Calling all campers. National Camping & Caravanning Week runs from 2nd to 8th June 2012. Even if you're not taking part in this, soon we'll have music festival season upon us with thousands taking to setting up tents and camping out for a few days. If you don't fancy queuing up for festival food or want something home made, Great British Chefs blogger Urvashi Roe (aka @BotanicalBaker) has some tips and recipes for barbecuing at camp sites.
Blog post and photography by Urvashi Roe
Camping is a new phenomenon for me. I prefer to sleep in a bed with a duvet and preferably have easy access to very, very clean toilets. However, last year my husband eased me into the world of camping gently. We stayed in a yurt with a proper bed and a password coded toilet block that had Molton Brown toiletries. It was rather nice. ‘I can do this camping lark’, I thought.
The next time we went, he packed a bucket. A regular looking metal bucket with a grille that looked suspiciously like the one from our old cooker.
Into this he added some charcoal, lit it and in half an hour we had a lovely fire cooling off ready to cook. He’d bought some mackerel fillets, red peppers, halloumi and prawns in the cool box along with some crusty bread and seasoning. We ate as the sun was going down and it was a glorious meal – made even more delicious by the wonderful smells.
Mackerel with Lemon and Foraged Herbs
Grilled Halloumi and Charred Red Peppers
The best bit was that everything was eaten from the grill and all the packaging thrown in the bin so we had nothing except the bucket to store that evening in the tent. No hassle and little mess.
Nowadays we go camping a lot. My daughters love it and although not as glamorous as the actual bed in the yurt, we have a blow up mattress and I still get my duvet! I still also get awesome BBQ food enjoyed in the beautiful, quiet countryside.
We’re a little more prepared packing simple food that can be eaten by hand.
Tomato, Watercress and Mozzarella Frittata – cooked at home and eaten cold at campsite or you can warm it up on the BBQ if it’s wrapped in foil.
Sweet Potato Hummus and some simple soda bread – made in less that an hour in the morning or the night before. Easy to carry and quick to eat.
A few tips for those of you inspired to have a go…
1. A little planning goes a long way. Sounds simple but plan your meals so you have enough to fill you up otherwise you’ll be heading out to the nearest pub for some late night grub.
2. Prep as much as possible at home. Again simple but do things like filleting the fish or chopping the veg at home when you’re packing. Chopped food takes up less space and there’s no need for taking kitchen utensils.
3. Pack come food that doesn’t need cooking on the BBQ too. If you try and cook everything on the BBQ you’ll be waiting ages for your meal.
4. Take lots of skewers and cocktail sticks. They come in so handy for picking food up and wrapping leaves around vegetables or fish.
5. Check you can put your impromptu bucket in front of your tent. Some campsites need you to use a specific BBQ area or raise your BBQ bucket off the ground using bricks so as not to scorch the grass. We usually keep two bricks in the car just in case.
6. Buy local. We usually take enough food for the first couple of meals and then have a little rummage around the local farm shops. It supports the local community and gets you out meeting new people.
7. Forage. As long as you follow the foraging code of conduct, there is lots of delicious free food to be had! We wrapped these Prawns in Wild Garlic Leaves. They were amazing!
I hope I’ve tempted you to have a go!
Blog post and photography by Urvashi Roe
Let us know some of the dishes that you've made at camp sites or on caravanning holidays. Which are your family and friends' favourites? Share your camp site cookery stories on Great British Chefs' Facebook Page!
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