T h e CA M P I N G b y AB ENLLN I E Introduction Essential kit Travelling storecupboard (pantry) Before you go A practical hat Cowboy brunches Cuppa tea (or coffee) and piece a cake Famous Five high teas Unexpected guests for drinks One pots The grill Side orders Sweet chic And so to bed Stockists (Sources) Index
Publication date: May 2010 Price: ÂŁ12.99 paperback ISBN: 978-1-85626-933-9 Format: 198 x 154mm Extent: 160pp Photographs: Colour photography throughout
Word count: 40,000 Rights: World, Kyle Cathie Kyle Book publication: May 2011 US ISBN: 978-1-906868-25-3 US Price: $18.95
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INTR ODUCTION RO 1.2 million people in the UK camp on a regular basis. During 2009 bookings via the Camping and Caravanning Club have risen by almost a third year on year and they have recruited over 100,000 new members over the past 18 months. There are an estimated 40,000 plus camping sites throughout Europe, with people camping within their own country, but also venturing abroad to camp elsewhere. In the US around 13 million people go camping ever year. In Australia over 8.3 million Australians went camping in 2008, along with over 336,000 visitors from overseas.
Whether you are camping, caravanning or cooking on a boat, the challenges of cooking on the move are the same. The Camping Cookbook contains everything you need to know about setting up a travelling kitchen and what to cook, without compromising on quality. It deals with what equipment to buy or take with you, how to create a travelling storecupboard (pantry), practical tips, and recipe chapters that take you through the day. In short it provides a complete solution to your camping holiday, to make it as easy and as pleasurable as possible. Key to the book is the chapter ‘Travelling Storecupboard (Pantry)’. This takes up the space of half a shoe box, but with it you can create a sophisticated array of dishes. Two simple preparations ‘CAMPING MARINADE’ and ‘CAMPING GLAZE’ that take some five minutes to prepare before you leave and can be transported in airtight containers, form the basis of any number of recipes that follow. Add to these a handful of spice blends and you have a multitude of flavours at your fingertips. From here the recipe chapters take you from dawn until dusk, opening with a chapter on hearty Cowboy Brunches, and finishing with recipes for making the perfect mug of cocoa with a drop of rum and the best biscuits (cookies) to dunk, before retiring to your sleeping bag. Inbetween you can pack your children off on a ‘Famous Five’ adventure with a full-on picnic tea; there is a chapter on speedy appetisers and little eats should you make new friends or have old ones visiting; and the supper-time chapters revolve around one-pot dishes that can either be cooked on a gas ring, or for the more adventurous on a tripod over an open fire, with lots of 2
recommendations for travelling barbecues, including more ambitious dishes such as a whole salmon steamed between long wild grasses. There is also a chapter on cakes to make and take with you, some of which can then be used to create desserts. And of course, there are all the camping favourites like bananas baked in their skins and toasted marshmallows. The recipes are pared down to an absolute minimum. If it isn’t necessary, don’t do it. The one commodity in short supply is water, and the aim throughout the book is to keep your need to a minimum, not only in the preparation of food but also in the washing up. At the very most you might have one pan to clean. Nor do the recipes involve scales, an unnecessary piece of kit to lug along, instead measurements are a relaxed ‘handful’, ‘tablespoon’, ‘tin mug’ and the like.
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A KIND OF BABA GHANOUSH Aubergines and tomatoes are two of the most successful vegetables to grill on a barbecue, they don’t even require oil or seasoning, simply throw them on whole. The aubergines will take about 45
minutes to cook, so you will probably need to put these on before any meat that is part of the feast. This is delicious served with barbecued merguez or other spicy sausages, and warm flat-bread.
For 4 people 4 aubergines (eggplants) 3 tomatoes on the vine 3 tablespoons CAMPING MARINADE 1 tablespoon Middle Eastern Spice Blend (optional) sea salt extra virgin olive oil a handful of coarsely chopped flatleaf parsley Prick the aubergines all over to stop them from bursting, and grill in a covered barbecue for about 45 minutes until the skin is blackened and blistered, turning them now and again. Grill the tomatoes on the vine for about 20 minutes, turning them once. Leave both to cool a little, then skin the aubergines and coarsely chop the flesh in a bowl using a knife and fork. If there is any excess liquid then pour it off, pressing it out using a fork. Skin the tomatoes, and add the flesh, crushing it with your fingers. Mix in the CAMPING MARINADE, the spice blend and some salt, splash over some oil and scatter over the parsley.
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FISH BAKED IN NEWSPAPER We’re rather fond of this frontier method in our tent, that allows us the fantasy we’re camping wild somewhere in the mountains with nothing more than a fishing rod and a good newspaper for company. This way of cooking small whole fish has the same austerity as steaming them between long wild grasses, it keeps the flesh beautifully moist and traps every ounce of their flavour within the paper shell. Like so many radically simple dishes however, it is not necessarily the easiest to get right.
It is often suggested the parcels are baked in the embers of a fire, but the dividing line between embers and ashes is a fine one. It’s not the kind of dish you can test halfway through, once the parcel is open you have to proceed with eating it, and I reckon the grid of a barbecue is a better option. I would serve the fish with Campfire Tagine Tomato Sauce, and some pittas (pitas), also in a perfect world some buttered samphire (salicornia).
For 4 people Any small fish are candidates, but I have a particular soft spot for gilthead bream, that combine everything that is good about plaice and seabass, rolling them into one – buttery sweetness with a firm succulence. Others to try are trout, organically farmed seabass, and grey mullet. You probably want about 150g (5½ oz) per person of filleted fish, so allow double that for a whole unfilleted fish. You may find the fish conveniently weigh in at about 300g (10½ oz) each, but if they’re more like 500–600g (18–1¼ lb) then allow one between two.
A couple of fish weighing in at 500g (18oz) each will do for 4 Season each fish liberally all over with sea salt, including the cavity, and wrap in about 5 sheets of newspaper (tabloid or small supplement size), wetting each sheet first. This gives a more secure parcel than if you simply wet a wodge of paper. Cook the parcels for about 15 minutes a-side on a barbecue, there is no way of the paper actually bursting into flames even though you might think so, but you may need to flick some water at the parcels now and again if the edges start to smoke. They will by the end be blackened, but once cut open the skin should come away with the paper revealing beautifully cooked milky white flesh.
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