Recipes from Fish Camp: Sweet Potato Rice Salad

Another year, another fish camp with the family. Which means another chance to try a new recipe! This one went over fairly well, and I took the leftovers home and they were still good a week later. Keep in mind I made a triple batch of this recipe, so check out the asterisk to see about my substitution.

3 cups chicken broth
1 cup wild rice (uncooked)*
2 cups sweet potato, peeled & cubed
1 T. + ½ t. olive oil, divided
⅓ cup red delicious apple
¼ cup orange juice concentrate (thawed, undiluted)
¼ cup green onions
¼ cup raisins
optional: mint sprigs

*Do you know how expensive wild rice is? I only found one size of box, with barely 1 cup, so when I tripled the recipe I used 1 cup of wild rice and 2 cups of brown rice. Tasty and a nice texture.

1. Bring the chick broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add rice; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
2. Preheat oven to 400F.
3. Combine sweet potato and ½ teaspoon oil in a bowl, tossing well to coat. Arrange sweet potato in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan. (Cover in aluminum foil & coat with cooking spray to make cleanup easy.) Bake at 400F for 30 minutes, turning once.
4. Combine diced apples with orange juice concentrate in a small bowl. Drain, reserving concentrate. Combine 1 tablespoon oil with reserved concentrate; stir well with whisk.
5. Combine rice, concentrate mixture, apples, green onions, and raisins; gently stir in potato. Cover and chill 1 hour. Garnish with mint sprigs, if desired.
6. Eat! 

Recipes from Fish Camp: Don's Broetchen

Has anyone ever met a carbohydrate they didn't like? Certainly not anyone in my family, and my uncle Donald is the king when it comes to making tasty, yeasty, yummy treats. Each Thanksgiving at least one person burns their fingers on his rolls because they grabbed them straight from the oven, and for the past two years his contribution to camp cuisine has come in the form of broetchen. "Broetchen" rhymes with "Gretchen," which gives a clue as to the treat's German origin. They're "little bread," or rolls, and they are tasty, good with jam or meats or any other way you want to use them.

Now, my uncle has been baking bread from scratch for years and years, so it's hard to communicate the "feel" of bread dough that is properly ready. That comes with experience, but in the meantime we have his rambling recipe to help us along. I've boldfaced the ingredients to help you pick them out.

1. Begin with two cups of warm skim milk
• I actually use powdered milk and enough of it (usually almost 1 cup) to make almost a quart of (reconstituted) milk, but in only the two cups of warm water; result: extra rich milk
2. Add 1 package dried yeast  (or about 1½ tsp. dried yeast if you buy it in bulk, as I do)
3. Let yeast stand in warm milk base for 5 minutes (or lots longer, for that matter)
4. Add 1 teaspoon (or slightly more) salt
5. Add 2 Tbl sugar ...... mix well, and then you are ready for flour
6. Add approx. 3 cups bread flour; mix well (until you have like a thick slurry)
7. Mix in 2 Tbl oil (corn or canola or olive or grape or whatever .... the batches I made for vacation in the UP even had a tiny dab of cod liver oil)
8. Add  2 more cups of flour ... work it in as well as you can ... turn the mass out on counter top, kneading in more flour (up to maybe a cup more) until dough is is softly pliable, a mass which won't stick to your fingers
9. Let rise for an hour (or longer; it doesn't matter)
10. Punch the dough! Then cut the punched down mass of dough in half, and the halves in half, and those quarters in thirds ... until you have lumps of dough about the size of an extra-large egg (there should be about 12 of them)  
11. Shape it into a very small loaf.
• It's the feel of doing this which I can't give you.... You use the palms of your hands like a backdrop for shaping the dough-lets and your fingers to tuck the outside edges under and in; in shape they will be something like a miniature, misshapen football ... put them on a cornmeal sprinkled cookie sheet....let rise until double in size.
12. Take a knife and gently, delicately mark a slash longitudinally ... bake at 340 degrees F,  about 30  minutes ... take them out, see if you can resist eating one on the spot.*

*Especially if you have one of Don's home-made jams to go with it! I can speak from experience.

An additional note: These little treats do just fine if you freeze them, then thaw them in a microwave for 20-30 seconds or so. Don brought dozens and dozens to camp, and we made regular inroads on his supply until they were exhausted and we were looking around forlornly for more.

Recipes from Fish Camp: Breakfast Fruit Toppings

Breakfast at fish camp usually involves pancakes or french toast 5 days out of 6, so it's important to have a variety of toppings so boredom doesn't set in. Maple syrup is tasty, but fresh fruit toppings are so much better for you, and are relatively easy to make. I try to make these once a week at home; at fish camp I just multiply the recipe by factor of A LOT. Here is the basic recipe:

1 cup fresh fruit (blueberries, peaches, apples, pears, raspberries, anything that's good cooked)

1 tablespoon All-Fruit (ie, those fruit spreads that are sweetened only with juice)

Some combinations I've made: fresh blueberries with blueberry All-Fruit; fresh peaches, apricots, or apples with apricot All-Fruit and cinnamon; fresh peaches/apples/pears with raspberry All-Fruit. If a fruit isn't in season, I've used canned (peaches and pears); you could also use frozen berries, but rinse them in cold water first, to reduce the amount of meltwater you get.

Put the fruit (peeled, pitted, cored, and/or chopped, as needed) into a microwavable container with the jam. Microwave about 20 seconds at a time, stirring every time, until mixture is juicy and warm. Serve over pancakes, french toast, or waffles.

These recipes are for an individual serving, so multiply accordingly to serve more people. When I make a large batch, as I do at camp, I cook the fruit and jam over the stove instead of in the microwave, because it's faster.

And what do I do if I have a fresh fruit that doesn't cook well, like strawberries or bananas? Well, then I go to my freezer and get a couple tablespoons of non-fat whipped topping, which adds less than 40 calories to the breakfast. Yum!

Recipes from Fish Camp: Rachel's Oatmeal Spice Cake

This tasty treat was extremely popular at camp this year. It's named after my cousin Rachel not just because she made it for us, but because she reportedly came home from high school every day and made this cake. (Ah, to have a teenager's metabolism!) But never mind the evil frosting, since the cake has oatmeal it must be good for you, like breakfast!

Oatmeal Spice Cake

NOTES: Do not use old-fashioned or instant oats for this recipe. This makes a enough for a 9x9 cake pan; double for larger pan (the extra can be baked as muffins).

1 cup (3 ounces) quick-cooking oats*

¾ cup water, room temperature

¾ cup (3¾ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened

½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar

½ cup packed (3½ ounces) light brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350F. Cut two 16-inch lengths aluminum foil and fold both lengthwise to 5-inch widths. Spray an 8x8-inch metal baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Fit foil pieces into baking dish, one overlapping the other, pushing them into corners and up sides of pan; allow excess to overhang pan edges. Spray foil lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine oats and water in medium bowl and let sit until water is absorbed, about 5 minutes. In another medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together.
3. In bowl of standing mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium speed until combined and mixture has consistency of damp sand, 2 to 4 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula halfway through mixing. Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined, about 30 seconds. Add flour mixture in 2 additions and mix until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add soaked oats and mix until combined, about 15 seconds.
4. Give batter final stir with rubber spatula to make sure thoroughly combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan and lightly tap against counter 3 or 4 times to dislodge any large air bubbles; smooth surface with spatula. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with few crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Let cake cool slightly in pan, at least 10 minutes.

Topping

6 tbsp butter

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup evaporated milk or whipping cream

½ tsp vanilla

1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans

Heat ingredients over low heat in saucepan; fold in nuts. Apply to freshly baked cake.

Enjoy!

Recipes from Fish Camp: Tabbuli

I mentioned before that I was going to post on the blog some of the most popular recipes from fish camp. In case you're wondering, "what's fish camp?," it's a week spent up North somewhere (this year, South Manistique Lake in Michigan's Upper Peninsula) with the extended family. Of course we fish (and eat the fish if they bite), but we also see the sights, hike and bike and walk and run, swim and sunbathe, play cards and chew the fat, and do lots of reading. (This is a given; almost every child in our family is born with a book in his or her hand; this summer my cousin's five-year-old ran out of his cabin naked except for the book he wanted to share with us.)

And, of course, we EAT. This year we had 26 people at camp, so that requires a lot of coordinating and cooking to make sure we have enough food for everyone. We take turns chipping in dishes for the evening meal, and have quite a spread. This recipe came from my Aunt Carole and was quickly devoured, nom nom nom nom. Was it because it was the end of the week and we were starved for something healthy after eating so many "homestyle" treats? I think it was just because this was extremely tasty.

Carole writes: "I'm fairly precise when measuring out the bulgur wheat, olive oil, lemon juice, and spices, but much less precise with the green onions, parsley, mint, tomatoes and garbanzos—sort of depends on the mood I'm in and how much of each ingredient I have on hand."

Tabbuli

1 cup bulgur wheat*

1 cup water
⅓ cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon each salt and ground allspice
1 cup chopped green onions (including tops)
¼ cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 cup chopped parsley
½ cup cooked garbanzo beans
2 tomatoes, finely diced

Bring bulgur wheat and water to a boil in a covered pan. Immediately reduce heat and simmer covered for 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed; bulgur should still be crunchy. Turn bulgur into a bowl and mix in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and allspice. Cool.

Add onions, mint, parsley, garbanzos, and tomatoes. Mix together lightly. Cover and chill for 1 hour or until next day.

Makes six servings. Per serving: 11 grams protein, 40 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 363 calories.

Adapted from Sunset Menus and Recipes for Vegetarian Cooking by the Editors of Sunset Books and Magazine, October 1981, page 20.

*Bulgur wheat is sometimes stocked with other whole grain products; you can usually find it at Whole Foods. Or buy Near East brand tabbuli mix, use the bulgur wheat portion and ditch their spices in favor of fresh ones.