Pescies and Veggies

[Night Phoenix]

Hello folks,
Though I am not myself I wish to be able to cater more fully for pescatarian, vegetarian and vegans who come on wee adventures hiking and camping with me. I have long made foraging a part of my life and have developed some of my own recipes but I am curious as to what recipes you would all suggest. I am looking for wild food/ foraging recipes in particular but good campfire/ stove recipes are also very welcome or perhaps there is a thread already on here?
Thought this might be useful to many folks out there and those that relish a culinary challenge as well
Thanks
Kat

 

[Janne]

My tastebuds love fried sweet water fish, panfried on butter.
You just clean the catch, remove the head, scales and fins, then panfry with a little bit of salt.
All sweet water fish are delicious this way, perch and the rest. Yes, lots of small bones, but those you just pick out.

 

[Robson Valley]

We have lots of different fresh water fish species worth angling for in western Canada. Pike, perch, walleye/pickerel, burbot, whitefish & cisco.
I need no encouragement to eat large quantities of fish, aquatic or marine. In all my years, I still do as Janne describes =
pan-fried in a little butter, S&P, that's it. Onto a slice of bread, eat the plate, too!

The single other expectation is some sort of batter-fried presentation. My brother and I have that one figured out.
Pretty simple = the major and main ingredient is corn flour. NOT corn starch, NOT corn meal. According to McGee, the starch in
corn is much harder to hydrate (than in wheat flours) so the cooked batter remains crisper. So I went to a big grocery store
and looked at the lists of ingredients for several brands of fish batter mixes. #1 was always corn flour.
Do yourself a favor, make it from scratch and practice at home.

Veggies. Big fan of steaming in some sort of a basket. Mix of olive oil and herbs for seasoning, a little salt.
You people in the UK have so much to forage for.

 

[Janne]

Tonight we will have pan fried Skrei Cod I bring from Norway.
Simple: Cover in wheat Flour, then in a whipped egg, then breadcrumbs. Fry in 50/50 butter and Olive oil.
Sometimes I mix in a little bit of Cayenne Pepper with the flour.

We have some left over veg, Kale, Bok Choi and similar. Will just cut it up and stem it in a bit of water and butter. Pinch of salt.

 

[Robson Valley]

Night Phoenix: what passes for fishy things up your way?
Shellfish like limpets/mussels/clams/oysters?

Last of the crab cakes as burgers then elk with veg & potato last night.
Probably a dose of bison tonight. Likely rice or quinoa and more steamed veg.
I can pretend that bison has fins.

 

[Night Phoenix]

Got to say some of my fondest wild food memories have been exactly that. Fancy it now

 

[Night Phoenix]

Hehe that would be a hell of a catch with the line if bison had fins! I like your idea of crab cakes and info about the corn flour. Corn flour is not something i have experimented with much at all so i may do that.
Fishy things up this way include yummy shellfish (razorshells are divine), river nearby has pike, perch and trout mostly and frustratingly american signal crayfish which (more frustratingly we cant catch).
A variety of sea fish though i have only ever caught mackerel.
Some of the politics are a bit fishy too

Night Phoenix: what passes for fishy things up your way?
Shellfish like limpets/mussels/clams/oysters?

Last of the crab cakes as burgers then elk with veg & potato last night.
Probably a dose of bison tonight. Likely rice or quinoa and more steamed veg.
I can pretend that bison has fins.

 

[Robson Valley]

Best source of corn flour that I've found is Asian grocery stores.
In fact, I have a 4kg bag in the kitchen for some wheat-free waffle experiments.

We've got some introduced/non-native species which have been doing serious habitat damage. The Hunting and Fishing regs sometimes say: "NBL" = No Bag Limit.
There's about 20 species on our 'C' List = blast away, no licence, NBL. Everything from Bullfrogs, some rabbits and squirrels to some birds and turtles.

You ought to be allowed to do your best to kill off the invasive things. If I came over to your place, I'd like to see the native wildlife
not some introduced vermin from half a world away. What with bison, elk and a couple of deer species, lots of us think of cattle as introduced vermin.

OK, suppose you forage enough greens to go with whatever for a meal. Technique, seasonings?

 

[Leshy]

Hi Kat. There is an ongoing thread with a few recipes ( and a bit of chatting) on the same vegan, veggie , pescatarian context.
I've posted a simple recipe there:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1788397

But there are other good ones...

I strongly recommend a book by Roger Phillips called "wild food" .
This has become a bit of a classic now and there are lots of really good ideas there
... Especially for the foragers !



Alternatively there is also the readers section of the permaculture website...

Quite a few recipes there too, not so simple to make outdoors though and not all from foraged ingredients but here goes anyway:

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/read...ehip-and-beetroot-soup-cooked-and-raw-version

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/elderfower-fritters

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/oca-homity-pie-recipe

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/rustic-vegan-creamy-leeks-paprika-rice-recipe


Lots more scattered throughout those pages...😊


Apologies for long post .
Hope it helps 👍

 

[Janne]

Britain is Britain. No easy 'blasting away" invasive species!
Sweden ( just like some parts of UK) has a problem with Boar. They declared Open Season. So hunting 24/7/52.
I sometimes ( for about 15 seconds) wish I still lived in Sweden, just for the boar hunt.

Limpets: I had some last summer, me and son went on a 2 day excursion to a fjord across from "our' village. Only food we had was what we foraged.
Limpets are really, really nice!

 

[Night Phoenix]

That book was like my bible since i first got it as a kid from an old lady who spent her free time in the hills walking with her dogs. All advice and long posts greatly appreciated and i am having a good nosey at the links now. Stomachs starting to grumble in anticipation of the yummy food!

Hi Kat. There is an ongoing thread with a few recipes ( and a bit of chatting) on the same vegan, veggie , pescatarian context.
I've posted a simple recipe there:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1788397

But there are other good ones...

I strongly recommend a book by Roger Phillips called "wild food" .
This has become a bit of a classic now and there are lots of really good ideas there
... Especially for the foragers !



Alternatively there is also the readers section of the permaculture website...

Quite a few recipes there too, not so simple to make outdoors though and not all from foraged ingredients but here goes anyway:

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/read...ehip-and-beetroot-soup-cooked-and-raw-version

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/elderfower-fritters

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/oca-homity-pie-recipe

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/rustic-vegan-creamy-leeks-paprika-rice-recipe


Lots more scattered throughout those pages...


Apologies for long post .
Hope it helps 

 

[Robson Valley]

Leshy: have you got the ISBN for the Phillips' book?

Keep meaning to go frog-gigging in the Fraser Valley of BC but never quite get my act together.
Bigger than I expected, .22cal at night with a light along the canals. Have spear heads, goodness only knows where they are.

It just is not humanly possible to starve to death on the BC coast. The intertidal is a banquet, twice a day.
Limpets look strange but make a real feast. Nobody harvests commercially so you have to get your own.

Abalone are protected now, consequence of overfishing. I never thought much of them, left to the sea otters is OK with me.
I have lots of shells for inlay in my carvings but they all 1960's sourced.
= = =
Organize the bread and some softened butter.
Sweat some onion and sliced garlic in a little oil in a big pot.
Add 2C cheap white wine, handfuls of red & green pepper slices, S&P
Crank that up to a boil and add the shellfish of choice (4 dozen mussels for me).
Cook for 5 minutes. Eat. Dunk the buttered bread in the juice.

 

[Leshy]

That book was like my bible since i first got it as a kid from an old lady who spent her free time in the hills walking with her dogs. All advice and long posts greatly appreciated and i am having a good nosey at the links now. Stomachs starting to grumble in anticipation of the yummy food!

Haha! Excellent , it's a great book ! I love the fact it gives information about the different plants as well as the beautiful recipes.
Huge furry wotsisname apparently has also got a good book on foraging recipes, part of the river cottage series , but I haven't got it yet so can't really comment on that one...

...But I can recommend Fergus's website !👍
The man is an inspiration...

Check him out 👍👍

http://fergustheforager.co.uk/recipes-articles/

 

[Leshy]

@Robson Valley

Yes Sir .

ISBN 0 330 28069 4


If you can't get it over there or postage is extortionate let me know Brian , I can send you a copy! 👍


Oh , and I'm with you on the shellfish front! Love the stuff!

 

[Leshy]

@Robson Valley

Yes Sir .

ISBN 0 330 28069 4


If you can't get it over there or postage is extortionate let me know Brian , I can send you a copy! 👍


Oh , and I'm with you on the shellfish front! Love the stuff!

Additionally , Amazon (even though I hate the thought of lining their pockets) do have great 2nd hand books , not sure if you're aware , so apologies if it sounds condescending, but their "used" listings are sometimes as good as new !
Haven't had one bad yet...😉

Apologies for off topic thread hijack.

 

[Robson Valley]

No sweat. I like to shop in abeBooks.com. They have a UK branch now.
They claim that if they don't stock it, it has not been written.

I set a budget of $100 for a single book about the American painter, Winslow Homer.
With abeBooks, I got 3 different books for $90, delivered to my door.

The down side to used books are the idiots that razor out the pages that they would like to keep.
And, I'm tired of buying gifts for other people. Time for _me_.

Gotta get some bison out. Frozen mix veg again. Fresh greens XXX expensive and risky shipping at -25C.
Want to make bread, too.

 

[Janne]

Do you eat all of the limpet 'meat' or just the foot?

When we had them I removed everything except the foot muscle, but have since read the dark rest can also be eaten.

 

[Robson Valley]

I've always thought steamed limpets to be like steamed mussels = "down the hatch!"

A few lunches in Australia, a big knife and a lemon.
Walk 30 minutes down the beach, eating oysters off the rocks.
Turn around and do the same. Lunch hour over.

Another thing that I don't know = do shellfish freeze OK? Could I buy and freeze a couple of kg
of mussels, get them here 2hrs from the city fish shop, and dole out whatever I feel like eating?

 

[Janne]

Yes, they freeze well. I find that bivalves, crabs and lobsters are best frozen cooked, but conch is better frozen raw.
I have frozen raw local lobsters, and have a feeling it is more stringy when cooked.
Not sure why.

I am not sure why we do not eat limpets, wild or cultivated. So much flavour!
Yes, a bit chewy, but there is a reason the Gods have us teeth and Dentists!

 

[Robson Valley]

Never had conch. Brother sent me some shells from his place on Grand Bahama.
Maybe I should go there and eat some.

Guess I need to do the experiment. My recipe in Post#12. Toss in 4 dozen frozen for 10(?) minutes.