Dear The Kitchen,
We are going camping with some friends this weekend for two nights in the forest. While we could get a camp stove, I think it might be interesting to try to make all our meals over a fire.
Do you or your readers have any recipe suggestions?
Thanks,
SSN
Dear SSN,
Eartheasy.com has not only some easy recipes for campfire cooking (like beer batter fish filets, corn fritters, and shish kebab), but also tips on how to safely build your fire. That might be a good place to start.
Of course, for dessert, the traditional campfire dish is S'mores. If you're feeling really industrious, you could try The French Laundry's Campfire S'Mores.
Or, here's a more basic recipe:
S'mores
makes 12 S'mores
12 graham crackers, broken into halves
1 1/4 three-ounce bars bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), broken into 36 pieces
12 marshmallows
Arrange 12 of the cracker halves on a large sheet of foil and arrange 2-3 pieces of chocolate on each cracker. Toast marshmallows over flames until golden (1-2 minutes) and put one marshmallow on top of each chocolate-covered cracker. Top marshmallows with remaining crackers to make sandwiches and cover with remaining foil.
Set over campfire coals until chocolate is melted, about 1-2 minutes.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I have great recollections of doing tin-foil-package meals over/in a campfire at a Girl Guide camp as a kid. It's been eons, so the details are sketchy. I seem to remember one savoury package with ground beef, sliced new potatoes and various veggies sprinkled with onion soup powder (this is camp, not gourmet) and another dessert package that was sliced apples sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon.
Real dumbo meals, easy enough for kids to assemble themselves, but somehow the satisfaction of doing them over the fire made them much tastier.
Besides s'mores, biscuits-on-a-stick are always a hit with our camping group. Simply take a biscuit out of a can (use regular size, not large - they wont cook through) and wrap it around the end of a stick. Slowly roast over the fire, when the biscuit is done remove from end of stick and pour condiments (honey, jelly, preserves, etc) down ready made hole from the stick. Simple and satisfying.
As Mishelle said, foil wraps work well for just about anything. My favorite is mushrooms. They turn out just like sauted mushrooms at home. Work good as a topper or a side. Throw in some onions and sliced potatoes and you have a good side, add ground beef and its a whole meal in a handy foil package.
Another impressive tactic is an orange beef recipe. Take on orange, cut in half and remove orange form inside leaving the skin whole. Add ground beef to orange skin and place around coals of fire. as the beef cooks it will take on orange flavor from the rind. Season beef as you like it to go with the orange, I'm found of a little rosemary and thyme and a little salt and pepper.
Breakfast is another way to impress everyone. Simply line a brown paper bag with bacon and crack an egg on top. Suspend bag over the fire (stick, line, tripod, etc). The grease for the bacon will prevent the bag from burning while they and the eggs cook.
Sorry for the long post but i spend alot of time camping/backpacking/floating so I'm literally brimming over with outdoors cooking recipes and methods. If you want some more, just let me know via this post or email me at sparksj@gmail.com
You might want to have a look at William Rubel's "The Magic of Fire". It's geared towards hearth cooking, but a lot of it could be done outdoors as well. Many of his "recipes" involve putting vegetables and even fish straight into the embers of a "mature fire".
http://www.williamrubel.com/magicoffire/magic.home.html
regards,
trillium
Similar to the orange beef mentioned above, you can make little orange cakes buy filling the hollowed orange skin with cake batter. SO GOOD!
thanks for the suggestions! i think it will be a fun weekend, and thanks to all of you, a delicious one too!
A perennial favorite of mine also uses wrapped aluminum foil stuck near the hot coals.
We usually bring a package of cube steak, a small white or yellow onion, some zucchini, and packets of BBQ sauce, salt, and pepper from the grocery store deli or a fast-food place. The whole thing weighs about 1.5 lbs., depending on how many you're cooking for (usually 3-4 in my case).
Just place the meat down on the foil, add the chopped veggies, pour the BBQ sauce, season, wrap loosely, and add to the fire for about 30-45 minutes.
It's very hearty and filling, and perfect after several hours of uphill climbs.
We love BBQ chicken w. potato packets and corn done over the campfire. We freeze our chicken in the sauce, thaw and cook over hot coals.
Potato packets are heavy duty foil, slice a potato skin and all, add onion and mushroom, season, dot with butter or margarine or a bit of oil seal the foil and cook about the same time as it takes the chicken to cook.
Corn is soaked in water for several hours with stringy tassels removed and lay corn in the husks over the fire - turning often so it doesn't burn. We also like to roll the corn in a mixture of grated mozzarella cheese and chili powder. (Cuban Corn)
I laughed at Sparky's breakfast - we did that and our breakfast ended up in the fire. Now we use a Dutch oven!
Have you seen a pie iron? You can find them in any outdoors store or camping section of larger stores. Favorite dessert is a brownie mix (from a box) cooked in the pie iron that is first sprayed with Pam or any spray oil. Just the aroma is wonderful.
Hobo pies are good in the pie iron too - spray with oil, line the iron with two slices of bread, spoon in a couple of spoonfuls of tinned beef stew on to the bread, close the iron and cook until toasty and the stew is hot.
Have fun playing with your food
Here's a site for the Cuban Corn - sorry I forgot the lime - it's wonderful!
http://www.oprah.com/foodhome/food/recipes/food_200308_cob.jhtml