Note: aside from a brief essay about how I'm going to approach this, and why, there is very little up, right now. The recipes are still being written, and tested. So, why have I linked to this from the Burning Man site, and wasted your time like this? Initially, because I wanted to give people a chance to give some input on what they'd like to see here. Unfortunately, the only thing that people coming in from the Burning Man site seemed to want to give input on, was my refusal to show "Pink Flamingos" (*) to people I was trying to get to come to Burning Man. Believe it or not, on e-Playa, this is considered to be flamebait. I got tired of hearing about it.

Some requests, of course, won't be taken seriously. "Forget the recipes, I want to see some nekkid grrls!" Um, no. "I like my food plain and simple. Got some recipes for that?" That's not so much a request, as it is an attempt to shut this effort down. Seriously, who needs a recipe for plain, grilled steak, and why? But there are other requests that I'm going to consider very carefully:

"I feel a little funny about bringing some explosive like propane or gasoline for a generator. Got anything that I can just bring and eat as is?" Now there's a request that I've heard, that I can take very seriously, and will be working on. Here's another: "Long simmering stews eat up a lot of power, and I have to conserve what I have. What do you suggest?". I can think of two basic options, both of which you'll see here.

One is the construction of a "hot box", which can best be described as a dinner sized thermos, which traps the heat in the cooking vessel, except that this "thermos" is made out of wood and straw. The vessel is going to be sealed, because new heat isn't being put into it, so what would be ideal for this, would be a "dry stew" like tangia, in which a collection of dry ingredients and oil are combined, sealed, and baked. The results may be a little soupy, but in the desert, that's not all bad. Soup can be refreshing.

The other option, obviously, is to shorten cooking times. Make spice pastes that have been pre-cooked to release flavor. I'm a little hesitant to play around with the idea of "Middle Eastern stir-fry", because that really isn't very true to the tradition. On the other hand, a stew of minced meat used as a sauce over bulghur (cracked wheat) or some other grain, or used to stuff roasted tomatos, or some other vegetable, to give it a little more character, is something more recognizable.

Given that beans call for long, high boiling, I'm afraid that where they appear, they'll have to be either canned or pre-cooked. I'm not happy about this, either, but at least there are ways of disguising the "canned" aroma, through the use of aromatic herbs.

Here's the the essay that I was telling you about.

(*) "Pink Flamingos" is the infamous John Waters film that ends with its transvestite star eating a pile of dog excrement. Fun fact : special effects were not used for that scene. Why seeing this film would make somebody want to go to Burning Man, is something that was not explained. However, once the forum clique leaders had spoken, the discussion was over. Here are the suggestions I got, before a few "helpful" people decided to disrupt the discussion.