Food writer Annie Bell had what she calls her "Damascene conversion" with camping when her husband, Jonnie, confused in the throes of vessel hire, accidentally bought a boat. This was followed by the purchase of a tent, then a cooker, and what was supposed to be a one-off trip down the Thames became a regular occurrence, leaving Bell fixated with camping food: "Without doubt, to me the main point of going camping is to eat dinner."
Bell's latest book, The Camping Cookbook, is a retro-themed, waterproof-jacketed guide, memoir and cookbook, featuring more than 100 foolproof recipes, from toast and boiled eggs to cooked oysters, baba ghanoush and butterflied lamb. It also provides novel takes on branded goods (such as Tunnock's Teacakes cooked in embers), lists of equipment and easy recipes for complicated meals such as pot roast pork shoulder with anchovies and fennel. Bell's camping philosophy is one of practicality, simplicity and downright determination – chiefly, she will not be deterred by "a lack of running water". She also rather enjoys cooking outdoors: "There's something about lamb sizzling on a grill that's just irresistible," she adds, speaking from a tent in France.
Bell says the key to successful camp food is good prepping and packing: "Invest in a portable barbecue such as a small Weber. Decide what you want to cook before you leave, and pack a travelling store cupboard accordingly." And, if you focus on the simplification of normal recipes, no dish should elude you: "Cooking a mustard and honey-glazed roast chicken with roast potatoes on a barbecue will seem ambitious, but the idea is to make what seems ambitious with ease."
If this seems a long way from Heinz and Trangias, Bell's recipes are still far from reliant on mod cons: "All the recipes are designed to be cooked either on a single ring, or over a fire with a tripod. It's less ambitious than some years ago. The one thing that hasn't changed over the years is UHT milk which is just as disgusting today as it was when I was a child."
CHICKEN TAGINE WITH PINE NUTS AND RAISINS
While a chicken normally only does four people – five at a push – the raison d'être of a tagine is as much the gravy or juices as the meat, so this will stretch to six. It would also be good for guinea fowl, either a nice large one or a couple of small ones. And make sure you've made the Moroccan spice blend before you go.
SERVES 4-6
free-range chicken 1, 1.6-1.7 kg, jointed
beefsteak tomatoes 2 cored, sliced
onions 2 peeled and chopped
red wine 1 tin mug
Moroccan spice blend (see p41) 2 tsp
sea salt and black pepper
pine nuts a handful
raisins a handful
Kit: a stove or tripod, saucepan or casserole and a sharp knife
Mix all the ingredients except the pine nuts and raisins in a large saucepan or casserole. Bring to the boil, cover and cook gently for 1 hour, stirring in the pine nuts and raisins 15 minutes before the end. Serve with chopped coriander, couscous or quinoa, or warm flatbreads.
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 flatbread.
SERVES 4
aubergines 4
tomatoes 3 preferably on the vine
camping marinade (see p41) 3 tbsp
Middle Eastern spice blend (see p41) 1 tsp (optional)
sea salt
extra virgin olive oil
fresh flat-leaf parsley a handful coarsely chopped
Kit: a barbecue and a sharp knife
Prick the aubergines all over to stop them bursting, and grill on a 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 pour it off, pressing it out using a fork. Skin the tomatoes and add the flesh to the bowl, crushing it with your fingers. Mix in the marinade, the spice blend and some salt, then splash over some oil and scatter over the parsley.
MUSSEL POT
This makes for great communal eating, and a beach is the perfect place where the mussels can either be cooked on a tripod or in a pan over a portable gas stove.
mussels about 500g per person
white wine 1 glass
shallots a few, finely chopped
Kit: stove or tripod, saucepan or casserole
Wash and pick over the mussels in the usual fashion, pulling off the beards and discarding any that don't close when sharply tapped. Bring a glass of white wine to the boil with a few finely chopped shallots in a large saucepan or casserole, add the mussels, cover, and steam them open for 5 minutes or so, stirring or shaking the pan halfway through.
GLASTONBURY JERK CHICKEN
The smell of jerk chicken sizzling on a grill is more likely to get me to Glastonbury than any other aspect of the festival. But if you get to have a little dance with dinner, so much the better. Or just grill it up at home and have a little dance in any case. Chicken fillets or "mini" chicken fillets are ideal, as they cook through with ease, whereas legs and drumsticks take longer and need care to prevent them from drying out before they are cooked in the centre.
SERVES 4
camping marinade 4 tbsp (see below)
jerk seasoning 2 tsp (see below)
mini chicken fillets to serve 4
Kit: barbecue
Up to a couple of hours before grilling, combine the marinade with the jerk seasoning in a bowl or airtight container, then add the chicken and coat it. Cover and set aside if not cooking straightaway. Barbecue over hot coals for a few minutes each side – the chicken should feel firm when pressed, and don't worry if it isn't deep gold all over, pale will do. The important thing is to catch it while it's still succulent.
COWBOY COFFEE BEEF
Coffee is the greatest of small camping luxuries. Hang on to the rest of the pot for this beef, a curiosity, though by the end there isn't the slightest hint of what lies behind the copious rich beef broth, it just has a delicious cowboyish savour. This is more liquid than I would normally start off with, allowing for cooking over a slightly higher heat – very low flames have a habit of blowing out. The gravy won't go to waste with some buttery spuds, while noodles and macaroni are also fine sops.
SERVES 4-6
braising beef about 1kg, cut into
pieces, ideally the size of a plum
coffee 1½ tin mugs
red wine 1½ tin mugs
garlic 1 head, top cut off, papery skin removed
bay leaves a couple
sea salt
dried chilli flakes or black pepper a large pinch
carrots 4 large, peeled and thickly sliced
shallots a couple of handfuls, peeled
Kit: stove or tripod, saucepan or casserole, sharp knife
Place the beef in a large saucepan or casserole with the coffee, wine, garlic, bay leaves, salt and chilli or black pepper. Bring to the boil, skim off any foam and simmer covered for 2 hours, adding the carrots and shallots halfway through. Everything should be meltingly tender by the end. The insides of the garlic can be squeezed out and mashed into the juices. Serve with buttered macaroni or spuds.
BUTTERFLIED LEG OF LAMB
A butterflied leg of lamb is a great cut, like a big juicy fillet – it cooks in no time at all, and it's a barbecue treat. A whole butterflied leg spreads out and demands a large kettle barbecue to cook it on, which is not to stop you halving it and cooking it in two goes on a travelling one. It's just as good having cooled down as eaten hot from the grill, and makes great DIY entertaining for a number of people: all you have to do is lay on a selection of breads, a green salad, and some chutney or perhaps aïoli.
SERVES 6-8
leg of lamb about 2.5kg, butterflied
camping marinade (see p41) 5 tbsp
fresh thyme leaves 1 tbsp, heaped
sea salt and black pepper
Kit: barbecue
Open out the leg of lamb, cut it in half, place the two halves in a bowl or dish, and using your hands coat it on both sides with the marinade and the thyme.
Season the lamb and barbecue half at a time in a covered kettle barbecue (eg, a Weber using the indirect method), allowing about 20 minutes each side, and placing it skin-down first. It's an inexact art, so use this as a rough guide – if you stick a knife into the thickest part it should still appear pink. Set this half aside while you cook the other one – first adding another few briquettes to each side, and leaving about 15 minutes for them to heat up. Carve the lamb across the grain, spooning any juices over the meat.
FISH BAKED IN NEWSPAPER
We're rather fond of this frontier method, which allows us the fantasy that we're camping wild 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 moist and traps every ounce of flavour within the paper shell. Like so many simple dishes, however, it is not the easiest to get right. Some suggest baking the parcels 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 as once the parcel is open you have to eat it, and I reckon the grid of a covered travelling barbecue is a better option.
Any small fish are candidates, but I have a soft spot for gilthead bream, which combines everything that is good about plaice and sea bass – buttery sweetness with a firm succulence.
whole gilthead bream, trout, organically farmed sea bass and grey mullet a couple weighing in at 500g each will do 4 people, though that said, you'll probably polish them off even if there are only 2 of you. You probably want about 150g per person of filleted fish, so allow double that for a whole unfilleted fish
Kit: barbecue, newspaper
Season each fish liberally all over with sea salt, including the cavity, and wrap in about five sheets of paper, wetting each sheet first. Cook the parcels for about 15 minutes a side in a covered barbecue – there is no likelihood of the paper bursting into flames, but you may need to flick some water at the parcels now and again if the edges start to smoke. By the end, the paper will be blackened, but once cut open the skin of the fish should come away with the paper, revealing beautifully cooked milky white flesh.
JERK SEASONING
It's worth packing this for making jerk chicken alone, but it will be fab with any meat or fish.
onion powder 3 tsp
black pepper 2 tsp
light muscovado sugar 2 tsp
allspice 1 tsp
dried thyme 1 tsp
dried chilli flakes 1 tsp
ground nutmeg ½ tsp
cloves ½ tsp
Mix together all the ingredients.
CAMPING MARINADE
This marinade is perfect as it stands – you need go no further in dressing meat or fish for the grill. But equally you can use it as a building block, by adding thyme, oregano or marjoram, rosemary or herbes de Provence.
Good for a couple of meals for 3–4
lemon juice 100ml, 2–3 lemons
extra virgin olive oil 150ml
garlic cloves 3 peeled and crushed
sea salt 1 tsp
Combine all the ingredients in an airtight container and shake before use. Store in a cool place.
