On Camp Cooking
Eating well in the great outdoors.
My paternal grandfather was a banker, and as he moved from clerk to branch manager, he moved his family to many different towns throughout the east coast of Australia. When I was six or seven years old, these towns became the map of the longest camping holiday of my childhood. Along with my sister, father, aunt and uncle we travelled between Sydney and Melbourne, stopping at various towns of different sizes, some with thriving industries, some whose local branches had closed years before.
My memories of that trip include a lot of playgrounds and caravan parks with rows of indeterminate tents. I learnt to knit a wonky scarf for the doll who came everywhere with me, and we ate many happy meals on camp stools in the open air. The food likely consisted of a lot of sausages on bread, burgers on bread and the odd serve of fish and chips. Cheese and tomato was my sandwich of choice, and any salads were constructed from a base of iceberg lettuce, not a rocket leaf in sight. But the joy of eating simple food outside far outweighed the limitations of the ingredients used. This, I think, is the guiding principle of all good camp cooking, working within the limitations of a camp kitchen, relying on simple but good food to be enriched by the joy of cooking and eating outdoors with people you love. My more recent camping trips have included less iceberg lettuce, but the same guiding principle, and I so I thought to share some ideas for enjoying good food, interesting food, easy food, on your next camping adventure.
One great joy of camping can be cooking with fire, but this is not always allowed in Australian campsites that dry out in summer and become prone to bushfires. We have adapted to these risks with the provision of public, electric barbeques in many campsites and picnic spots. Low fire danger, public barbeques or a good camp stove mean that a collection of meals that are able to be prepared in a fry pan will serve you well on any camping trip, in Australia or beyond. Add to that a good zip stove for making coffee (or mashed potatoes) and you’ll be set.
The first night meal of any camping trip is a joy. Hopefully the tent is up by dinner time, and you can cook something special because everything is fresh from home. Last camping trip, my brother-in-law brought sago pudding prepared in individual jars for dessert. He made his with coconut milk, spices and nuts, like a chai tea in a pudding. But sago suits a wide range of flavours, and you could also top them with fresh fruit. Sago needs to be soaked and cooked ahead of time, but you could adapt this pudding on location with chia seeds. Simply assemble the jars of milk, seeds and any extras in the morning and leave in your Esky during the day to be ready for dessert at night.
A joy on any good holiday, camping or no, is finding a local food and incorporating it into your meal schedule. It’s sustainable, supports small businesses and very often, will be completely delicious. Plan to find a local dairy, farm shop or vineyard on your next trip and get some jam for your breakfasts or cheese to nibble on as you cook dinner. Two favourites of ours are sausages from a local butcher and a visit to a strawberry farm. We happily made no plans for the fruit we picked except for eating it all in the car on the way back to the campsite.
The last category of meals that should be addressed in camp cooking is last night meals. The last night, the last time you cook in your camp kitchen and sleep in your tent before you dismantle your temporary home and return to your permanent home is a special and technical affair. You want a meal that uses up your leftovers and doesn’t have any ingredients that will spoil in your Esky. Pasta and curry are great options for this. If you’re cooking for a crowd, a whole butternut pumpkin can sit in your campsite for a week and keep perfectly well. This, or any other leftover veggies you have can be fried up and cooked with coconut milk and spices for curry and tomato or pesto for pasta, stir in that half a bag of baby spinach squashed in the bottom of the Esky and dinner is served.
There are happy memories to be made looking down at enamel plates in the light of a head torch, under the stars. A camping trip is an opportunity to reconnect with yourself, your loved ones and the world around you. You can choose food that serves that goal. Simple food, good food, food to be savoured but not worried over. Enjoy.
Love this Gorg!!! Delish!!!
Next camping trip I’ll get him to make his camp stove crème brûlée