Pork and Parmesan Meatballs Over Couscous
Meatballs made at home, frozen flat, and reheated over couscous on night one.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 16 oz
- cal / oz
- 45
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- 250 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
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Pork mince | 1 kg | |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh breadcrumbs | 1 cup | |
| Italian parsley, finely chopped | 1/2 cup | |
| Lemon zest | from 1 lemon | |
| Mixed Italian dried herbs | 1 tbsp | |
| Grated parmesan | 1/2 cup | plus a wedge to carry for serving |
| Tomato passata | 1 litre | |
| Chicken stock | 2 cups | or 2 cups water and a stock cube |
| Chilli flakes | a pinch | optional |
| Couscous | 1 cup | |
| Chicken stock cube | 1 | |
| Oil | 1 tsp | for browning at home |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- At home: mix the pork, breadcrumbs, parsley, zest, dried herbs, and grated parmesan in a bowl. Salt and pepper it well. Work it with your hands until it holds together, then roll small meatballs.
- Brown them in a pan over medium heat in a teaspoon of oil, turning until coloured all over. Lift them out.
- Tip out the fat. Put the pan back on with the passata, stock, and chilli. Season, return the meatballs, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes until cooked through.
- Cool completely, then bag flat and freeze. Frozen flat they thaw evenly and act as an ice block in the cooler all day.
- In camp: dump the bag into a pot and reheat over the stove, stirring so the sauce does not catch. Set it aside covered.
- Boil 250 ml of water with the stock cube. Stir in the couscous, pull it off the heat, cover, and leave it five minutes. Fluff with a fork.
- Spoon the meatballs and sauce over the couscous. Grate parmesan over the top.
This is a night-one meal and only a night-one meal. The cooking all happens in your kitchen, where you have a bowl, a pan, and time to roll a kilo of mince. What you carry is a frozen brick that thaws through the drive and needs nothing but a stove and twenty minutes.
Freezing the bag flat matters twice over. It keeps the cooler cold on the way in, and it thaws at an even rate instead of leaving a frozen core at dinner. Parmesan is the one dairy that earns its place here: a hard wedge holds for days unrefrigerated as long as it can breathe through paper. Couscous is the partner because it cooks off residual heat, so the second pot boils once and then you leave it alone.
Packing
Meatballs and sauce go in a heavy freezer bag, laid flat so it stacks in the cooler. Couscous and the stock cube ride together in a small bag. Wrap the parmesan wedge in greaseproof paper, not plastic, or it sweats and goes slick.
Variations
- Beef, lamb, or chicken mince all work in place of pork.
- Swap the couscous for instant mash, small pasta, or instant rice.
- No cooler on the trip? Skip the meatballs and build the same sauce in camp from passata, a stock cube, and a foil pouch of chicken.
https://www.advrider.com/pork-and-parmesan-meatballs