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From the Staff at Overland Journal.

Winter 2008’s Overland Chef menu centers around freshly baked bread - an especially delicious and easy version that involves no kneading. It’s true. You have to try it to believe it.

The Menu:

Starters & Drinks ~ Chipotle popcorn and micro brew ale

Dinner ~ Ribollita with freshly baked bread and butter

Wine Pairing ~ For white, a vouvray or white burgundy; for red, a chianti classico or a new beaujolais

Dessert ~ Pumpkin cobbler

No-knead Bread

Serves: 4-6 | Time: 4½ hours to rise, 40 minues to cook | Equipment: Large Dutch oven (10+ quart, preferably 7” depth or more), small trivet for inside oven, and 8” pie or cake pan | Recipe by Mark Bittman; adapted for camp by Roseann Hanson

3 cups flour
1 packet (¼-ounce) instant yeast
1½ teaspoons salt

Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl or pot. Add 1½ cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy (more like batter than dough). Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest undisturbed for about 4 hours at around 70 degrees (the warmth is important for the yeast to grow and develop flavor; if it’s cold, use a hot water bottle or two).

After 4 hours, use a wide plastic bowl scraper to lift and fold the dough over onto itself several times; it will still be loose and sticky. Cover again and let sit 30 minutes.

At least an hour before dough is ready, get your fire going (if using charcoal briquettes, start them in a chimney 20 minutes or so before). Put the trivet and cake pan in the Dutch oven and pre-heat the oven over coals until it is very hot—at least 10 minutes with very hot coals (if it’s too cool the crust will stick to the cake pan). When ready, dump and scrape the batter into the cake pan (which helps contain it, since it is still pretty goopy) and replace the lid; add coals on top. Keep the heat pretty high but check every 10 – 15 minutes by quickly lifting the lid; it’s easy to burn. Cook 40 minutes or so—it should be nicely browned and hollow-sounding when thumped. Remove from oven (I use pliers to grab the cake pan), tip out of cake pan, and let cool on a rack; the trivet works well. Notes: I burned the outside of my first loaf, but the inside was still tasty; the second loaf I didn’t have a hot enough oven and it browned nicely but stuck to the cake pan. If you have a small but deep oven, you can try pouring the batter right into the oven but reduce direct heat on the bottom, to avoid burning the crust.

While the bread is baking, prepare the rest of your menu. Crack open some micro-brew ales, and make some chipotle popcorn:

Chipotle Popcorn

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a medium heave pot (with lid) over medium-high heat - place one popcorn kernel in the middle and close the lid. Use good-quality fresh, organic popcorn and a good corn oil - it makes a difference. When the kernel pops, pour in 1/4 cup kernels and put the lid back on. Give the pot a shake every minute to keep it from scorching. Kernels will start popping furiously. When the popping nearly stops remove from heat and keep shaking. Salt with sea salt and sprinkle with chipotle powder (from Penzeys.com).

Ribollita

This is a classic peasant dish from Italy - it means literally ‘reboiled’ and was a way to use up leftove minestrone and other dishes. Since we won’t be making minestrone from scratch, this is a ‘jive’ recipe I developed using canned goods that’s great in camp. If you have dried beans, use your pressure cooker to make short work of them (see Overland Chef Fall 2008).

• 2 cans cannellini (white, Navy) beans, drained, reserve
• 2 Italian sausages
• 1 leek, chopped (or onion)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup savoy cabbage, chopped (any cabbage will do)
• 1 bunch kale or greens, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 3/4 cup carrots, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1/2 bunch sage, shredded
• 1 12-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 2 1/4 cups stock
• fresh oregano

Cook sausages in bottom of large heavy pot in oil. Remove, keep warm. Saute leek or onion in oil in pot. Add cabbage, kale, celery, carrots, garlic, half of sage, tomatoes, 3/4 C stock. Cover and cook until wilted/soft but not mushy -about 5 minutes. Test. Add rest of stock. Mash a couple of spoonfuls of beans (about 1/3 of
total) and add. Simmer for about 20 min. Slice sausages into bites. Add rest of whole beans, sausages, lots of salt/pepper, more sage, fresh oregano, and heat through. It’s better the longer it sits, for the flavors to blend.
Pumpkin Cobbler

This dessert is a kind of pumpkin cake-pie hybrid, not really a true cobbler, and it’s kind of odd to make. But the result is what I call ’stupid-good.’ Ignore the fact it has a boatload of butter, evaporated milk, and several cups of sugar. It’s good for you when camping. And it’s got vegetables in it. See? (Recipe by Shepherd’s Seeds; if you are overlanding in Centrall or South America or Africa, you’ll have lots of access to squash and pumpkin - wrap some in foil and cook over your fire.)

For the batter:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 3 cups cooked mashed pumpkin or squash
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger, cloves, nutmeg, each
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter

For the crust:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Filling: Combine eggs, milk and pumpkin; add the rest of the ingredients, mix well.
Crust: melt butter in medium Dutch oven. In another bowl, mix remaining crust ingredients until just combined, and pour into Dutch oven on top of butter.
Combine: Spoon the filling batter carefully over the crust batter. Do not stir. Yes, this is odd, and it looks like a mess, but trust me it works. Dot the top with the remaining butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake 1 hour over medium heat (approximate 350 degree-oven).

Share your menus, recipes, and overland cooking tips with us at editor at overlandjournal dot com.

In Winter 2008, we featured a story by Toby Savage about an archaeological expedition to the Sahara. We didn’t have enough room to feature his wonderful Carawagon, so here are some shots from Toby and a writeup on this unique overlanding vehicle.

Toby Savage’s Series 2A LWB Land Rover originally left the Lode Lane factory in 1970, bound for the specialist conversion company, R. J. Searle, who fitted their own design of camper body, known as the Carawagon. These were very upmarket conversions in their day and no two were exactly the same. Toby has owned it since 1997 and in that time made several improvements to make it faster, safer and more comfortable. It now has a galvanised coil sprung chassis, Old Man Emu springs, disk brakes all round, a 200 Tdi engine with a bigger intercooler (Alli Sport), a five-speed LT77 gearbox mated to a Discovery transfer box for higher gearing, and Range Rover power-assisted steering.

This Land Rover has to switch identities from storming Desert Truck to Family Camper annually, whist still retaining its off-highway ability in the English mud. With the clever folding roof raised there is ample headroom for Toby’s 6’ 2” height, and the double bed arrangement can sleep two in comfort. There is even central heating courtesy of a Webasto heater unit, a refrigerator and a cooker to provide all the comforts of home, whilst not adding to the Land Rovers overall weight. The original 1970s awning can be simply attached to the rear and Toby has had made a side awning to protect him and his partner Jo from (hopefully!) the heat of the sun, but more often the persistent rain of the English climate.

More details are available on Toby’s web site: www.tobysavage.co.uk

 

Pic 1. The galley area may look a mess in use, but delicious meals have come forth from this Spartan set up.

Pic 2. A perfect English summers day. Both awnings up and a wood burning stove ready for a chilly evening.

Pic 3. This Land Rover is never allowed to forget its prime role in life. Off-highway action in the English countryside.

Pic 4. The beautiful Devon coastline at Bigbury on Sea provides a backdrop to this camp shot. Toby replaced the window blinds in 2008.

Pic 5. This wide angle lens shot shows the living space in the back of the 109-inch Land Rover when the folding roof is raised. The bench seat opens up to make a double bed. The cooker (new in 2008) is on the rear door.

Pic 6. This Land Rover’s second home. The Sahara Desert. Kicking up the sand in Libya.

Pic 7. Chilled out in Spain and enjoying the amenities of a real camp site.

On many of my adventures in the American Southwest, I have come across innumerable shiny, small, cylindrical artifacts.  Some are inscribed with the words ‘Bud Light,’ while others are simply emblazoned ‘Budweiser.’  So I took it upon myself to make a journey in hopes to find the source of these most peculiar relics.

Careful decryption of aforementioned objects pointed me in the direction of St. Louis, Missouri.  So it was there I traveled.  Upon entering the facility, I encountered what could possibly be a new course offering for Overland Training:

Venturing further into the building I found what might just be the source of these special artifacts that decorate the backcountry:

Seeing the word ‘packaging’ was a great clue to unraveling this mystery.  Perhaps these relics are merely vessels to contain some sort of liquid…  Then I turned the corner and hit the jackpot.  A sign boasting an output of 1,950 12oz cans per minute!!

After making this great discovery, I noticed that they had some fine specimens on display:

And not only did this place produce cans, but they also had a fine array of overlanding vehicles.

The earliest method for transporting the artifacts across the country:

The first motorized hauler of said relics:

Anheuser-Busch has tight security, lest someone should want to steal the delicious beverages they produce:

We’re not sure if that’s an ARB bull bar on the front, or if they ran over a walker:

This diesel powered overlanding super-bus is great for those long-distance journeys.  It has 3 living rooms, 27 fridges, and 5 bathrooms:

This rig is known as the Sportsmobeer: