July 9 2010 • Posted by corene

Camping Cuisine

When you camp from your car, boat, or RV, often you have more storage, conveniences, and the ability to just pop over to the store for fresh foods or that item you forgot.  But if you leave the trailhead you’ll be packing everything in, probably on your back, and possibly not with the help of the kids.  If you are lucky, the dog will wear one of those harnesses with his water, food, and dishes in it.  Any type of camping requires careful planning and thought, with special attention given to the portability, storability, versatility—and nutrition—of the food you will bring along.
Dried fruits and nuts pack a nutritional punch and are light in weight; when the family goes exploring you can fill their pockets or packs with snacks to keep them going, and some chopped nuts and dried apricots can make the base for a nice fish preparation or turn plain rice into a pilaf.  Ghee (clarified butter) works hard both as a cooking medium or an addition to a sauce.  It will keep about a month without refrigeration, it is calorie-dense (it is mostly fats, but that’s ok if you are hiking, right?), and its high smoke point makes it easy to work with on camp stoves, charcoal, or the campfire…cooking methods that are not quite as controlled as you might find at home.  A few cloves of garlic take up little room in your pack, weigh next to nothing, and can zing up your powdered eggs in the morning or bring a little life to canned soup or stews.  Trader Joe’s has great canned options - many organic.  Herbs and spices can be packed in small (labeled!) plastic bags or even better, in paper envelopes: when empty, or in an emergency (knock wood) the envelopes can be used as tinder to start the campfire.  Lemons and limes can add juice and zest to your dishes or bottled water and the rinds are biodegradeable after you have had the best of them.  Aluminum foil has a number of uses and can be a literal lifesaver as a rain- or dew catcher.  Metal tongs are a kitchen staple around our house.  They are easily slipped into the side of a pack or hung on a ring, and can get the can of beans out of the fire or turn the bacon.
There are a number of producers that are making tasty wines in boxes these days.  I’ve had the best luck with Australian vintners.  Simply remove the wine bag from the cardboard - it will fit leak-free in your pack.  At the end of a long outdoorsy day that collapsible cup of wine will go nicely with the campfire, and maybe even help you ignore that rock the kids swear they cleared away from the tent site.
Camping near a river, lake, or the sea means fresh seafood is on the menu.  It is important to remember that the fish do not always cooperate!  For that matter, neither does the weather or your sense of woodcraft.  It is fun to think about harvesting fiddleheads and nettles, pine nuts and morels, but when you are squinting over the pages of your field guide at that mushroom, it is always nice to know that you reserved part of your backpack for freeze-dried foods, energy bars and that extra jug of water, along with the rest of your emergency gear.
Have fun in the great outdoors!  What are your favorite camping cuisine tips?  Looking forward to your ideas. 

My husband loves to reminisce about camping, years ago with his buddies.  This photo is him in his handsome glory 20+ years ago, long before we met…cooking up steak and scampi on the Coleman.  We were meant to be! 

This particular meal is his most memorable: 
Malad River Trout
Prepare a roaring campfire.  Lay a cleaned, medium-sized (10-12 inch) trout on a sheet of aluminum foil.  Place thin slices of lemon all along the inside of the cavity.  Add chopped pecans or slivered almond, and light shavings of garlic.  Drizzle with ghee and approximately one tablespoon of white wine if you have it.  Fold the foil into a packet, taking care to fold the edges over twice to seal in the ghee and wine.  When the fire has burned to lightly ashed embers, lay your trout packets gently on the coals.  In ten to fifteen minutes, retrieve the packets with your tongs.  Pierce the foil to allow the steam to escape, and carefully unwrap.  The flesh should flake easily.  Trout have many small bones - so be sure to break the fish up well for smaller kids.