Real Men Cook!

Hello and welcome to the first edition of Real Men Cook! I will be sharing recipes, shortcuts and restaurant secrets to making great meals for your family as well as answering any questions you might have regarding either home cooking or restaurant cooking. I want to dedicate my first article to an institution that is near and dear to my heart, the Armed Forces. Being a military man I want to pay tribute to my brothers and sisters in the land of sand putting their lives on the line for our freedom, the liberation and democracy of Iraq and any other downtrodden country that needs their help. That being said I want to touch on my own past experiences and give my comrades or their loved ones some helpful ideas to make their everyday field rations a little more interesting and maybe bring a piece of home to them in a foreign land.

First and foremost I want to encourage readers to consider the little comforts that you may take for granted everyday...like a nice cup of coffee. When I was deployed it was a thing that I really missed so I began bringing my own coffee along on deployments. Anyone reading this can help supply a GI with this everyday luxury by going to http://www.greenbeanscoffee.com/  If you want to personally make your service persons life better go out and purchase an inexpensive french press (if not available or applicable try an old camping method...boil the grounds in water and when ready shock with ice old water which will make the grounds sink to the bottom of your pot or canteen cup) some flavored powdered creamers and a couple pounds of really good quality beans...just make sure you grind them before you send them. If you don't already know, not only can service people receive care packages...IT IS ENCOURAGED! For some really great ideas visit http://www.militarycarepackageideas.org/ Nothing lightens the mood of a service person like a care package from home. Another quasi-necessity is ramen noodles. Some other key items to include are boil in bag rice, granulated garlic, chili flake, chili powder, granulated lemon, salt, oysters (or other preserved packaged meat or fish), a dried sausage or salami, wortchestershire sauce, favorite hot sauce, a tube of tomato paste and an array of dry herbs (thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsley, sage). Also start saving every packet of parmesan cheese you get when you have pizza and send those along too!

Ramen is one of the most diverse field foods a service person can have. It is dry and has virtually no expiration. The really wonderful thing is that you can keep your eye out for additional ingredients and have a truly enjoyable meal. Collect an onion or a few green onions, add canned or preserved packaged meat/fish, garlic salt, a couple shots of your favorite hot sauce and even add a package of powdered creamer from your MRE and you have delicious and nutritious meal.  Alternatively you can add the noodles and/or the seasoning packet to any boring soup from the mess hall. You can add some tomato paste, dry herbs (oregano, basil and parsley) and sausage or salami to a packet of beef or chicken ramen (or your noodles in butter sauce packet) and have a field expedient bowl of spaghetti.  Combine your beef with mushrooms over your noodles in butter sauce and a few shots of wortchestershire and you got beef stroganoff.  There are counless others and below I have included some referrance links for you to print or purchase and send along in your care package.

Convoy Cooking is a great method of preparing meals for you and your battle buddies. What I mean by this is preparing your recipes in advance and placing them in the engine compartment of your vehicle in airtight heat conductive packages so that during convoy operations your meal is cooking. Make sure you secure the parcel with 100 mph tape or bungees so that when you arrive at your objective your meal is truly "ready to eat". It saves you the time of boiling water and depending on your noise and light discipline restrictions for your operation it keeps you tactical. You can even master some gourmet techniques like braising and sous vide. We used to make a version of "beer can Chicken"...I know its technically against SOP but if you can score a beer (or even rarer white wine) you can pour it into a pouch with "bird of the day" some lemon flavoring (from your MRE tea) garlic salt, rosemary, salt and pepper. If you get your hands on any raw meat and or potatoes you can braise it by putting it in a metal container with liquid herbs and seasoning. Potatoes are great in the field, period!  Add them mashed to a meatloaf meal for a shepards pie or whole to a pork rib meal like a pot roast. On a long convoy there is enough time to braise a llama shank or even make seagull au vin! (just kidding...maybe)

Hunting...be careful and stay out of trouble. There are a few tasty critters in the dessert but you need to catch them and prepare them carefully. Make sure you are aware of any poison glands and remove them.  Keep in mind that many poisonous snakes will bite themselves contaminating the meat and in turn poisoning you!  Keep in mind that it is hard to sustain your diet on this type of fare as it is mostly nocturnal and you will need to snare it to avoid enemy detection from shooting it.as far as preparing it boiling to remove skin and feathers is key and then I recommend grilling. Either bring along or have someone send a grate from an old BBQ so you can dig a quick pit.  If you have a carmel colored soda you can mix it with tomato paste, garlic salt, salt, pepper, chili powder and flake and you have a nice field BBQ sauce! 

As far as MRE's themselves go I advise saving all the components you don't use each meal (i.e.,salt/pepper Tabasco, creamer, cocoa powder, coffee, oat bar, crackers, cheese packets, etc.) in a common location (like a pantry) for your squad. I used to make chocolate pudding by saving all my powdered creamer and rehydrating about 8 packets with one packet of hot cocoa powder and a one cup of water. Simply boil, reduce to a simmer and remove when it reaches desired consistency. Another favorite was to spread the MRE spaghetti on crackers and top with cheese and you have a flat bread pizza you can add garlic salt, dry herbs and you own sausage or salami to the spaghetti to give it a nice fresh touch. I used to make a cheesy chicken and rice casserole by mixing a packet of cheese into a chicken and rice meal and crumbling toasted cracker crumbs on top.  Add some sage to the pork chop pouch MRE and eat it with your spiced apple pouch for a taste of fall back home

Most service people get creative on their own but they also make a lot of mistakes and when food is limited or rationed nothing can ruin a day like a failed attempt at gourmet MRE cooking. For the most part they can't print out recipes so go ahead and either print out recipes for them or buy a cookbook for them. Check out http://david.brubakers.us/cookbook/rationcookbooks.html for the original MRE recipes that I saw when I was in the sevice (scroll down for the MRE recipes) or if you want to purchase a book for yourself or loved one try http://www.jackwalters.com/mrecookbook.html The bottom line is that being deployed is lonely, monotonous and at times feels hopeless. Any and every little glimpse of the luxuries of home makes a world of difference (for me it wasa cup of coffee, walking on grass and carpet bare foot). So please take time out if you know anyone serving and put a package together for them to make their time go by faster and a little easier.