Yesterday I went out to cook one of my absolute favourite dishes, Pork Stew. A good friend of mine had been so kind to bring me a cast iron combo cooker from the US, and I just had to give it a try out there. Very heavy equipment though, so definitely not something I will bring on any hikes. But heading out on a test kayak trip soon, and 15. July for a 14 days kayak trip, then I felt I needed to hone my skills cooking over open fire. It will be in my kayak, that is for sure.
And what a lovely day it was. Brought my dog, Lucky along, and my friend Lap volunteered to help me eat the final product. Safe to say it was a succes. Should you be interested to cook this yourself, then I will give you the ingredients here:
Smoked bacon (This was homemade, apple smoked)
Onion
Garlic
Bacon fat
Leek
Carrot
Tomato
Potato
Pork chops
Salt
Peber
Cajun
Oregano
Water
And then the final ingredient, my well kept secret so far, homemade Malt Syrup. It just collects all the flavours so nicely. As you might notice, then I have not given any direction as far as quantity goes, but reality is, this dish is very forgiving, and at the end of the day, it is all about preference. But fry the bacon first, to release the fat to use for the onion that comes next, once they are done, then add the garlic. Garlic only need short time to release all the goodness. After that, just add all the ingredients as they are chopped and ready. Add water and let it simmer while you give the pork a quick sear at the frying pan at high heat, to close the surface of the meat. Do not fry the meat, just give it a quick heat treatment, and then dump them in the pot with the rest of the ingredients. Let it all simmer for at couple of hours, and serve with rice, bread, pasta, or just as is. Usually when I do this at home, I pick up the pork chops 10 minutes before serving, and cut them into bite size chunks, and mix it up with the sauce again. But in the forest, better not complicate things too much. 🙂
You can see a video of the process here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdBHu_-SGkQ
