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Recipe Camping Recipes

Discussion in 'Tilted Food' started by snowy, Aug 27, 2011.

  1. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    My husband and I recently returned from a trip on which we did some camping. Because we were canoe-camping at one location, we were able to pack in our Dutch oven. I created this recipe out of what we had on hand following a 10-mile hike. It is named for the peak we hiked around that day. I used black beans, but I think this would be really excellent with chickpeas too. We didn't bother to drain off the bean liquid; you certainly could and it would improve the color of the dish, but as we were camping, we didn't really care. This was my first time cooking on a campfire with a Dutch oven. I highly recommend it!

    Broken Top Stew
    1 cup black beans, rinsed and soaked
    1 large sweet onion, chopped
    2 tbsp. butter (or oil)
    1 Russet potato
    2 Yukon Gold potatoes
    1 sweet red pepper (or other sweet pepper)
    1 cup rice (we used brown)
    salt to taste
    pepper to taste
    1 tsp. red pepper flakes
    1 tbsp. curry powder

    Cook the black beans in your Dutch oven on the campfire. Make sure to add some salt to the beans as they're cooking; it keeps the skins intact. Top up the water on the beans as necessary. Once the beans start to turn tender, add the onion and butter. Cook for ten minutes or so before adding the potato. Add more water if needed. Ten minutes after adding the potato, add the red pepper and seasonings. Add the rice and more water if you need. Cook for thirty more minutes, until the rice is al dente. Take the Dutch oven off of the fire and let it sit for ten minutes before serving. Adjust seasoning before serving.

    Post your camping recipes--Dutch oven, foil packet, whatever!
     
  2. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    Apologies for the simplicity but this really is too good to pass up.
    You could do it at home too but our tradition is to do it when canoe camping. If you did it regularly you would probably have your first heart attack by age 30.

    Fire up a pan, cook whole mess of bacon.
    Pour off most of the fat, and break your eggs into the pan over high heat, right into that delicious porcine liquid.
    Then scorch a couple of pieces of toast on the sides of the pan.

    The best eggs you will ever eat.
    And only one dirty pan to wash.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  3. DamnitAll

    DamnitAll Wait... what?

    Location:
    Central MD
    I came across a video of this (which I can't seem to find now, of course) and was sold, immediately. I have yet to try it out myself.

     
    • Like Like x 2
  4. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    I love ramen noodles when I camp. They're lightweight and easy to pack, and it doesn't destroy the meal if they get crushed. Little packets of soy sauce and teriyaki are a great alternative to the seasoning packets.

    Knowing the edible food of the area where you're backpacking/hiking/camping also helps, it's fun adding a touch of something native to a meal. Just make sure you also know what to avoid... there are plenty of edibles that have similar-looking poisonous cousins.

    Dehydrated meals are also pretty handy, though expensive to purchase from outdoor stores. It's often preferable to mix them myself, purchasing things like dried green beans, peppers, nuts and fruits in bulk, also minute rice is handy. It's best to pick items that are especially quick and easy to cook over a can of gel fuel. It's easy enough to mix little bags with the desired ingredients and appropriate spices, then pack them up in water-tight bags. When it comes time to eat it's an easy process at that point: light the gel fuel, toss them in a mess kit with a little water, and enjoy the aroma of a spicy, delicious meal.

    Then again, I'm used to camping in places that don't permit campfires. Gel fuel-cooked meals are far less exciting than dutch oven-style meals...
     
  5. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    I agree, genuinegirly. Our campstove is a MSR Dragonfly--it runs off of white gas. Typically, cooking on it involves boiling water and adding the boiling water to something. Mountain House makes a really tasty pasta primavera. Oddly, the cheapest place to get them around here is at the grocery store--one of the grocery stores carries them in the section with the beef jerky. I also like Mountain House because they're local :)

    This is also why one of our favorite places to camp is just outside of the Three Sisters Wildnerness--campfires are allowed, but you can hike into the wilderness for the day easily.
     
  6. DamnitAll

    DamnitAll Wait... what?

    Location:
    Central MD
    Ramen FTW!
     
  7. Growing up, we usually ate hot dogs, hamburgers, and tinfoil dinners when we went camping. The last time I went with my dad, he brought spaghetti - he cooked the noodles prior to leaving, coated them with a little olive oil to prevent sticking, and brought homemade sauce. It was almost decadent sitting around a campfire, eating homemade spaghetti instead of a hot dog with ashes on it. We also made dutch oven sweet and sour chicken and rice. I don't have the recipe for it, though.

    DamnitAll, that orange cake recipe sounds delicious. I'll have to try that next time we go.
     
  8. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    That sounds good.
    We do the same with small potatoes (the size you use to make salt potatoes, for you upstate NYers who love 'em).
    Wrap them up in foil, let them sit in the hot coals for an hour and then retrieve and enjoy. Even better if you have some butter in your cooler to melt over them.
     
  9. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    My best friend's mom does the same thing with onions. She takes a whole sweet onion, peels it, x's the top, and sticks some butter in the middle of it before wrapping it up in foil. It's soooo good.
     
  10. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    A large sweet onion like a Vidalia, or are there smaller sweet onions out west where you are?
     
  11. Remixer

    Remixer Middle Eastern Doofus

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
    snowy

    Potatoes, rice and beans in a single dish... my brain just exploded.

    What on earth was the texture like?!
     
  12. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    Actually, I think the sweet onions out here are bigger than Vidalias, unless they save all the softball-sized Vidalias for markets back East. When I say "sweet onion", I mean Vidalia, Maui, or Walla Walla.

    We used a firm, waxy potato (Yukon Gold) and a starchy potato (Russet) to achieve two different textures. The Russet broke down over cooking and added a silkiness to the soup that just made it delicious. The beans were firm but creamy, and the rice was brown rice, so it stayed pretty firm too. It was definitely a good meal to have after a 10 mile day in the mountains with thousands of feet of elevation gain.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  13. cj2112

    cj2112 Slightly Tilted

    I typically camp at our state parks, which means I can bring the gear to eat really well. I have a guide quality, 3 burner, 90,000 BTU stove, and a portable gas grill. If I'm feeling lazy, I'll grill a marinated tri-tip roast, grilled fresh asparagus drizzled with balsamic vinegar and pick up some local corn on the cob from a produce stand. Then for breakfast we'll do bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns. If i'm feeling particularly adventurous, I'll do grill some porkchops with a cumin and green chili wet-rub, served with a peach/mango salsa and some spanish rice. I'm thinking about buying an ice cream mixer and making some homemade green tea ice cream on one of my trips next year.
     
  14. aquafox

    aquafox Getting Tilted

    Location:
    Ibapah, UT
    If it wasn't cooked over the fire, it isn't worth eating :)

    1.) Bacon.

    2.) Steak, Patatos... no foil or anything, just dangling over to collect the smokey goodness.

    3.) Mountain pies are a close second. Pizza pies using two slices of bread, cheese, sauce, peperoni, bacon, etc. If you packed well, fruit filled mountain pies are insane.
     
  15. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    We used to make a dutch over pineapple upside down cake that was pretty awesome. I can't find the recipe but I am sure it doesn't differ all that much from the ususal.

    We did a lot of tin foil meals with fish or hamburger patties. Some fish, a few herbs, some lemon zest and slices of lemon, maybe a few onion slices. The fancy word is cooking en Papillote. At home, I do the same thing but with baking paper in the oven.

    We would also make flat bread as well.
     
  16. spindles

    spindles Very Tilted

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    You can't beat 'eggs in bread' (also called 'Toad in the Hole'). Rip (or cut) a hole in the middle of a piece of bread, butter the outside as best you can, into a pan over the flames (or onto a hotplate), crack an egg in the middle, put the centre of bread on top of the egg. Flip after a couple of minutes. Take out of pan and eat!

    Last time we went camping we ate a dozen eggs for breakfast one morning done like this (4 of us).

    I also have a methylated spirits stove (denatured alcohol to the Americans). Our 'stop gap' meal is pasta (spirals or whatever), tins of tuna and crushed tomatoes. Cook the pasta, drain, add the tomatoes and tuna and return to the heat, add some grated cheese (I've used the processed cheese that doesn't need refrigerating) and viola!
     
  17. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

  18. RedSneaker

    RedSneaker Very Tilted

    Where in the store are Tasty Bites?
     
  19. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    Depends on the store. Sometimes they're with the Indian groceries, and sometimes they're with the health food (they're all vegetarian).
     
  20. RedSneaker

    RedSneaker Very Tilted

    I'm gonna check em out. Tx!
     
    • Like Like x 1