COOKING COMPANION Breakfast, dinner, sweet snacks – cooking
is one of the most exciting parts of camping holidays for Katy Hofstede-Smith…
Summer days - those that are actually warm and sunny - just beckon you to head outdoors, pitch a tent and enjoy the smells and sounds of the beautiful British countryside. T ere can’t be many things more exciting for children than the prospects of sleeping out, and for those less than excited adults who have experienced far too many soggy childhood camping trips there is one sure-fi re way to relight the camping excitement: campfi re cooking! Assuming that you are in an area where it is safe to
use a fi re and that you have got to grips with getting the fi re going, cooking over a camp fi re surely has to be one of the most romantic ways to conjure up dinner. Try to pick things that can be cooked in one pan and preferably eaten with fi ngers to save on washing up and packing. T ere are a few diff erent “types” of dish that you can choose from, but there are two main categories - one-pot or skewered onto a stick - which give you an easy place to start when thinking of what to cook. Breakfast off ers such a fantastic range of options; bacon or sausage sandwiches
(the bacon can be skewered and cooked directly over the fi re), fried or scrambled eggs, campfi re pancakes (pre-mix the batter at home to make life easier), omelettes, fi re-baked apples with a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of muesli. Alternatively, stick wrapped ready to cook croissants or cinnamon rolls that you can buy in the supermarket chilled aisles over the fi re to cook. I fi nd dinner usually needs to be fi lling and comforting either to compensate for a busy day of running around or to warm up aſt er an unexpectedly chilly/wet one. One pot stews are fantastic and can take some extra spicing. Try smoky Moroccan tagines or spicy curries served with very simple fi re-cooked fl atbreads; fajitas wrapped and warmed with melting cheese on top; sizzling sausages with a warm bean stew and fi re-cooked jacket potatoes or wood-fi red pizza with dough pre-made at home.
When it comes to campfi re cooking there is one type of dish that really gets everyone excited above all others, and that is sweet snacks. Marshmallow toasting has to be in everyone’s childhood memories and is an essential, but there are lots of ways to elevate this. Dip whole strawberries into an already gooey marshmallow and toast quickly to brown the outside. S’mores are an American camping must-have which turn the toasted marshmallow into a cultural icon: a beautiful combination of chocolate, biscuit and marshmallow. Taking the s’more to another level you can take pre-made waffl e ice cream cones, fi ll with chocolate drops, small marshmallows, fruit and any other bits that you like and then warm them over the fi re until the fi lling has melted. If you fancy something a little diff erent to marshmallow, baked bananas topped with chocolate and alcohol (if you’d like) and wrapped with foil can sit and cook slowly in the fi re, or alternatively wrap some sweet pastry or croissant dough around sticks and cook whilst you melt some chocolate to dip them in. You could even make a simple bread and butter pudding wrapped in foil and baked in the fi re.
To end the day, homemade hot chocolate has to be the ultimate
camping drink and as the dark draws in provides the perfect pre-bed drink before another busy summer day.
www.eatrepeat.net
S’MORES
S’mores (some more) are an American/Canadian treat that takes roasting marshmallows to the next level of yumminess!
Push a couple of marshmallows onto a skewer and hold them over the hot embers of the fi re until they soften (or burn) to your liking. Sandwich the soft marshmallows between two biscuits and remove the skewer. The choice of biscuit is quite important. It needs not to crumble easily. The Americans and Canadians use Graham crackers or Oreo cookies. S’mores also work well with digestives.
If you’re not using chocolate digestives, place a layer of chocolate (pieces/buttons) on to the biscuit before adding the marshmallows. Allow the marshmallows to cool slightly and melt the chocolate before eating.
50 Evening Adventures by The Meek Family, published by Frances Lincoln
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