Curried Beef and Rice
A Dutch oven scout dinner rebuilt around instant rice and freeze-dried beef. One pot, one boil, fifteen minutes.
- calories
- 690
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 125
- protein
- 30 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried ground beef | 3 oz | or two foil pouches of shredded beef |
|---|---|---|
| Instant rice | 1 1/2 cups | parboiled or freeze-dried, not raw long grain |
| Tomato powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for a can of diced tomatoes |
| Dried apple | 1/4 cup | chopped small at home |
| Dried onion flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Curry powder | 1 1/2 tbsp | |
| Beef bouillon | 2 tsp | powder, not cubes |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Chopped peanuts or cashews | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Add the beef, onion, apple, curry powder, bouillon, salt, and tomato powder. Stir until the powders dissolve.
- Simmer five minutes with the lid on. The beef and fruit need a head start on the rice.
- Stir in the rice and the oil. Bring it back to a boil, then cut the heat.
- Lid on, off the stove, ten minutes. Do not stir it in that window.
- Fluff it, check for dry pockets, and add a splash of hot water if it needs it. Scatter the nuts over the top.
The original is a Dutch oven dish: two pounds of hamburger browned over coals, fresh onion, fresh apple and pear, a can of tomatoes, and an hour of raw rice simmering while you stir every ten minutes. All of that is fine at a car camp and impossible on a stove that holds fuel for twenty minutes. So the meat is freeze-dried, the tomatoes are powder, the fruit is dried, and the rice is instant.
The fruit is the part worth keeping. Apple in a curry is not decoration; the sugar cuts the bouillon salt and gives the dish somewhere to go besides savory. Dried apple concentrates that, so a quarter cup does the work of a whole one. The oil matters too. Browned hamburger carried its own fat and freeze-dried beef carries none, which leaves the curry powder with nothing to dissolve into. Two tablespoons fixes it.
Packing
Everything dry except the nuts goes in one bag: beef, rice, tomato powder, apple, onion, spices, bouillon. Oil rides in a dropper bottle. Nuts stay separate so they stay crunchy.
Variations
- Dried pear alongside the apple, the way the original did it.
- A pouch of chicken or a scoop of red lentils in place of the beef.
- Raisins and a squeeze of lime if you carry one.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/curry_beef_rice-1239.asp