SCP Survival

White rice is a basic survival storage food, and Koshari is an everyday working-person’s meal in most of Egypt. It tastes infinitely better than it sounds.

This is part of a series of Survival Recipes that you can make from commonly stored foods, your garden in season, foraging wild edibles, or what is seasonally plentiful on the homestead.

You Will Need:

• Caramelized onions (see Best Pizza recipe for details)
• white rice, uncooked
• lentils (I like orange dal, because they cook quickly)
• plain spaghetti pasta
• yellow onions, diced
• your favorite tomato sauce (even packaged sauce will work)
• ground cumin
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Add 2 parts white rice 1 part lentils to a pan, and cover with water (1 ‘knuckle’ depth above surface).
2. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer.
3. While rice and lentils cook, break up the spaghetti pasta, and lightly brown it in olive oil.
4. After about 10 minutes, add the browned pasta to the rice/lentil mix and continue simmering, covered, about another 10 minutes. (Do not expect ‘fluffy’ rice – thick and sticky is what you want.)
5. Saute diced onions in oil, add tomato sauce and a healthy shot of ground cumin. simmer.
6. When rice/lentils/pasta mix is cooked, place serving in a bowl, cover with caramelized onions and top with the cumin/tomato sauce.

Really delicious, filling and easy. Makes a great, simple camping meal as well. (Thanks to Anthony Bourdain “No Reservations” Cairo episode for the inspiration)

Soups have long been the mainstay of any cook who is trying to stretch the larder to feed more people, or the budget to save money.

Soup is the basic survival food. This is part of a series of Survival Soup recipes that you can make from commonly stored foods, your garden in season, foraging wild edibles, or what is seasonally plentiful on the homestead.

Do without further adieu, I give you Garbage Soup. Money-saving, ecologically-sound and delicious.

You Will Need:

• Frozen (or fresh) veggie-scraps
• Frozen meat (or dried, canned or fresh), skin and bone scraps

I will admit, NOT the most appetizing name, but it can save you a lot of cash over a year’s time. What do you do with the skins of the onions you use? The carrot and potato peels? Root ends of celery? Chicken bones and skins? Shrimp shells?

They go in the trash, or down the disposal, or (hurray!) in the compost pile, right? Try putting all of the veggie scraps into a big zip bag (yes, even the papery skins from the onions – great color). Put the meat scraps into another, squeeze air out of both and just stick them in your freezer.

Directions:

1. When the veggie bag is full, dump it into a stockpot, add garlic (I always add garlic) and some black peppercorns
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about an hour or so.
3. Strain and press any remaining liquid out of the veg.

You now have some very tasty, and FREE vegetable stock. The stuff in the strainer will break down in your compost pile MUCH faster.

If you want a chicken/meat/seafood stock, sear the bones/fat/skin etc in a skillet and simmer in the veggie stock another hour or so, Strain again and skim off excess fat. DO NOT compost the meat scraps, or you will get bad smells and rats.

You just cannot beat free food :)

This was completely an experiment in using only storable items, I’m surprised that it worked out as well as it did.

This is DEFINITELY going to be a lot better if you use homemade, air-dried beef jerky vs. the commercially-made stuff. If you have to use ‘store’ jerky, I’d go for the ‘steak nugget’ style before the flat strips.

Dried Ancho and Pasilla chile peppers are available at every supermarket in areas that have any sort of Latin-American populations, or online. They are very flavorful, but not at all ‘hot’. (Chiles de Arbol can hurt you – not all dried peppers are mild)

They are also pretty cheap flavor-enhancers. If you prep them by breaking off the stem-ends, pouring out the seeds and vacuum-sealing, the 25th Century archeologists who discover your stash will probably say “MMMMM.. tasty…”

This is NOT a quick MRE-type meal. Just like our ancestors, if you’re going to use dried, preserved ingredients, it will take a while, and you may have to plan in advance.

Ingredients:

• “big handful” (or 2)  of  homemade beef jerky (“Carne Seca” in Spanish – a popular Mexican ingredient)
• “handful” of dried Ancho and/or Pasilla chiles
• heaping tbsp. of dried Oregano leaves
• about a tbsp. of ground cumin seed
• 1-2 tbsp. dehydrated onion flakes
• 1 tbsp. granulated garlic
• water
• chicken stock or bouillion (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:

1. In one container, cover the jerky with boiling water, and let sit 3-4 hours to rehydrate.
2. In another container, add chiles, oregano, onion and garlic, cover with boiling water and let sit to rehydrate. Refrigerating #’s 1 and 2 overnight (covered) is not  a bad idea, if possible.
3. Grind up the chile/herb/onion/garlic/water into a thick sauce. “Abuelita” (grandma) probably used a lava-rock mortar and pestle for this. A hand immersion blender, or a food processor or a blender will work faster under ideal circumstances.
4. Drain the meat (save liquid) and add rehydrated meat to the chile/herb sauce.
5. Add the meat-rehydrating liquid, if needed, until everything is submerged.
6. Let the meat marinate, refrigerated, as long as possible. 2 or 3 days is not a bad idea.
7. When ready, dump the whole batch into a pot, add water (or chicken stock) until everything is covered.
8. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, simmer covered 2-3 hours, checking liquid level – add more if needed (especially if on an open fire)
9. Let it simmer, uncovered, another 10-15 minutes, to thicken sauce.

This was surprisingly good over rice and black beans with homemade corn tortillas. The meat isn’t ‘fall apart tender’ like a normal pork shoulder Carne Adovada, but much more than just “acceptable” or “MRE” quality.