UPDATED FOR THE 2024 SEASON
Overview
We have written this blog to give our followers some inspiration and ideas on camping food recipes, whether you are an explorer or family camper, we hope our cook book will inspire you for the season ahead.
CAMPFIRE SCRAMBLED EGGS
Eggs Water Clarified Butter We know what you're thinking, 'everyone makes scrambled eggs; this isn't special.' But hear me out. Most scrambled eggs that people make are lifeless, bland mounds of disappointment and regret. Especially the eggs that are made when camping. But when you master this recipe sublime, cloud-like eggs will be your reward.
Usually we would be using simple non-salted stick butter, but not everyone will have a cooler or a refrigerator that can fit 'extras' like butter. Clarified butter will do what we need, but if you can bring stick butter, use that instead. As you can see, I only listed 3 ingredients without any amounts. That's because it depends on how much you are making. The ratio is this : for each egg add 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of butter (clarified or not).
Add your ingredients to a sauce pan. Yes, a sauce pan. A pot. Not a frying pan like you're probably used to. I like to leave the egg yolks unbroken at first. If one breaks while cracking, that's fine. Start off away from the fire and just stir, getting the egg whites and water to mix. Then put the pot over the fire. Once the eggs start to get warm you can break the yolks and get the eggs all mixed together. At this point the butter should start to melt, too. Once the butter is melting take the pan off the heat and keep stirring. You want to keep taking the eggs off the heat and then back on. We're looking for a slow warm that barely cooks the eggs and allows the butter to melt, but nothing more. It's usually going to be a routine of 30 seconds over the fire, 15 seconds off. Once the butter is completely melted and mixed together you can leave the eggs on the fire a little bit longer. Keep stirring until your eggs just come together. Your eggs will not seem done, and they aren't. But take it off the heat anyway. The residual heat in the pan will take your eggs to perfection. Oh, by the way, you can cook yours eggs at home like this, too.
POTATO AND EGG SCRAMBLE
2 Diced Medium Potatoes 8 Eggs, stirred 1 Chopped Onion 2 Chopped Peppers (your choice) 2 Tablespoons Butter This wholesome breakfast is an easy camping meal and a great way to start the day. It cooks up in one pan and serves about four.
First, add 1 Tablespoon of Butter into your cast iron pan and put it over your fire. Melt it and spread it around.
Second, add the Potatoes, Onions, and Peppers. I like the Potatoes to be in chunks and for the Onion and Peppers to be chopped, but it's your choice. Cooked these until the Potatoes are tender and the Onions and Peppers are nice and cooked. It takes about 20 minutes, but it depends on your fire.
Third, add the next Tablespoon of Butter and, once it's melted, add the Eggs. The Eggs will fill all the spaces in between the Potatoes, Peppers, and Onions. But to ensure even cooking time, cover the pan with lid or tin foil and let it cook until the eggs are nice and ready, about 4 minutes.
FARMERS BREAKFAST
tbsp olive
or rapeseed oil
3-4 rosemary sprigs
6 chipolatas
12 small cooking chorizo, halved
6 good-quality smoked hot dog sausages, cut into large chunks
2 onions
chopped
500ml carton passata
300g good quality BBQ sauce (we used Stokes)
2 x 400g cans borlotti beans, drained
2 x 400g cans haricot beans, drained
8-10 eggs
toast, to serve
Heat the oil in a large paella pan (ours was 45cm). Add the rosemary and sizzle for a minute or 2, then scoop it out to a plate and set aside. Add the chipolatas and brown all over, push to one side of the pan and add the other sausages. Cook for a few mins until the chorizo starts to release some of its oil, then push these aside too. Add the onions and cook until soft, about 8 mins.
Add the passata, BBQ sauce and some seasoning, bring to a simmer and bubble for a few mins, then stir in the beans and bring everything back to a bubble.
Using the back of a spoon, create little spaces in the beans and crack in the eggs, dotting them over the surface. Cover the pan with foil and cook gently for 10 mins or until the eggs are cooked to your liking. Top with the rosemary and serve with buttered toast and mugs of tea.
Breakfast Burritos
Cook up some bacon and scrambled egg and add to a tortilla wrap for a tasty, hand-held breakfast burrito. Using ingredients already in your camping kitchen, the breakfast burrito is a quick and creative way to provide the first meal of the day.
Porridge
Packed with carbs and fibre and loaded with vitamins and minerals, porridge is an excellent fuel food that will set you up nicely for the day when camping. With no cooking involved it’s convenient, and you can add almost anything to it for an extra burst of flavour. Trying stirring in some jam, honey or chocolate spread for a yummy camping breakfast!
Fruit Salad (with yoghurt)
From tin to bowl with a serving of yoghurt, a tinned fruit salad is a quick and tasty camping breakfast, plus you get one of your five a day. You can use fresh fruit, but tinned fruit keeps better when camping.
Cereals
The ‘go to’ camping breakfast, cereals come in a huge variety and it’s worth packing a few different types to have to hand in a breakfast emergency - i.e. when your food supply is running low. As a camping breakfast idea, you can break away from just adding milk to your cereals and try other toppings like yoghurt and fruit.
Croissants
Best to eat for breakfast in the earlier part of your camping adventure, croissants bring a continental touch to your camping breakfast. With no cooking involved, croissants are a quick and convenient breakfast to which you can add a multitude of fillings.
Breakfast Bagels
A quick breakfast option, bagels are great at the campsite or on the go if you’ve got an early start, plus you can add a variety of fillings for a great tasting breakfast.
A NEW KIND OF HOT DOG
8 Hot Dogs, Chopped 1 Small Onion, Chopped 8 Ounces Chili 3 Tablespoons Barbecue Sauce 12 Hot Dog Buns, gutted
This is a terrific twist on the old style kind of hot dog. These still have the same old Hot Dog flavour so kids will still love them, but now it comes with a few nice depths of flavour and sustenance so adults tend to like them, too.
Take all the ingredients, except the gutted Hot Dog Buns, and mix it in a bowl. Lay out each Hot Dog bun on its own sheet of tin foil. Fill the Buns with the mixture and then wrap the tin foil so the whole thing is sealed. You can grill these over a flame for about 20 minutes. Or you can put them deep in coals and cook them for 15 minutes. Timing obviously depends on how much heat your packing, but we're just looking to cook the Hot Dogs all the way through.
DOUBLE BAKED POTATO BOAT
3 Baked Potatoes 9 Strips of Bacon, cooked Cooked Ham Sharp Cheddar Cheese Stick of Butter This recipes uses a lot of leftovers and turns them into a great meal! Take 3 Baked Potatoes and cut them each 5 times. Do not cut them all the way through, we want 6 equally sized segments across the potato. In each Segment add a small piece of bacon, ham, and the cheese.
Lay each potato out on its own piece of tin foil. Put a little bit of butter on the tops of each potato and spread it around. Seal up the potato in the Tin Foil, find a hot spot in your grill or fire, and cook for about 20 minutes. Make sure you count the number of Potatoes going in and coming out, as they tend to look a lot like darkened coals.
GRILLED SWEET POTATO FRIES
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil 1 Clove of Garlic, Chopped 1 Teaspoon Chili Powder 1 Packet of Ranch Dry Mix
Wash the Sweet Potatoes and dry them. Then cut them in lengthwise strips, about 1/3 an inch wide on each side, so they look like fries. The important thing is that they are uniform so they can cook up at the same time. If you wanted to produce a crispier Fry, and you have the time, soak the fries in water for 30 minutes and then let drain for an hour before continuing. If not, that's fine, they'll still be delicious.
Take all the ingredients and mix them in a bowl. We want an even coverage of all the tasty spices and the dry mix. Lay these fries out on a piece of tin foil that's over a sheet pan. Place the pan on a grate over an open fire or on the middle rack of a grill. We're looking to cook the potatoes and make the outsides nice and crispy. Depending on your heat you want about ten minutes a side, flipping once.
BEER LIGHTLY FRIED FISH FILLETS
1 Pound Fish Fillets, One half pound per person, serves two
1 Cup Buttermilk Pancake Mix
1 Cup Beer
1 Cup Flour
¼ Cup Cooking Oil First step is to open the beer and take a sip. We want the Oil to be nice and hot right when we have finished preparing our Fish Fillets, so we should heat that up now. Nice job! Take another sip of beer!
We need our Fish Fillets to be cleaned and dried. You COULD buy these Fish Fillets from a store, but hopefully you caught, skinned, cleaned, de-boned, and dried them yourself (because I can't do that). Anyway, take your Fish Fillets and dredge them in the Flour. We want just an even coating of flour all over the fish. Take another sip.
Now we want to mix the Pancake mix and about ¾ Cup of beer together. The rest of the beer is for you. Mix it with a fork until it is smooth. Now we want to take our floured Fish Fillets and dip them in the Batter. Again, we want an even coating.
Put these Fish Fillets into the oil and cook until the outside is Golden, Brown, and Delicious. Once the outside is done the inside should be nice, moist, and shiny. Only cook two at a time as over crowding the pan when frying is a big No-No.
Once they are all done (and you ate the first Lightly Fried Fish Fillet just to make sure it was done and then finished the beer) let them drain a little bit on a paper towel. After that you can sprinkle a little dill, pepper, or lemon on them, but that's not really needed. They are pretty perfect just the way they are.
BACON, BEEF, AND BEANS CASSEROLE
¾ Pound Bacon ¾ Pound Ground Beef 20 Ounces Canned Baked Beans ½ Cup Steak Sauce or Barbecue Sauce 1 Can of Biscuits This tasty and filling Dinner is just perfect for cold evenings. Grill up the bacon in a skillet at medium heat. Once done remove it from heat, drain, and chop. Now cook the Ground beef until it is just done. Add the chopped Bacon, Baked Beans, and Sauce to the skillet. Stir this until it becomes well mixed and comes to a boil. Take it off of direct fire (think low to medium heat) and layer out the biscuits on top of the Meat and Bean mixture. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the biscuits are golden, brown, and delicious.
BIG GLAMPERS BURRITO
This is a great big breakfast. In this recipe we'll be putting the ingredients in a burrito, but it can be just as tasty served on a plate. You will need: 1 bag of frozen hash browns (or 26 ounces of home made hash browns) 16 ounces bacon 1 medium onion diced 1 medium pepper diced 12 eggs 2 cups shredded cheese 6 wraps For cooking you will need a cast iron pan, a lid, and a spatula. Because all of this is happening in one pan, over the fire, the kids can help add the ingredients to the pan as you cook it. They get to see these foods change with heat and time. To make this recipe a little simpler with more control, bust out your Eureka! camp stove. With a camping stove you will be able to more easily control the heat and grill up everything quickly. Teaching your kids about camping stove safety is another great lesson that they can benefit from for the rest of their camping life. Now on to the cooking... Start off by cooking your bacon. You can do sausage if you want, instead. Cook until the bacon is just done, do not over cook it. Remove the bacon but leave in the tasty grease. Now add the hash browns and cook until they are nice and brown. Because you are cooking on a cast iron pan over a direct fire you need the potatoes to crisp up before you toss them around or they will stick too much. Cook for five minutes before flipping. Once the potatoes are done you can add the chopped peppers and onions. You'll only need to cook them for a few minutes. As that is cooking you want to mix your 12 eggs. If you want, you can add a splash of milk or water, but i don't think it needs it. Crumble the bacon and add it back into the pan. Now add the eggs. Don't over mix, just make sure the eggs don't stick. Once the eggs are almost done, add cheese on top and put the lid on. Let the residual heat finish cooking the eggs. As the eggs finish cooking, add some wraps to any warm place near the fire. We don't want direct heat, we just want to warm them up to make folding them easier. Add the eggs to the wrap and serve! Salsa, hot sauce, and sour cream are all good extras to add.
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