Most outdoor people use their camping stove to cook food that is easy to prepare and fast. They do so for good reasons such as to beat an intense hunger from a long day's hike and daylight is diminishing fast. In Singapore, there is hardly any need to do so because scenic outdoor spots are a stone's throw away from delicious eateries, with the exception of places like Pulau Ubin and the southern islands.
The impetus of this write up is due the fact that my girlfriend dislikes eating canned food, but I like the idea of having a meal while watching a beautiful sunset surrounded by nature. To harmonize these two conditions, I have been trying out cooking proper food using my outdoor equipment while still in the comforts of my own home.
I read much about the cooking ability of the Trangia and wanted to try out cooking something proper. Being Chinese, rice is a staple food for us and it provides a good amount of carbohydrate. However, cooking rice properly without turning it into mush or burning it can be quite an art that not all dedicated rice cookers can attain.
The Trangia, with its ability to simmer to a near boil, comes in very helpful in helping the rice cook and absorb water without burning it. The simmer ring and its functions had been tried and tested many times by the good people of the interwebs. So, I wanted to give myself a little more of challenge and tried out using an alternative fuel.
I brought out the ubiquitous solid fuel (otherwise known as "esbit" or "hexi" tablets in the western world) that we use in the army. Unlike methanol, it is easy to obtain solid fuel at most army surplus or camping shops. The standard 8-tablet box that the Singapore Army uses and it is cheap to buy at about $1.40 per box.
Being solid, the fuel is easy to store and carry around. In addition, it is easy to distinguish between fuel and food. Methanol, or denatured alcohols are toxic but not unpleasant enough to warn people of it by itself. Moreover, it is not easy to obtain cheap denatured alcohols in Singapore anyway.
Ok, enough introduction. Let's get down to using solid fuel on a Trangia to cook plain rice!
A standard sized jelly mound for holding solid fuel
Firstly, Trangia sells an attachment for gel and solid fuel. I thought it would be strange to insist on buying an original cup just so it fits in the holder. So instead, I bought a cheap aluminum jelly mound from NTUC Fairprice to hold the solid fuel.
There is no special instruction to cooking rice. This would be the amount of water I mix with my rice if it was to be cooked in a rice cooker.
The Trangia cooking rice in complete silence. Note that the bowl was left open only for picture taking. I covered the bowl with the included frying pan soon after taking the picture.
After about 30mins, the rice was cooked. One of my testers commented that it tasted normal. This was high praise for the Trangia.
The rice was slightly burnt at the spot where the flame is present. Thinking back, I should have taken the bowl off the flame once the rice had fluffed up but still slightly wet.
In simmer mode, the burn of the solid fuel was slow and efficient. I used less than 1 piece of solid fuel, leaving about 1/4 to spare for my next use. I was extremely skeptical when someone claimed that it was possible for a solid fuel cube to burn 30-40mins as previous experience suggest that it lasts 15-20mins per cube but looks like it is possible.
As expected, solid fuel does burn dirtily. In simmer mode, the amount of soot is noticeably lesser than a tablet exposed fully to air.
So, yes it is possible to use solid fuel to a high degree of control just like alcohol in a Trangia. The fully integrated windscreen design also makes it very efficient. The cost of cooking rice for 3 persons works out to be about 20cents (I bought a packet of 8 cubes for $1.40).
This will be a great addition to my picnic outings.
Have fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment