Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Camp Cooking

Since we like to cook and our camp cooking tends to be a little more involved than some people, I will do my best to explain our method for cooking while camping. The amounts of various ingredients will be intentionally vague. You may have to look at an ingredient list and imagine what it will taste like with various ingredient ratios to figure out what you will like.

First, supplies. We have a small size Rubbermaid container for our cooking utensils. These are things we bring regardless of what we will be cooking. It includes:
Heavy duty aluminum foil (a few 12" squares folded, takes up a lot less room than a roll)
Small plastic cutting board
Chef's knife & paring knife
Spice Mix (we used to make a new spice mix for every camping trip, but now we use Old Bay Blackened Seasoning)
Olive Oil
Soap/Sponge
Sugar/Splenda (for coffee)
Spoons/forks
Percolator for coffee
Large cast aluminum pot with lid (thicker aluminum and iron pots are especially good for camping to distribute heat and avoid hot spots from your propane stove or wood fire, and a lid for keeping ash out of your food)
Tupperware bowls w/ lids (good for eating out of and storing food in)

Breakfast All Day Broccoli Casserole (Broccoli Cheese Casserole w/ Chorizo).
Small amount of Yellow Rice
1-2 Red Potatoes cut into small cubes
plenty of Broccoli cut into small-medium florets.
1/2 c.-ish Chicken Stock (or water)
1/4 lb. Mexican Chorizo
some Cheddar Cheese
little bit of lazy eggs  (that egg product that comes in small cartons)
1/3 c. Milk

Cook Chorizo in pot until cooked through. transfer to plastic bowl, leaving some grease in pot. Add rice, potatoes and chicken stock, cover and bring to boil and remove from heat to let rice cook. Since it is hard to simmer rice while camping you may have to return to heat occasionally to build up more steam. Once rice is cooked and add broccoli and return to heat to steam broccoli. When broccoli is steamed add chorizo, cheese, milk and egg. Stir and let cook until firm.

Since this is a casserole it doesn't matter too much if you overcook the rice and potatoes a little. I like it when the broccoli is a lttle crunchy and everything else is kind of mushy.

Sweet and Sour Stir-fry w/ Chicken
Chicken breast cut into small strips
soy-sauce (we've been using Bragg Liquid Aminos, a soy based sauce without the wheat that most soy sauce has and no added sodium)
honey
vinegar (red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar, or just use a little red wine)
onions
garlic
carrots
other various stir-fry vegetables (ginger, zuch, red peppers, peas, etc.)
Small chunks soft, sweet, fruit (mango and peaches work especially well)
some sort of thickener (corn starch or flour)
Olive oil

Sautee vegetables in olive oil for a few minutes, add chicken. Mix together two parts soy sauce, four parts honey, and one part vinegar, and a tablespoon of thickener, add to chicken and vegetables. Stir in and cook until liquid starts to thicken. Add fruit and cook until just heated through. Serve.

1 comment:

Kristi said...

We made your sweet & sour chicken with peaches tonight! It was excellent...but I think it would have tasted even more amazing while camping!!