Beef Tagine

A simple yet awesome dinner for the backcountry.

It was the 3rd day in the Winds for Mule and yours truly, and we got our butts KICKED.  We may not be 20+mile/day hikers (especially me) but we’re two pretty tough hombres.  I mean, we section-hiked the Smokies AT the week after Christmas one year in frigid temperatures.  But on this day, Mother Nature slaughtered us.  Her secret weapon- altitude.

Mule and I live in Alabama at 650 ft. elevation above sea level.  We got it into our heads that we could drive the 28 hours straight to Pinedale Wyoming (and we did) and get some altitude acclimation done along the way.

We had managed to stagger our way to Island Lake by Day 2, but on Day 3 we had to cross Lester Pass at over 11,000 ft.  Simply put, we almost didn’t make it.  There’s only about 55% of the oxygen that we were used to at that elevation, and as a result even when we stopped we couldn’t catch our breath.  It wasn’t pulmonary edema, but it still sucked.  So, at last we get to the top of the pass, and then Mother Nature delivers us a final kick in the lungs- a wide snow patch over the trail that had no way to hike around.  Care to guess who didn’t have ice axes?

We foolishly (but VERY carefully) kicked steps into that slope of snow and spent an hour crossing a snow patch measuring less than 100 yards wide.  The tangle of boulders at the bottom reminded us that if we failed and slipped, a helicopter would be taking us out, either on a backboard if we were lucky, or in a body bag if we weren’t.

Suffice it to say we made it across but killed our adrenal glands in the process.  We staggered down to 9500 ft. somewhere above a lake and quickly made camp.

Believe me, the very last thing in the world that I wanted to do right then was to prepare dinner.  But I made myself do it, and thank goodness I did.  30 minutes later the aroma of beef tagine had reawakened our appetites, and an hour later we were revived and had full bellies.  Between every mouthful Mule would exclaim “Dude, this is SO freakin’ good!”  And it was.  Eating it as the alpenglow washed over the rocks above the lake made it even better.  The recipe below will feed 2 absolutely destroyed hikers and bring them back to life.

INGREDIENTS:

Couscous (enough for 2 people, add a mini ziploc with golden raisins and pine nuts to jazz it up)

4-5 oz. freeze-dried chunk beef (I used Redwick’s)

1 packet of Ghee or olive oil

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

1 1/2 ox. dehydrated carrots (I used North Bay’s air-dried cross-cut carrots)

1/2 oz. dehydrated diced tomato (put both veggies in snack-sized ziploc)

2 oz. diced/chopped dates (in mini ziploc)

1 packet of honey (Packit Gourmet has these)

2 cups beef stock (can make from 2 packets of beef broth available from Packit Gourmet)

1/2 stick cinnamon

2 tsp. of ras el hanout spice (in mini ziploc)

1 oz. sliced almonds (in mini ziploc)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Make couscous and set aside in cozy.  This can be done freezer-bag style.
2.  Dice small onion and garlic.
3.  Saute onion and garlic in olive oil or ghee in a 0.9L pot.
4.  Add beef stock, spices, veggies, beef, honey, almonds and dates to pot.
5.  Simmer 20-30 minutes.
6.  Remove cinnamon stick, serve over couscous.