Mountain Mulligatawny

I first tried this amazing soup on a camping trip.  It was late and cold, and I was exhausted and starving.  We were in Northwest Georgia on a camping/climbing trip to a place called Rocktown on Pigeon Mountain.  After a few days of climbing the group decided to go caving.  ("Caving" here means: voluntarily lowering your body into a tight, muddy hole in the ground blasting cold air out into the night, followed by a slow, dark trek through winding passages and extremely small spaces covered in cold mud, which eventually leads you to an underground waterfall, where you take a short break, eat a candy bar, and turn around to do it all again.)

Here's the group before embarking on our caving adventure.

I was a little bit terrified.

And here we are afterward. On top of the world after our 4-hour, death-defying caving experience!

Back at camp, my group decided to pack up and head home right away.  It was hard work in the dark, especially as exhausted as we were after caving.  And did I mention it was 2 AM? Well, it was.  There's no point wasting daylight hours in an underground cave, so people typically go at night.  We started our trip at 10:00 PM, and 4 hours later decided to start packing up camp and immediately begin the 6 hour drive home.  Can you say insane?? Let's just say this was not my idea.

When we were ready to pull out of camp, some of our fellow campers (the sane ones who were staying the night) offered to share their dinner with us before we left.  It smelled so good we couldn't resist.  And we were sooo happy we stayed after we tried Josh's campfire Mulligatawny. 

The good stuff

After that night, Mulligatawny and camping just seemed to go hand-in-hand to us.  We now beg Josh to bring ingredients every time we go, and being the sweet guy he is, he usually obliges.  I finally got the recipe from him (complete with camp-ready instructions), and I would like to share its amazingness with you.  Mulligatawny is an exciting mixture of flavors and textures that will surprise your tastebuds and comfort your soul.  It's great to eat anywhere, but if you share it with a group of exhausted, freezing friends around a crackling campfire, you'll know by everyone's happy silence that it was worth the effort to make in the woods.

Our campfire cook. Thanks, Josh!

Josh's Mountain Mulligatawny
6 cups water

1/3 cup dried apple
1/4 cup sundried tomato
2 Tbs chicken bouillon
1 Tbs dried onion flakes
1 Tsp dried minced garlic
2 Tsp hot or mild curry powder
1 Tsp coriander
1 Tsp cumin seeds
2 Tbs dried parsley
1 cup instant brown rice
1 pouch (7 oz.) chicken breast

Prep at home:
Mix apple, tomato bouillon, onion, garlic in Bag 1
Mix rice, curry, coriander, cumin, parsley in Bag 2

At camp:
Boil water
Stir in Bag 1, cook 3 min
Add Bag 2, cook 5 min
Add chicken, simmer 3 min
Cook until rice is done.

Serves 3 hungry campers