Alaska, more cooking in campervan

Wild huckleberry, pecan nut and yogurt

 At first sight, I thought this is wild blueberry, similar looking plant and taste, but the flesh is deep purple instead of white, and more seedy too. Found out that this is wild huckleberry. 

Poached Rainbow trout

Caught and cooked right away, this is the juiciest trout that I have eaten.

1. Put butter and salt in the belly of trout, wrap up in aluminium foil.

2. Place in a frying pan with half an inch of water, cover with lid and cook for around 10 minutes.

Wild blueberry

Blueberry plant like boggy and acid soil, grows wild around lakes here.

Mosquito sucks nectar from blueberry flowers and hence fertilise them, this is the first time I find mosquito has a reason to exit.

Oval blueberry

Found this oval shaped berry from similar looking plant as normal blueberry. After consulting the Alaska berry book, confirm that there is oval blueberry too.

Blueberry muffin

1. Mix 400gm flour with a sachet (10gm) of baking power and 60gm sugar.

2. Melt 60gm butter in 180gm water, keeping the water as cool as possible. Mix in 2 eggs then add 2 cups of wild blueberry.

3. Mix gently the flour into the liquid, then spoon into coffee filter paper (handy to use in the campervan!) until half the height.

4. Bake at 180˚C, with a shallow tray of boiling water at the bottom to help the rise, for 45 minutes.

Roasted butternut squash

The campervan is equipped with a gas barbeque, great for outdoor cooking.

Cut butternut squash with skin on into chunks, shake in a pot to cover them well with olive oil. Grill until soft, I cook more than I could eat for one serving, keep the remaining for soup or salad later.

Rose hip

Roses are growing everywhere in Alaska, very small plant barely a meter high with small leaves too. They do produce big and fleshy rose hips, I collected a lot hoping to grow them in my garden so that I could make rose hip jam one day.

Red salmon sashimi

This Red salmon caught at middle Gulkana River, it has only a light pink flush on the skin, meaning it has not left the sea too long.

Indeed the flesh is unbelievably ruby red, true to this species of salmon, that eat crustaceans mainly in their adult life. 

The texture is firm, with a mild sweet taste, and in the influence of the colour, could easily think of eating raw beef.

Poached red salmon filet

Season filet with salt, wrap in aluminium foil, place in a pan with an inch of hot water. Cook for 5 minutes, just enough for the outside to be cooked, the middle is still raw.