CATERING

Camp chef tips – Different cooking methods for creating great camping meals

There are different cooking and preparation methods for creating delicious camping dishes—from light snacks to complete meals. Three of the popular methods are assembling, cooking over campfire, and one pot meals. Whether it is a no-cook meal or requires some cooking wares and a grill, the best and most complete line is still Camp Chef for your camping needs.

Assembling method

Assembling is one of the easiest methods for preparing a quick camping meal.  You don’t need to cook anything; just assemble the ingredients together, and voila you can have a complete meal, whether it is for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks. In assembling, all you need are containers, jars, baskets, and wrappers—no heavy cooking equipment.

While preparation is quick and easy, some assembling may require preparation beforehand in your home kitchen (such as chopping or placing ingredients in containers) even before setting out to go to camp, but most of the time you can prepare the meals in the camping site when you are already about to eat.

Some utensils you may need for assembling are knives, bowls, and makeshift chopping boards. Generally, there’s nothing you need that can’t be found in your handy multi-function pocket knife, and for mixing you can use your hands!

You can also bring with you some herbs and spices to make your meals more flavorful. If you’re feeling more adventurous and would really like to live the great outdoors, you can pick herbs along the way, during your hike (common herbs that grow in the wild are mint, thyme, oregano, lemon grass, and sage, depending on the area) but make sure that you know how to identify the herbs and are aware of the health and safety precautions.

Salads, sandwiches, and cold cuts are some of the simple dishes you can assemble in a jiffy.  

Healthy and delicious breakfast for camping that require little or no assembling are cereals, pre-packed power or breakfast bars, and fresh fruits. A healthy and delicious breakfast is fruits and sweetened yogurt.  Mix the fruits in a bowl, preferably strawberries, blueberries, pears, grapes, apples, oranges, and kiwi. 

Pour the sweetened yogurt over the mixed fruits. You can also sprinkle walnuts or almonds for more texture and flavor.      

For lunch and dinner, salads and sandwiches are best. Some easy-to-do salads are tomatoes, zucchinis, and cucumbers in oil and vinegar. You simply add salt and pepper to taste. This is a very refreshing dish, great for hot summer days.  Coleslaw is another refreshing salad that’s easy to assemble. Just combine together chopped cabbage, onions, and carrots then mix in a dressing of mayonnaise, celery seed, mustard, and a dash of salt, sugar, and pepper. 

Sandwiches that you can make in less than a minute are ham and cheese sandwiches, egg sandwiches (eggs need to be cooked at home and packed beforehand), cucumber and tuna sandwiches (using canned tuna), and cheese and tomato sandwiches. To add punch to your sandwiches, make use of the wide range of cold cuts available in the local deli or supermarket: salami, prosciutto, liverwurst, pastrami, and baloney among others. Cheeses are also available in small, easy-to-bring packs.

Cooking over campfire

Camping is never a complete experience without the campfire, and cooking over campfire is one of the best parts of this experience. In addition to the traditional hotdogs and marshmallows on a stick, other food items you can skewer and cook over campfire are vegetables (for healthier snacks), different kinds of sausages, barbecues, bread and biscuits, and some surprisingly delicious (possibly messy) desserts. Vegetables that you can put on skewers and cook over the campfire are bell peppers, eggplants, zucchinis, onions, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes, and corn. Rub some salt, pepper, and olive oil or butter, and a bit of herbs such as rosemary and thyme for flavor.

You can cook virtually any type of sausage over campfire. The best types of sausages to cook over campfire are Hungarian and German sausages such as bratwurst, frankfurters, rindswurst, bockwurst,  blargenwurst, and knackwurst. For barbecues, you can chop chicken, pork and beef into bite-sized pieces, skewer them, and cook them over the campfire.

Skewered fish (whole) also makes great campfire meals. Because most of these sausages are already well-flavored, there is no need to season or marinate them.  They go well with bread and biscuits which you can heat over the fire for more crunch and punch. You can also place the bread inside a cooking foil to prevent burning.

You can make more fun desserts and put a twist on the old marshmallows over campfire by roasting apples, chocolates, and brownies! Make sure that you cook it high above the fire and not directly—just high enough to melt them.

One Pot Meals

One pot meals are very popular outdoor dishes because of their practicality and wholesome goodness. One pot meals can also serve the entire family, making it ideal for camping and picnics. Stews and casseroles are some of the common one pot meals. One of the best and easiest ways to cook one pot meals outdoors are with the help of camp chef stoves. 

Anyone can cook a pot of stew. All you have to do is mix in all the ingredients in one big pot and wait for it to cook. You can stew any kind of meat—beef, poultry, game, fish, or seafood, as well as a number of vegetables including beans, potatoes, and cabbages. You can use water as your base and add bell peppers or tomatoes if you wish.

Cooking with beer, stock, and wine is also common. Seasonings and flavorings also depend on your taste but the basic is seasoning with salt and pepper.

When cooking stew, you need to cook in a low temperature (called simmering) to allow the flavors to combine and for the meat to become soft and succulent. 

Casseroles that are popular in camping are chili casseroles as well as tuna casseroles. For chili casseroles, you can mix together some hotdogs, beans, tomatoes, water, ground pork or ground beef (or both), cumin, cayenne, paprika and add some salt and pepper to taste.  Preparing tuna casseroles is also easy. All you need is to mix together tuna (from the can), cooked noodles, some peas (optional), and cream-of-mushroom soup (from the can too) in one big pot and put it inside the camp chef stove to cook.

For more information on Camping Supplies or coolers go to http://www.coolersforcamping.com

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