wire
whisk until combined. Don't worry about the lumps, they are tasty and add
texture to your beans. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for
4-5 minutes or until thickened. Mixture will thicken more as it cools.
Refried beans will remain thickened even when reheating.

[Yowbarb]

Noproblemo what a neat recipe! I want to try that...

Also, back in April Carlos posted an interesting recipe of a food called tsampa.
[The Feminine Side of 2012 / Re: As a female, what is your main focus?

[1969quartz0]

Yowbarb and Noproblemo thanks I am going to try both.

[noproblemo2]

Here is one for Beef Jerky.
Jerky: A Protein Source

[Yowbarb]

Noproblemo thank you.
This is a great food to learn to prepare. Talk about your survival recipes! - Yowbarb

An image of buffalo jerky ... Plains Indians,
http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/images/firstnations/fp_metis/food_pemmican_jerky.jpg

[noproblemo2]

Hmm wonder what other flavors one could use for jerky? Teriyaki maybe?

[Yowbarb]

Vegetable Nituke miso soup Yowbarb's basic recipe:
Ingredients: vegetables, oil, water, miso and tahini. 
This soup could be made with any vegetable.
...

A tablespoon or two of oil in the bottom of the iron pan.
Let it heat up a little while, not burning the oil...
Drop in the carrots, reduce the heat.  Stir and cook them around for about ten minutes
Put in the diced or sliced onions and garlic and stir. Cook about five minutes.

A second pan has water boiling.
Take about three tablespoons miso and an equal amount tahini and mix them in a bowl with a little water at a time. Make a paste.  This is a soup base.
Stir the cooked vegetables and the soup base into the pot of boiling water. A couple of quarts. Not an exat recipe.
It just needs to simmer about fifteen minutes. The thickness and saltiness and amount of vegetables is up to individual taste.
Toward the end of the cooking time a person could add dark greens, pieces of nori seaweed, etc. if they like.

...

[noproblemo2]

Solar Meatballs
1 pound ground chuck

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients (1/4 cup tomato sauce) so mixture sticks together in walnut-sized balls. (If mixture is too sticky, add bread crumbs, oatmeal or crushed crackers.) Place meatballs in 9-inch dark round roaster or an amber glass dish; pour remaining tomato sauce on top. Cover. Bake in solar oven approximately 1 hour.

[Yowbarb]

Noproblemo2 I forgot about solar cooking!!
Thanks for reminding.
Sounds like a great recipe.
Found a solar cooking link,
Yowbarb

http://solarcooking.org/plans/

[noproblemo2]

Noproblemo2 I forgot about solar cooking!!
Thanks for reminding.
Sounds like a great recipe.
Found a solar cooking link,
Yowbarb

http://solarcooking.org/plans/

Here's one for a building a solar still
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooking/cooking.htm#SolarStills

[Yowbarb]

I took out most of my running commentary and blab on the soup and so on, here they are, below. The recipe itself without comment is in a couple of posts above,
Yowbarb
...
Vegetable Nituke miso soup

vegetables, oil, water, miso and tahini.  This is Japanese but it is not complicated. I don't have exact translation but nituke means a sauteed vegetable dish.     (Probably.)
'scuse it if I define terms you already know:
Miso is an ancient Japanese food made of soybeans, or rice etc.
Tahini is sesame butter, more on it , below.*
Here is a simple recipe, it could be a budget stretcher possibly in the aftertimes when there are crops. Or any time there is a lot of produce available... Afterthought: You can use dried vegetables, too, of course.
The main ingredients, carrots onions garlic are not so expensive not so hard to grow...
The miso and tahini are dense, nutrient - rich foods that keep a long time, inexpensive too. They are fermented. The Japanese used to (or do?)  keep the miso in big barrels. I am not sure the limits on how long you could keep fermented miso... If you have a big batch of it and it is refrigerated, I feel it would be good to use a long time.
The Zen Buddhist monks had miso and tahini as staples.

At some point MREs could run out and it may not be possible to go kill animals, so the miso could be a life saver. Whether there is fresh produce or not. It would be worth the effort to look at big batches and see how it needs to be stored, etc. how long can it be used when opened, refrigeration etc. Will be looking into it. Note: Linda has posted lots of info on drying vegetables. This would be a very good idea. The dried veges could be kept as a staple to use in the miso soup.

This soup could be made with just about any vegetable a person has.
A person can do this without a recipe.

This would need to be tweaked if a person is making a big batch to feed a lot of people.
Experiment with the proportions and size of the batch. Also, of course, what people will eat.

Sidenote: I plan on getting a tripod and a few big iron pots. Note: One or two pots I would keep only to boil water. One big iron pot I would use for stuff like miso. (If I were to do a big meat pot I would use stainless steel which a can be scoured and washed and dried and rinsed with boiling water.)

Re vegetarian cooking in iron pots and pans: I found in the past, if I used an iron pan, already well seasoned, and used good oil and non - meat ingredients, I could saute a few veggies including dark greens add cooked rice whatever.  I didn't let it get all stuck with stuff. After cookiing I scraped it off rinsed , wiped, oiled it and just used it again... no none got sick. Everyone needs to decide their own kitchen hygiene. I found if it was iron, well  oiled, cool environment, and non meat cooking I didn't have to worry so much about super sanitizing everything. Not selling vegetarianism it has it's simplicity and advantages sometimes.
[If you are preparing food for babies then it has to be sanitary.]
...
Here is what I have done in small batches:
Nice heavy big iron pan.
I take a good cold - pressed oil like sesame, but just about any oil would do that is available (Do not heat olive oil.)
Chop up a batch of vegetables.
The usual vegetables to use are carrots, onions and garlic.
Note: Greens can be added later when these are done. I used to start with carrots because they are heavier and take longer to cook.

Yowbarb's basic recipe:
A tablespoon or two of oil in the bottom of the iron pan.
Let it heat up a little while, not burning...
Drop in the carrots and stir them around for a few minutes
Put in the diced or sliced onions and garlic and stir...

A second pan has water boiling.
Take a blob (three tablespoons or so) miso and an equal amount tahini and mix them in a bowl with a little water at a time. Make a paste.  This is a soup base.
Stir the cooked vegetables and the soup base into the pot of boiling water. It just needs to simmer about fifteen minutes. The thickness and saltiness and amount of vegetables is up to individual taste.
Toward the end of the cooking time a person could add dark greens, pieces of nori seaweed, etc. if they like. Fresh vegetables are preferred of course, but if you are trying to feed a bunch of hungry people then use what you have. As long as you have a supply of miso and tahini any kind of vegetable and a pot, you can put on a meal. It will provide protein, vitamins minerals, and fiber.

It would probably be OK with canned okra or canned mustard greens. I like that sort of food not everyone would, but this is life giving stuff.  You might have to adjust the recipe to what people will eat. If a person had rice to use up, or canned hominy even, just dump it in. It will help fill up the empty stomachs.

Yowbarb sidenote: When my son was little I couldn't get him to have miso soup. It was one of our staples. All the girls would have miso. On miso nights I had to make him a peanut butter sandwich or whatever else he would eat. [Never made my kids go hungry if all else failed there was raw veges with ranch dressing to dip them in, and a natural peanut butter and jam sandwich.]
When he got a little older he used to go to Japanese place in Los Feliz area and plunk down his cash to buy a bowl. It wasn't expensive. 

*sesame butter used as a common protein staple in the Middle East and the Far East. You can find it in glass jars in the international foods section of large supermarkets.  You can also find small cans of it in the Jewish or middle eastern staples there. Also easy to find in health food stores. If I find a cheap large source of it, will post here.
I read an article decades ago that said the people who use sesame protein regularly usually have tough strong bodies...
- Yowbarb

[Yowbarb]

We will call this Barb's Beet Tomato Borscht

A soup I concocted decades ago...
I had never heard of borscht at the time.. but this is sort of a borscht soup.
This is enough for 1-2 people

Ingredients:
1-2 fresh raw beets, with the fibrous parts off, chop them in half inch pieces
3 medium carrots
half a large onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes
1 quart water

Heat up some cold - pressed sesame or corn in an iron frying pan
Sautee the beets first, for about 5 minutes
add the carrots to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes
add the onions and garlic stir and cook without burning, a few minutes.
Stir the sauteed vegetables into the pot of boiling water.
Bring to a boil then turn down the heat.
Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer the pot for about fifteen minutes.
You can season with sea salt, tamari soy sauce or miso... to taste

You may need to cook it down, not exact.

[Mjoy]

One of the best "weeds" around is Stinging Nettles!  One can make a tea from it, one can make a soup from it, or eat it raw (yes, you can!  )  They are all over the place, where I live (Germany), and I like to collect them, especially in the Spring, when they are young. Here is some information about it and my favorite soup recipe, which is the last of the websites below.  ENJOY!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_nettle
http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/isabells_blog/nettle-many-uses-many-benefits.html
harvest stinging nettles and eating nettles raw!
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Nettle.html
http://www.nettlesoup.info/nettlesoup.htm
Bye for now,
Mary

[noproblemo2]

Thanks Mjoy, will add this also