July 23, 2003
Gray spices up outdoor cooking
Michael Gray cooks up creative meals to eat while camping
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Imagine feasting on gourmet food while relaxing in pristine wilderness, accessible only via kayak or canoe.
Veteran outdoor adventurer and gourmet cook Michael Gray is determined that back country cooking rise above the level of Ramen, pancakes and instant oatmeal.
With some judicious planning, creative packing and attentive cooking, creations such as Santa Fe salad and chicken gorgonzola with a smoky cream sauce are not only possible in the woods, but easy. Desserts can also transcend the mundane and Gray does not shrink from baking up a batch of brownies or a blueberry cheese cake on his camp stove.
Gray shared his basic philosophy - that enjoying the beauty of nature on vacation does not require culinary deprivation - Monday evening with 38 attendees at a lecture on back country cooking. As he filled the basement of the Grand Traverse Heritage Center with tantalizing smells of dishes cooked over his portable stove, the audience soaked up his advice.
"What's the most precious commodity in your life? Time," said Gray, owner of Uncommon Adventures based in Beulah. "We waste a lot of time in our lives and time is too short for crappy food when on vacation."
"I try to make every little trip a celebration because we don't get to do this every week," he noted.
Not that he has anything against pasta or pancakes or oatmeal, per se. Gray just wants them to be mouthwatering delights that live up to appetites charged by long paddles, pure air and gorgeous scenery.
"You eat more on trips than you do at home," said Gray, who lives in Honduras in the winter. "And it's all right, you need to eat more."
A veteran traveler, kayaker and adventure guide, Gray is writing a cookbook on back country cooking entitled "Hey! I Would Early this at Home!" (The title inspired by countless declarations from his clients.) This cookbook brings gourmet fare into the woods and includes eight recipes for pancakes alone. Nothing boring there.
"I use dried apples and a little cinnamon to make an applesauce and you can put hot applesauce on top of the pancakes," he noted.
Sue and Fred Arnold attended the lecture to zing up their camp-stove cooking after a recent kayaking trip to Isle Royal.
"We had a wonderful time but just thought it would be fun to have some tips about cooking," said Sue Arnold, a Peninsula Township resident. "Food is a big issue when you are kayaking, you're hungry and tired."
Packaging is crucial to a successful expedition. Small bottles of a variety of spices, unbreakable containers of white wine, quality olive oil, and minced garlic are must haves in Gray's portable larder. Cardboard boxes of pasta can be reduced to resealable baggies, which camper can reuse as either waste containers or for leftover storage. Other key ingredients Gray always includes are limes, fresh cilantro, fresh cumin (less that a year old) and quality cheeses, including cream cheese and gorgonzola.
Meal sequencing is also important and advanced menu planning will greatly increase the quality of the trip.
Salads, an important component of back country dinners in his mind, can then serve as stuffing for pita sandwiches the next day. Or, in the case of his Santa Fe Salad, leftovers can be placed between two tortillas, sprinkled with cheese and grilled for quick fajitas.
"You can sequence meals in such a way that you don't have food waste," said Gray, who has a degree in environmental interpretation from Michigan State University. "If I do a vegetarian chili for dinner one night, I make a lot. Then, surprise, I'll make huevos rancheros the next morning for breakfast."