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Backpacker’s Congee

Because oatmeal will drive you insane after a while, here's a proper breakfast for a cold, alpine morning. But it'll make a good dinner, too. Make no mistake: this will fill you up with the tricksy addition of various seeds.

Course Breakfast, Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Keyword backpacking, dairy-free, egg-free, hypoallergenic, lactose-free, no shellfish, no tree nuts, vegan, vegetarian

Servings people

Calories 550kcal

Equipment

Dehydrator
Food processor
4 oz Nalgene travel bottle

Ingredients

3 cups short-grained rice or sweet, glutinous rice
3⅛ cups chicken broth
1 tsp salt
3 carrots peeled and diced
6 green onions sliced into rings
12 mushrooms white or crimini
3 celery stalks diced
3 cups chicken pulled, from steamed boneless, skinless thighs
1 Tbsp garlic salt
1 Tbsp pepper
1 cup pine nuts
1 cup sesame seeds toasted
4 oz dark sesame oil

Instructions

At home:

Add the broth, rice (unwashed), and salt to a pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 3 minutes. If not using a pressure cooker, cook according the stovetop instructions on the bag.
Spread the cooked rice evenly on dehydrator trays and dehydrate for 5 hours at 125 degrees. Dehydrate the diced carrots, celery, green onion, and mushrooms on their own tray.
Steam and pull the chicken. In a mixing bowl, thoroughly coat with garlic salt and pepper. Add to another tray in your dehydrator.
In a stainless steel fry pan on high heat, toast the pine nuts, stirring constantly. Then do the same for the sesame seeds. Let them cool and store in a zipper lock bag.
When the rice is dry, place it in a food processor and pulse it a few times. We're not going for a powder but we do want to rough it up a bit to that it'll rehydrate faster in the field. Store rice, dried chicken, and dried veggies in a zipper lock bag.

In the field:

Place the rice, veggie, chicken mixture in a large pot and add 8 cups of cold water. Turn on the burner and bring to a boil, stirring periodically and adding more water as needed.
One the rice begins to thicken, dump in the sesame seeds and pine nuts. Once combined, it's ready to serve.
To serve, ladle the congee into a bowl or cup. Then put a few drops of dark sesame oil on top.

Notes

You can make this a vegetarian meal by using chicken in a foil pack that can be added only to the bowls of those who want it. You can eliminate the tree nuts by dropping the pine nuts. Though technically in a different class of nuts, pine nuts are not worth the risk if you have someone on the outing with a known allergy to tree nuts.

Nutrition

Backpacker’s Congee