Grilled aubergines with olive oil and spice seasoning
Grilled sweetcorn with flavoured butters
Forks on sticks for marshmallow and sausages
Asparagus, pecorino and black pepper pasta
Tuna, sweetcorn and Cheddar pasta
Bacon, beetroot and capers pasta
Pepper, chorizo and goat’s cheese pasta
Caramelized onion, smoked salmon and cream cheese pasta
Quick campfire beef curry with spiced roast potatoes
Peppers stuffed with couscous, dates and blue cheese
Caribbean salt-baked fish with sweet potato hash
Driftwood baked paella with samphire, chorizo, chicken and prawns
Garlic tomatoes with fried eggs
Eggy bread with spicy fried mushrooms
Flask drop scones with syrup and crushed summer berries
Bread and butter pudding with marmalade and chocolate
For the ‘full monty’ cooking-and-eating-outside experience, camping has got to be the way forward and it’s one of my favourite things to do with my family during the summer months. Not only is it a pretty cheap way to holiday, I love the full submergence into nature and the enforced change of pace that camping brings.
What with late bedtimes usually followed by early starts, there never seems to be quite enough sleep going on, but for me camping trips are rejuvenating for all sorts of other reasons. I think it’s possibly the freedom and the dropping of normal routines that I enjoy most. I have never really been a content follower of regulations and I relish the fact that ‘camp rules’ bear little resemblance to ‘home rules’. Clocks rarely dictate either feeding time or bedtime; you eat when you’re hungry and you sleep when you’re tired. The kids generally fall into their beds happily when they have exhausted themselves running wild, usually taking the dogs with them to provide some lovely snuggly warmth that would be totally outlawed at home.
As ever, having plenty of nice things to eat always ups the contentment factor, and when your kitchen is outside, the cooking itself becomes very much a communal process and is all the more enjoyable for it. This chapter celebrates the shared act of cooking in the fresh air with friends and family, be it on the beach after a day mucking about in the water, or around a fire back at the campsite. Here you will find easy, sociable recipes that are designed to extend the fun of the day well into the night, plus a few pretty much instant dinner tricks that will be invaluable to have up your sleeve when you are too tired to make much of an effort, or for when the weather is rather more inclement than is desirable.
CAMP COOKING GEAR
The first thing I should do here is to hold my hand up high and confess that I don’t really do ‘wild camping’. With two kids and two dogs in tow, there isn’t a hope in hell of getting all that we need to take in a backpack, or even several backpacks. Besides, I like my duvet and pillow rather too much for that. No, my school of camping involves opening up the boot and chucking stuff in until it’s rammed full of useful things. But I do like to head to campsites with very minimal facilities, one whiff of a ‘clubhouse’ and I’m off, which is another good reason for ‘packing large’ – I know that I have everything I need to make everyone happy and comfortable. If you’re less constrained by circumstances and the desire for comfort, and backpacker camping is your bag, then I direct you to the Wilderness Eats chapter for lots of easy-to-carry ideas.
There are two main ways I cook when I’m camping. The first, and my preferred way for the sheer ‘primeval-ness’ of it, is over a fire pit with both a grill and a Dutch oven hung from a tripod over the top (some fire pits will have the grill placed directly on it; mine hangs over the fire). Fire pits are brilliant as they raise the fire off the ground and most campsites allow them as the fire is neatly and safely contained, and once you hang the grill over it you are essentially making a barbecue on which to cook. See the Bonfire Celebrations introduction here for info on these bits of kit. Second, cooking on a camping stove fuelled by a gas bottle, which is essential for making a quick morning brew or for cooking up a speedy meal when it’s too nippy or damp to linger around a campfire.
We have a fold-up kitchen shelf unit that felt just a bit too middle-aged when we bought it many years ago, but it’s proved really very useful in the long run. It’s a great thing for raising your gas stove off the ground, so is especially good if you’ve got young children, and it also means you are cooking at standing height which is very practical. There is plenty of storage room underneath too. We also have a fold-out camping picnic bench that has proved invaluable for keeping food out of the way and off the ground. If, like us, you have dogs, you will know without me even saying that this is what is known as ‘a good thing’.
A cool box is pretty much essential and, providing you have a few freezer blocks, it will keep perishables chilled for a long weekend, which is how long we usually camp for. If you are planning a longer trip, some campsites have a freezer tucked away so you can refreeze your blocks to keep your food fresh for longer. Sometimes I travel with well-wrapped frozen meat in the cool box too, where it defrosts slowly over a couple of days before I cook it. If your cool box is half-full, scrunch up a few sheets of newspaper to tuck in the top to keep it packed full and more efficient.
In terms of other essentials, I wouldn’t dream of leaving for a camping trip without my ever-useful box of tricks or my fireproof pots and pans – see the Bonfire Celebrations introduction here. In fact, pretty much all the advice I offer there in terms of essential gear will come in handy here too. And don’t forget a roll of foil (a double layer of foil lining any roasting or baking tin makes washing-up a breeze).
As also discussed in the Bonfire Celebrations chapter, cooking over real fire is an art rather than a science, and as such it’s impossible for me to give precise cooking times. This kind of cooking is more about trusting your instincts than it is about following the rules, which is probably why I love it so much. Regarding the cooking temperature of your fire, the hand-heat test in Barbecue Feast here is a good guide for open fires too.
GETTING AHEAD
With many of the recipes you will see that I suggest mixing and bagging up dry ingredients at home. This means you aren’t taking along endless containers of herbs, spices or staples. It also means because the ingredients are at ambient temperature, you are not tied to eating a certain recipe at any time – they will sit happily until the night you feel like it. This mixing at home idea is one I also use for marinating meat, such as with the Quick Campfire Beef Curry with Spiced Roast Potatoes (see here) or the sumptuous Overnight Pulled Pork (see here), although of course you will then need to store the marinated meat in a cool box until you cook it.
A golden rule for me when camping is to make things as easy as possible on the cooking front, hence the getting organized at home bit. It also means that on the campsite, vegetables are cut rough and rustic (this is not the place for neat chopping). Even with the sharpest of knives you are likely to be chopping on a wobbly camping table at best, or possibly even on the ground. So on the subject of knives, take a really sharp one with you, wrapped safely in a couple of tea towels and bound tight with a rubber band. It really is your most important friend in the kitchen and I wouldn’t dream of going camping without my trusty sharp knife.
AND LASTLY – KEEP WARM ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN!
If I were to offer one piece of advice to a novice camper, it would be to take more, much more, stuff than you think you need to keep warm. If everyone is toasty and snug, with nice food in their tummies, then the camping experience will be a far happier one. I have a large reindeer skin that I take, without fail, on camping trips, using it as a blanket in the evenings and to sleep on at night. A by-product of the meat industry in Finland, this ethical hide rug was a bit of an extravagance, but one that I feel was entirely justified given that it makes the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on.
Spice it up!
When you are camping, you can’t really go wrong with simply grilling meat, fish or vegetables (and you’ll find plenty of ideas in the Barbecue Feast chapter that will work well on the campsite too). But the best and simplest way I know to boost flavour is by adding a little spice into the equation, either before you grill as a dry rub, or by sprinkling a little over the cooked food, just as you would season to taste with salt and pepper. There are some brilliant ready-mixed spice blends out there and having a tub or two of your favourite ones packed away with your camp gear will be endlessly useful.
Some of my favourite spice blends are:
▪ Ras el hanout – a Moroccan blend of many spices including cumin, coriander, cinnamon and chilli, and sometimes even dried rose petals.
▪ Jamaican jerk – hot with chilli, but also fragrant with other spices including allspice, thyme and nutmeg.
▪ Garam masala – an Indian blend of spices including coriander, cumin, cardamom, cloves and ginger or cinnamon.
▪ Harissa – a pungent Middle Eastern blend of spices including dried red chillies, cumin, caraway and coriander.
This is possibly the best way ever to devour an aubergine. Cook whole unpricked aubergines directly on the grill over your fire until lightly charred all over and really soft and squidgy, about 30–35 minutes, depending on the heat. Cut in half through the middle and open up like a baked potato, then drizzle in plenty of extra virgin olive oil and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then add a sprinkle of spice magic (see above for a few spice blend ideas). Aubergines work especially well with any spice blend containing cumin.
For chilli and coriander sweetcorn, cut 2 cobs of corn (without leaves) in half and put each one in the middle of a square of foil. In a small bowl, beat together around 40g softened butter with 1 tablespoon chopped coriander, a pinch of dried chilli flakes and a little sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Spread all over the sweetcorn, then wrap up tightly in the foil. Cook on the grill over the fire for around 20 minutes until soft. Serve in the foil for people to open themselves, rolling the corn in the melted butter as you eat.
Other flavoured butters to try…
All these flavoured butters can be mixed at home and then packed in tubs in your cool box where they will keep for several days.
▪ Smoked paprika and garlic – mix ½ teaspoon smoked paprika and 1 crushed clove of garlic into the butter, season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
▪ Parsley and caper – finely chop 1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley and mix it with the butter, along with a heaped teaspoon of chopped (drained) capers. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
This is a ridiculously easy thing to do with a bag of fresh broad beans in their pods. Simply tip the pods directly on to the grill over your fire and spread out in a single layer. Let them cook on one side until lightly charred, then turn over and cook on the other side – depending on the heat, this will take around 5 minutes each side.
To serve, pile them on to a plate and dig in – simply open up each pod, pick out the beans and pop them in your mouth. Little dishes of olive oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper to dip them in make these simple beans taste just sublime.
Peppers stuffed with couscous, dates and blue cheese (see here) • Grilled aubergines with olive oil and spice seasoning • Grilled sweetcorn with flavoured butters • Chargrilled broad beans
Get a handful of cheap forks (try rummaging around a charity shop) and fix them securely to the top of long bamboo sticks with tightly wound wire. A few of these tucked into your camping gear will be much appreciated by your kids when it comes to toasting large marshmallows around the campfire.
Or what about sticking fat sausages on to the forks? Held over a fire, and turned regularly, these are great for slightly older kids to cook themselves.
You can cook fresh whole (gutted) sardines on forks, just like the sausages, or how about threading them on to sturdy twigs that you impale into the sand or soil so they sit over the fire? Simply rotate the sticks a few times during cooking so they cook evenly. Grilled sardines need little to accompany them bar a grind of black pepper and a generous pinch of sea salt.
This is an ideal first night camping supper – something easy to cook over the fire after a long and tedious journey, followed by a frenetic, and possibly fractious, setting up of camp. As always with camping, the trick to their ease is to prepare a little at home before you leave. This recipe serves 2, but it is easily doubled if there are more of you, or if your kids are rather more adventurous than mine.
Wash and de-beard 1kg fresh mussels (in shells) at home (discarding any open ones), then bung them in a large ziplock food bag. Add 2 finely chopped shallots, 1 chopped clove garlic and a small handful of chopped sage. Season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, before sealing the bag up tightly and packing at the top of your cool box so it’s easy to find.
Then once the tent is up, the campfire is glowing, and you have a glass of something nice on the go, you can get them ready to cook. Take 4 sheets of foil, lay one on top of the other in a cross shape, then repeat with the other 2. Divide the mussel mixture between the 2 foil crosses, piling it into the centre of each. Bring up the sides to create walls, pour a good glass of dry cider (about 150ml) into each, then seal each top tightly to make a foil bag. You don’t need to compact the bags really tightly, a little space between the foil and mussels is good as it allows the steam to circulate efficiently.
Wrap a final sheet of foil around each bag to make sure it’s completely sealed, place on the grill over the fire and cook for 20–30 minutes until the mussels are open and cooked (discard any that remain closed once cooked). Turn the parcels over halfway through cooking so they cook evenly. Serve a bag per person, with plenty of crusty bread to dunk in the lovely juices as you go.
Easy to carry and quick to cook, dried pasta was possibly invented for camping trips, plus there are endless variations of easy sauces that can be knocked up with as much or as little effort as you can muster. Often the simplest sauces are the best, so here are a few ideas for tasty dinners that can be created with not a lot of ingredients.
Each recipe uses a 500g bag of dried pasta, cooked on a camping stove according to the packet directions until al dente, then drained. All these recipes serve 4 generously.
I would use penne for this simple late spring dish, cutting the asparagus a similar size to the pasta for easy eating. If you haven’t got pecorino, Parmesan is great too.
2 bunches of asparagus, woody ends trimmed, cut into bite-size pieces
75g butter, cut into cubes
100g pecorino or Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
2–3 tsp cracked black peppercorns, or to taste
Sea salt flakes, to taste
In the biggest pan you can get hold of, cook the pasta until it has around 5 minutes to go, then drop in the asparagus and keep cooking until it is just tender. If you haven’t got a pan big enough to cook them together, cook separately.
Once the pasta and asparagus are cooked, drain and tip back into the pan. Working quickly whilst they’re piping hot, add the butter, pecorino and plenty of cracked black pepper and toss together until the butter and cheese have melted. Season to taste with salt flakes and serve immediately.
An almost instant dinner and a great favourite with my kids, I usually pep up my bowlful with a shake of chilli sauce. Any pasta shape works well here.
2 × 200g tins tuna, ideally packed in olive oil, drained
1 × 326g tin sweetcorn, drained
Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
100g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
Olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Simply stir everything through the hot freshly cooked pasta, drizzling in oil to taste and seasoning with salt and black pepper. Serve immediately.
A punchy tomato sauce with olives, capers, anchovies and chilli, this is perfect with spaghetti.
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
½–1 tsp dried chilli flakes, or to taste
2 × 400g tins chopped tomatoes
A squeeze of tomato purée or tomato ketchup
2 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp pitted black olives, roughly chopped
1 × 50g tin anchovy fillets in oil, drained and roughly chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese and torn basil leaves, to serve (optional)
Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the garlic with the chilli flakes for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes and tomato purée or ketchup and bring to a steady simmer, then cook over a medium heat to a thick, almost jam-like consistency, stirring occasionally. This will take about 15–20 minutes.
Stir in the capers, olives and anchovies and cook for a further couple of minutes. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and then stir through the hot freshly cooked pasta. Serve piping hot, ideally sprinkled generously with Parmesan and basil.
Ready-cooked un-vinegary beetroot in vacuum packs is a really useful thing to have tucked in your camping box – it lasts for ages and doesn’t need to be kept in the fridge. It’s great for pepping up a dull salad or a sandwich, but it’s also very good in hot dishes, particularly when paired with something salty to balance its natural sweetness – here I’ve used a classic combo of bacon, capers and goat’s cheese.
2 tbsp olive oil
12 rashers smoked streaky bacon, roughly chopped
2 × 250g packs ready-cooked beetroot (un-vinegared), roughly sliced
3 tbsp capers, roughly chopped
A bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
200g soft (rindless) goat’s cheese, crumbled
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat up the oil in a frying pan and fry the bacon over a medium-high heat until crisp. Add the beetroot, capers and parsley and stir until hot, adding a splash more oil if it looks a little dry. Stir into the hot cooked pasta and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Scatter over the goat’s cheese just before serving.
A Mediterranean feast of big flavours, perfect with any type of pasta shape.
3 tbsp olive oil
3 peppers (whatever colour you fancy; a mixture looks good), deseeded and roughly chopped
1 × 225g chorizo ring, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
A pinch of dried chilli flakes, or to taste (optional)
200g soft (rindless) goat’s cheese, crumbled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the peppers and chorizo and stir-fry over a medium-high heat for around 15 minutes until the peppers are soft and lightly charred in places.
Add the garlic and chilli flakes, if using, and fry for another minute. Turn off the heat, season to taste with salt and black pepper, then stir through the hot freshly cooked pasta. Sprinkle some goat’s cheese over each serving.
This dish was made off the cuff with ingredients I found in a corner shop by our campsite. Take your time with the onions – they add the depth of flavour that makes this special. Spaghetti was my choice with this sauce, but pretty much any pasta will be just fine.
2 tbsp olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 × 200g tub cream cheese (full-fat or light, as you wish)
180–200g smoked salmon, shredded (skinless smoked mackerel fillets are a good substitute; smoked salmon trimmings are also ideal)
Lemon juice, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the onions and dried herbs and cook gently for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and tender. Increase the heat slightly and allow the onions to caramelize a little, about another 5–10 minutes.
Add the cream cheese and stir until melted. Stir through the smoked salmon, then add lemon juice, salt and black pepper to taste. Stir through the hot freshly cooked pasta and serve immediately.
Curry tastes so much nicer if you mix your own spices, but of course if that’s too much of a faff, a good curry paste is an acceptable alternative. The beef will be very happy sitting in the dry spices for a couple of days, so for this easy dish I mix the spices and marinate the meat in an ever-trusty ziplock food bag at home, ready to fling in the frying pan at the campsite when I’m ready to cook.
SERVES 2 (EASILY SCALED UP FOR A CROWD)
For the beef curry
3 green cardamom pods, left whole
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
½ tsp black peppercorns
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
400g skirt steak, sliced across the grain into 5mm strips
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 × 160ml tin coconut cream
For the spiced roast potatoes
400g new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp sunflower oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the beef curry, add the cardamom pods, fennel seeds, chilli flakes and peppercorns to a spice mill and grind roughly (or use a pestle and mortar). Tip into a ziplock food bag and add the turmeric, cinnamon and ginger, shaking the bag to mix them all together. Add the beef strips and toss about to coat evenly in the spices. Seal up the bag tightly and pack away in a cool box.
When you’re ready to cook, start the potatoes first. Tear off two sheets of foil and lay one on top of the other in a cross shape. Pile the potatoes in the middle, sprinkle on the cumin seeds, garlic and oil and season with salt and black pepper. Seal up tightly into a parcel and place on the grill over your fire pit or barbecue. Cook over a medium heat for around 30 minutes, using tongs to turn the bag over a couple of times to ensure even cooking.
When the potatoes are nearly done, begin the curry either on the grill over a fire pit, or on a camping gas stove. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat, add the onion and fry for about 10 minutes until starting to soften. Stir through the garlic, then tip in the spiced beef mixture, stir-frying over a high heat until colouring in places and cooked to your liking. Season with salt and black pepper, pour in the coconut cream, then stir for a few minutes until heated through. Serve the beef curry spooned over the potatoes.
A great get-it-ready-at-home dish (just fry up a couple of onions and add water before cooking), this dhal is the perfect warming dish for when the sun goes down and there’s a distinct nip in the air. This is ideal served alongside the Quick Campfire Beef Curry with Spiced Roast Potatoes (see here), and it’s also a good one with kebabs – try it with the Best-ever Spiced Chicken Kebabs (see here) and Frying Pan Naan Bread (see here).
SERVES 4–6
200g red lentils
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp cumin seeds
½–1 tsp dried chilli flakes, or to taste
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 cinnamon stick, broken into 2 or 3 pieces
2 bay leaves
2 onions, peeled
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
To finish
Generous knob of butter
Sea salt and garam masala, to taste
A little chopped coriander (optional)
Get ready at home by hanging a ziplock food bag in a bowl set on kitchen scales. Measure in the lentils, then add all the spices and bay leaves. Seal up the bag, squeezing out as much air as possible, then pack it away with the rest of your food.
When you are ready to cook, roughly chop the onions and add them to an old fireproof (no plastic handles) saucepan along with the oil. Rest on the grill over your fire and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly golden, about 10–15 minutes. Depending on how fierce your fire is, you may need to move the pan around a bit to find a coolish area so they don’t burn before softening.
Add the garlic and stir for a few seconds before tipping in the contents of your ziplock food bag. Stir well, then pour in enough cold water to come about 2cm above the top of the lentils. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid or snug-fitting piece of foil and let the lentils cook until they are collapsing. This will take about 30–40 minutes, depending on the heat of your fire. Check every 10 minutes or so, giving the lentils a good stir, and add a splash more water as necessary if they are getting too dry. Conversely, take off the lid and cook uncovered if they need thickening up a bit.
When the dhal is ready, remove from the heat, fish out the bay leaves and pieces of cinnamon stick, then stir through a generous knob of butter. Season to taste with salt and a sprinkling of garam masala. A little chopped coriander is great too if you happen to have any lying around!
These stuffed peppers are cooked in a Dutch oven and they make a filling vegetarian main course or side dish to accompany some grilled meat or fish. To make them easy to lift out of the oven when cooked, rest each pepper on a square of foil that you scrunch up around the sides a little so each is encased separately (see the photo).
SERVES 6
350g couscous
100g stoned dried dates, chopped
60g toasted pine nuts
1 tsp vegetable stock powder
A pinch of dried chilli flakes, or to taste
6 large peppers (whatever colour you fancy; a mixture looks good)
25g butter or 2 tbsp olive oil
150g soft blue cheese, such as St Agur or Gorgonzola, cut into 6 equal pieces
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Get the couscous filling ready before you leave home. Hang a ziplock food bag in a bowl and set the bowl on kitchen scales. Measure in the couscous, then add the dates, pine nuts, stock powder and chilli flakes and season with salt and black pepper. Give the bag a shake-about to mix it up, then seal it, squeezing out as much air as possible. Pack along with the rest of your food.
When you are ready to cook, slice the top off each pepper and scoop out the seeds, reserving the tops as lids. Tear off 6 squares of foil and wrap a piece around the base of each pepper before lining them up inside a Dutch oven. Shake up the bag of couscous to mix it again and then divide evenly between the peppers – you want each pepper to be around two-thirds full, so if your peppers are on the small side you may have a little leftover couscous (if so, simply seal up the bag again; it will keep quite happily for another time).
Top the couscous with dots of butter or a drizzle of oil, then add a piece of blue cheese. Pour cold water into each pepper so it just comes to the level of the couscous, then pop the lids back on. Put the lid on the oven and hang it over your fire (you’re aiming for medium heat). Use tongs to put a few hot coals, around 8–10, on the lid to cook the peppers from the top as well. Cook until the peppers are soft and tender, around an hour or so.
3 other ways to flavour your couscous…
▪ Walnuts with garlic and herb soft cheese – swap the pine nuts for the same quantity of walnuts, and substitute the blue cheese with a dollop of punchy garlic and herb cream cheese (such as Boursin).
▪ Pesto and mozzarella – flavour the couscous with vegetable stock powder, then spoon a generous teaspoon of pesto (from a jar or home-made; see the recipe here) in the base of each pepper before filling. Top with thick slices of mozzarella.
▪ Spiced apricot and almond – swap the dates for dried apricots, and the pine nuts for flaked almonds. Add a generous teaspoon each of cumin, coriander and turmeric. Leave out the cheese, but use a little extra butter on top.
I’ve often noticed that when I hold my hand over the campfire in the morning it’s still lovely and toasty (providing it hasn’t chucked it down!), so I wanted to find a recipe that would harness all the lovely gentle heat the fire gives off as it cools. This pulled pork is absolutely ideal as it cooks to perfection in the dying embers overnight. Stuff the tender tasty meat into soft baps for the most perfect Sunday brunch ever. After a long night around the campfire catching up with friends, this is just the ticket to revive you the morning after.
SERVES 6–8
5 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
4 tsp English or Dijon mustard
1 tbsp fennel seeds, roughly ground
2 tsp smoked paprika
2kg (prepared weight) pork shoulder, boned and rolled
3 large onions, thickly sliced
3 large carrots, roughly chopped
1 × 500ml bottle cider (doesn’t need to be special; any type will do)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
6–8 soft white baps, to serve
Assuming you have a cool box to keep the meat cold for a couple of days, the ideal low-fuss way is to marinate the meat at home and shove it in a ziplock food bag, so all you then have to do at the campsite is cook it.
In a small bowl, mix together the tomato ketchup, sugar, mustard, fennel seeds and smoked paprika. Rub this all over the pork, then seal it in a ziplock food bag before adding it to your cool box.
When you are ready to cook, line a Dutch oven with a triple layer of foil (to help make washing-up easier!) and scatter in the onions and carrots. Place the pork on top, season generously with salt and black pepper, then pour in the cider. Seal completely with a tight-fitting lid (add a layer of foil if your lid is a bit loose).
Place the Dutch oven directly on the dying embers of your fire, using a shovel to push the coals around the oven a little. Leave to cook overnight, about 12 hours is perfect (depending on the heat left in the fire). Have a peek inside the pot first thing in the morning to see how it’s doing. If it’s been a particularly cold or damp night, you may want to get the fire going again slowly to carry on the cooking process until brunch time. Like all fire cooking it’s a bit suck-it-and-see, and with this dish the cooler the embers are, the better – you don’t want the embers to be too hot and cook the pork too quickly.
To serve, tease the meat apart with two forks, pulling it off in pieces, and shove it into the baps. There may or may not be gravy to spoon on as well (depending on the heat of your fire and how much evaporation has occurred).
Salt-baking fish is a brilliant way to keep it moist – the salt bakes to a hard crust as the fish steams gently inside. I use gilt head bream here, a fine and handsome fish with a large head and heavy bones (a 600g fish yields enough to feed a couple of people). If you use other fish, like sea bass or trout, a smaller fish would probably suffice.
As with many of the recipes in this book, preparation in advance is the key to simplicity. Everything can be chopped, mixed and bagged at home – it will all keep very happily for 2–3 days in a cool box.
SERVES ABOUT 4
For the salt-baked fish
1.5kg fine salt (cheap cooking salt is ideal)
1 Scotch bonnet chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (save a little for the hash)
2 tsp each garlic granules, dried thyme, ground allspice and freshly ground black pepper
125ml cold water
2 whole fish (about 400–600g each), gutted and scaled (such as gilt head bream, sea bass or trout)
For the sweet potato hash
1.2kg sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1–2cm cubes
2 onions, chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
A little Scotch bonnet chilli, reserved from the fish (optional)
1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
You will also need a large, heavy-based frying pan or old roasting tin and a couple of sheets of foil to line it with.
For the fish, mix together the salt, chilli, garlic granules, thyme, allspice and black pepper in a food bag. In a separate food bag, mix together all the ingredients for the hash, then seal and pack.
When you are ready to cook, line the frying pan or roasting tin with a double layer of foil. Add the water to the bag of salt and spices and mix it about to make a rough paste. Spread half in the base of the lined pan or tin and lay the fish on top, then scatter over the rest of the salt mixture, pressing it down firmly.
Set the pan or tin on the grill over your fire (the heat should be reasonably gentle, certainly no flames) and leave to cook undisturbed for 20–35 minutes. The smaller the fish the shorter the cooking time. Test for doneness by piercing through the salt crust at the thickest part of the fish with a metal skewer. Leave for a few seconds, then touch the tip to your lip. If it is hot, the fish will be cooked.
Meanwhile, to make the hash, tip all the ready-prepared ingredients into an old fireproof (no plastic handles) saucepan or frying pan and set on the grill over the fire, frying for around 5 minutes until the onions are just starting to soften. Pour in a little water, just 5mm or so in the bottom of the pan, and cover with a lid or foil. Cook for about 15–20 minutes until the potatoes are tender, stirring once or twice, adding a little more water if it’s looking a bit dry.
To serve the fish, break off the salt crust, pushing it to the side. Use a couple of forks to tease the top fillets away from both fish, putting the flesh on to a plate. Then grasp the tail and pull out and discard the spine from each fish – it should come away very easily with the head attached. Use the forks again to tease away the bottom fillets. Serve with the sweet potato hash.
In Spain, genuine paella is cooked over an open wood fire and is always eaten outside. So I can’t think of a more perfect celebratory dish to make on a beach camping trip. This version includes samphire and for me these thin green strands are the very essence of the sea and add a pleasing salty crunch. Replace with 2 handfuls of frozen peas if you prefer – just chuck them in a food bag when you leave home, where they will keep happily for a few days in a cool box.
I cook this dish over my fire pit using a combination of charcoal and foraged driftwood, with the tripod and grill hung over it.
SERVES 4
3 tbsp olive oil
3 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
2 onions, roughly chopped
1 × 225g chorizo ring, sliced into 1cm discs
4 large chicken thighs, skin on and bones in
Large handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Generous pinch of saffron threads
Large glass of white wine (about 250ml)
1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
250g paella rice
500ml cold water
100g samphire
About 240g (prepared weight) raw king prawns, peeled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Once your fire is ready, set a large (about 30cm), deep frying pan on the grill over the fire and add the oil, red peppers, onions and chorizo. Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are starting to colour a little.
Part a hole in the vegetables and lay a chicken thigh in the gap, skin side down. Repeat with the other 3 chicken thighs, making sure the skin is in contact with the pan so that it colours nicely. Let them fry for another 20 minutes or so, shaking the pan gently from time to time to prevent sticking. By now the onions and peppers will be beautifully soft and the chicken crisp on the skin side.
Stir through the tomatoes, garlic and saffron, then fry for another 5 minutes or so until the tomatoes are collapsing. Pour in the wine and simmer for another 5 minutes, then crumble in the stock cube, stirring really well. Add the rice and season well with salt and black pepper, mixing thoroughly and turning the chicken thighs skin side up. Stir in the water, then push the rice under the liquid.
Cover the pan snugly with foil. Leave to simmer over the fire for about 25 minutes, giving the pan a little shake occasionally to check it’s not sticking, but don’t worry too much, a bit of stuck-on rice is the best part of a paella!
Remove the foil, scatter over the samphire and prawns, re-cover and let them cook in the steam for 10 minutes – when the prawns are pink all the way through they are done.
Scatter over the parsley and serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over.
For me, breakfast is an essential part of the camping experience, where slow, lazy mornings often follow long, late evenings. I think the full works of bacon, sausages and eggs are essential at least once during any camping trip, but I doubt anyone needs a recipe for how to cook a classic fry-up their favourite way.
So here are a few other suggestions for memory-making breakfasts that will get your friends and family crawling out of their tents with grins on their faces. If I’m feeling like making a bit of extra effort, I’ll get my fire pit going for breakfast and cook over that – a fireside breakfast is just as special as a dinner-time one. Otherwise, a camping gas stove is just as effective for all these recipes.
Normally I prefer a savoury start to the day, but just occasionally I crave something warm and sweet. Porridge, made with half milk and half water, fits the bill and it is an especially good way to begin a day that is a touch cold and damp. Once it has started to thicken in the pan I chuck in a handful of chopped dried fruit – apricots, prunes or dates are all great – to sweeten it. A pinch of ground mixed spice is nice too, stirred through as the porridge is cooking, as is a drizzle of honey over the top once it is spooned into bowls.
A speedy serving suggestion for 4 people, easily scaled down to serve 2 with a smaller pan.
Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and add 2 big handfuls of halved cherry tomatoes and 2 thinly sliced cloves of garlic, then stir-fry over a medium heat for a couple of minutes until the tomatoes are softening. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then make spaces among the tomatoes, crack in 4–8 eggs (I usually allow a couple per person) and let them fry until cooked to your liking. Best eaten straight from the pan with crusty bread or pitta bread for dunking.
Inspired by a bowlful of cold pasta from the night before, this could just as easily contain all manner of leftovers that are in need of a good home. The pasta makes up the carbohydrate element, just as potatoes do in a Spanish omelette. But sliced-up cooked potatoes or other vegetables, or cooked meat, can all be flung in, and the cheese can be whatever takes your fancy. If you have a camping stove with a grill you could use it to brown the top, otherwise the foil ensures the eggs cook all the way through.
SERVES 2 (GENEROUSLY)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 courgettes, sliced
3–4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
Bowlful of leftover cooked cold pasta (I used leftovers from the Pepper, Chorizo and Goat’s Cheese recipe here)
4 eggs
A few spoonfuls of cream cheese
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chilli sauce or tomato ketchup, to serve
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the courgettes and fry over a medium heat for a few minutes until just starting to soften. Add the tomatoes and fry for another couple of minutes until they just lose their shape, then add the leftover pasta, or whatever other leftovers you might have, stirring over the heat until warmed through.
Reduce the heat to a minimum and crack in the eggs, stirring constantly to mix them up so they resemble an omelette (or you could whisk them in a bowl first, but I prefer to save on washing-up!). Season well with salt and black pepper, loosely cover the top of the pan with foil and leave to cook gently until nearly set, about 10 minutes.
When the frittata is nearly done, dollop on the cream cheese, then re-cover and finish cooking. Serve hot or warm with chilli sauce or ketchup.
Other good leftovers for the frittata treatment…
▪ A little chopped-up ham or salami
▪ Leftover cooked meat from the previous night’s BBQ – chopped sausage or burger is a brilliant addition
▪ Replace the courgettes with mushrooms
▪ Use a few chopped-up sun-dried tomatoes in place of the fresh ones
Yes, you need two frying pans here, which is obviously double the washing-up, but it’s so worth it – the combination of creamy eggy bread and punchy spiced mushrooms is a complete winner. I advise you to subscribe to the ‘I cooked it, so you wash up’ principle that rules in my house.
SERVES 2 (EASILY SCALED UP)
3 eggs
About 100ml milk (or single cream, if you prefer)
2 thick slices bread cut from a white loaf
3 tbsp olive oil
250g mixed fresh mushrooms (such as chestnut, button and oyster), torn into bite-size pieces
1 heaped tsp garam masala
A pinch of dried chilli flakes (optional)
1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
Knob of butter
A little roughly chopped coriander
Squeeze of lemon juice, or to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
A few rocket leaves, to serve (optional)
Break the eggs into a large mug and whisk together with the milk, seasoning well with salt and black pepper. Spread the bread out in a single layer in a couple of shallow bowls or use an old baking tin. Pour over the egg mix, then set aside until the bread has soaked up the liquid. This may take up to 30 minutes or so.
For the mushrooms, heat half of the oil in a frying pan set over a high heat. Add the mushrooms and fry for a few minutes without disturbing them too much so they develop a nice caramelized surface, then stir and keep frying until cooked, about 8 minutes in total. Add the garam masala, chilli flakes and garlic and fry for another minute. Remove from the heat, then add the butter, coriander and lemon juice. Keep warm whilst you finish the eggy bread.
Heat the remaining oil in another frying pan over a medium heat, add the slices of soaked bread and fry for a couple of minutes on each side until crisp and golden. Do this in two batches if necessary.
Serve the eggy bread with the mushrooms spooned over the top. A bit of rocket scattered on top adds another dimension if you have some.
For a sweet eggy bread…
Add a tablespoon or so of caster or granulated sugar to the egg and milk mixture, and soak the bread as above. If you have brioche or croissants in need of a good home (and you don’t want to save them to make the bread and butter pudding here!) you could use them instead of the sliced white bread; simply slice before soaking. I would fry the eggy bread in a little butter rather than olive oil. For a fruity topping, core and cut a couple of eating apples into wedges and fry in a little butter with a pinch of cinnamon and a sprinkle more sugar. If you don’t want to do apples, a generous dollop of jam is also a good thing to top a sweet eggy bread with.
Drop scones, or Scotch pancakes, were an after-school treat when I was young but they make a perfect breakfast for hungry campers. In this recipe, the batter is made cocktail-style by shaking it up in a food flask. This not only means not much washing-up, but also that it’s then all ready in its own cool vessel and easy to take down to the beach or wherever you want to light your fire. This is another recipe I get organized at home by weighing the dry ingredients (flour, sugar and baking powder) into a food bag and sealing, so it’s less faff at the campsite. The berries, I find, are generally self-crushing – that’s just what happens on the journey!
MAKES ABOUT 16 DROP SCONES, SERVING 4–6 PEOPLE FOR BREAKFAST, OR FOR A PUDDING OR SNACK
300g plain flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
250ml milk
Sunflower oil, for frying
To serve
Mixture of fresh summer berries (about 300g), packed into a tub
Golden or maple syrup (preferably in a squeezy bottle)
At home, weigh the flour and sugar into a ziplock food bag and add the baking powder. Shake it about to mix it up and seal tightly, squeezing out as much air as possible, then pack away with the rest of your food.
At the campsite, break the eggs into a large food flask and put the lid on tight. Give the flask a really good shake, up and down, back and forth, just as if you were making a cocktail. If your flask is one of those sensible unbreakable ones, this is a job that kids love to help with. Open the lid, pour in the milk and repeat the shaking; now it should be completely combined. Open the lid again and pour in the dry mix, before sealing and shaking well once more. Open it up just to check, the batter should be pretty smooth (the odd lump is no problem), but give it another shake if necessary. Seal up the flask until you are ready to cook – the batter will keep happily in the flask for a few hours.
When you are ready to cook, get your fire ready. I generally use my fire pit to cook these, but you could also easily use a camping stove.
Take a large frying pan, add a drizzle of oil and set on the grill over a medium-hot fire. When it’s hot, give your flask a final shake, unscrew the lid and then pour in dollops of batter to make pancakes of around 10cm diameter. Cook for a couple of minutes (they are ready to turn when little bubbles appear on the surface) before flipping over with a spatula, then cook the other side for a minute or so. Serve immediately with crushed berries and syrup to taste, and repeat with the rest of the batter.
Something warm and sweet when you’re camping is a brilliant way to lift spirits that might be starting to flag, especially if it’s getting a bit nippy or damp, so it’s great to have a couple of easy pudding treats tucked up your sleeve.
The idea for this pudding was conceived at the end of a week of camping when we were left with a collection of slightly sad-looking leftover bits of this and that – a stale (and rather squashed) brioche loaf, half a jar of marmalade and two-thirds of a bar of dark chocolate, not to mention some just-on-the-turn milk. All in need of a good home, and what a home it turned out to be!
The beauty of brioche (croissants would be equally good too) is that they are butter-rich so you don’t need to add any more butter. For extra richness, substitute some of the milk for a splash of cream (single or double), if you have some handy. Just as with the crumble here, a foil-lined springform cake tin placed inside a Dutch oven is the best way to cook this recipe.
SERVES 6
1 brioche loaf (about 400g), torn into bite-size pieces
About ½ a jar of marmalade
About 70g dark chocolate, broken into bits
2–3 tbsp sugar (any sort is fine)
500ml milk
4 eggs
Line a 23–25cm springform cake tin with a double layer of foil. Scatter about half of the brioche pieces into the base of the prepared tin. Dollop on teaspoonfuls of marmalade, using about half of what you have, then scatter over about half of the chocolate pieces. Sprinkle on about 1 tablespoon of sugar. Repeat with the rest of the brioche, marmalade, chocolate and sugar.
In a bowl, lightly whisk together the milk and eggs, then pour evenly into the tin over the brioche layers. Place the tin inside the Dutch oven, cover with the lid and hang the oven over your fire, not too close to the coals otherwise the bottom will burn. Use tongs to put 8–10 hot coals on the lid to cook the pudding from the top as well. Cook for around 25–30 minutes until the custard has set and the top is crisp. Serve whilst piping hot.
This recipe is an entirely ambient temperature crumble, using vegetable suet in place of butter and tinned fruit instead of fresh. I like to serve this with… you guessed it, tinned custard! When the sun has gone down and it gets a bit chilly around the campfire, you will get cheers of utter delight as you hand around bowls of this comforting pud.
SERVES 6 OR SO
200g self-raising flour
100g shredded vegetable suet
75g soft light brown sugar
50g porridge oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 × 400g tins apricot halves in fruit juice
Tinned custard, to serve
This is best cooked in a springform cake tin that you place inside a Dutch oven. It simply means you can lift the tin out for easy serving and the foil-lined tin means the washing-up is minimal. So first line a 23–25cm springform cake tin with a double layer of foil, then pack it away until you are ready to cook.
Once again, get the dry ingredients ready at home. Weigh out the flour, suet and sugar into a ziplock food bag, then add the oats and cinnamon. Shake up the bag to mix everything together, then seal and pack away with your food.
When you are ready to cook, open up your tins of fruit and pour into the foil-lined tin, along with the juice. Turn the apricots so they sit in the tin, cut side up (so you have a nice dip in each half where the crumble settles). Shake up the bag of crumble topping to mix it again, then sprinkle over the fruit, spreading it evenly all over.
Put the tin into the Dutch oven and cover with the lid. Hang the oven over your fire, reasonably low over the coals to start with, and use tongs to put 8–10 hot coals on the lid to cook the crumble from the top as well (if it starts catching on the bottom, simply raise the oven up on the chain; use your nose to guide you – lift the lid a little and have a sniff). Cook for around 30–40 minutes, maybe a little longer, until the crumble is crisp on top. Serve whilst piping hot. I like to drizzle over cold custard straight from the tin but, of course, feel free to heat up your custard in a pan, if you prefer.
Other tinned fruit crumbles to try…
▪ Tinned gooseberries are great, although you may need to add a little extra sugar to the crumble topping as they can be quite tart. Replace the cinnamon with ground ginger.
▪ Pears in juice are delicious too. Add a handful of flaked almonds to the crumble topping, and replace the cinnamon with ground ginger.
▪ Tinned apple slices are brilliant with a little spice, so swap the cinnamon for ground mixed spice in the crumble topping.
A good way to quickly jazz-up shop-bought muffins. Take a chocolate muffin and pierce a hole in the top, twisting the knife to make a generous gap. Push in a chunk of your favourite chocolate so it’s well into the middle of the muffin. Wrap it up in a couple of layers of foil and set in the glowing embers of your fire. After a few minutes, the muffin will be deliciously warm and the chocolate melted, and you will have forgotten you only opened a couple of packets to make it.
A wonderful thing for kids to make themselves – just put out a few options on the table and let them DIY their own pudding. Simply take a soft wheat flour tortilla, then fill and wrap it with pretty much any sweet stuff that takes your fancy. Roll it up tightly, wrap it in a generous piece of foil, then toast over the fire for a few minutes – either by laying it directly in the glowing embers, or on the grill.
A little parental warning – the contents of the burritos can get very hot, so let them cool a little before allowing kids to tuck in. Melted jam and marshmallows are particular culprits for mouth-burning.
Some favourite filling ideas…
▪ A tablespoon or two of your favourite jam, smeared all over the tortilla.
▪ What about jam and peanut butter for double the fun…?
▪ Chocolate chips, either on their own or spread with a base layer of jam – raspberry jam is perfect with dark chocolate; strawberry jam goes brill with white.
▪ Chopped-up tinned fruit, such as peaches, pears or apricots. A generous layer of nutella spread over the tortilla before you scatter the fruit will help it all stick.
▪ Mini marshmallows will melt into a sweet sticky heaven in moments.
Take a banana and peel a strip of the skin back. Make a slash down the centre of the banana and stuff in a chocolate-coated fudge finger. Lay the skin back over, then tightly wrap a sheet of foil around a few times, completely enclosing the banana. Lay in the glowing embers, or on the grill over your fire, and leave it to cook for a few minutes until the chocolate fudge has melted.
And if all else fails, there are always the ever-popular toasted marshmallows… See also Gingernut S’mores here in the Bonfire Celebrations chapter for a moreish marshmallowy treat.
