I am limited to one pan and a burner when I camp. What would chefs recommend making?
Maxwell, by email
Happy campers need supplies, and Ryan Cole, executive chef and co-owner of Salsify at The Roundhouse in Camps Bay, South Africa, doesn’t mess about. “We have three square boxes: one dedicated to dry goods, one to oil, salt, pepper and utensils, and the third to camping toiletries; we also have a dual compartment fridge-freezer.”
Whatever your set-up, a considered mobile store-cupboard of spices, stock cubes, good oil, grains, pasta, tins of coconut milk and the like will really come into its own. Got tinned tomatoes? Make shakshuka for a campside breakfast. “We always take a lightly spiced onion relish and add that to tinned tomatoes for the base,” Cole says. Otherwise, he’ll use long-life or nut milk to whip up some breakfast pancakes: “That’s super-simple.”
Mitch Tonks, founder and CEO of Rockfish, is no stranger to confined cooking arrangements: “I live on a boat, so I’m used to limited space. That’s why I love one-pot dishes.” Pasta, he says, really suits this way of cooking. Ditalini, or other small, short tubes, with pancetta and peas, for example, will have you eating very well in the great outdoors – scout’s honour. “Put 75g pasta in a wide pan with a teaspoon of chicken powder or a quarter of a crumbled stock cube. Add cured smoked pancetta, tinned or frozen peas and a chopped tomato, then pour in 225ml water.” Simmer the lot for 10-15 minutes, until the pasta is cooked and the water has evaporated, then grate in some parmesan or stir in a tablespoon of mascarpone and eat.
Wholesome, hearty meals are a balm when you’re camping, Cole says. A favourite starts by dusting bony cuts of meat (lamb neck or oxtail, say) with flour, then caramelising them in oil: “Take them out, add onion, garlic and carrot, and sweat until soft. Return the meat to the pan, and cook for half an hour with some stock, water, wine, beer or whatever liquid you have floating around the campsite.” Tip in some new potatoes, then leave to bubble away gently for two or three hours while you shoot the breeze: “You can make that to feed one, two or 10, and there’s nothing better on a summer’s night. Or any night, really.”
It’s worth having snacks in your arsenal, too, says George Husband, co-founder of Gorka, the London-based pop-up: “Bring a zip-lock bag of 750g flour, two teaspoons of instant yeast [or even a premix bread flour from the supermarket] and a pinch of salt, then add water the night before you want to cook it, or even when you crawl out of your sleeping bag in the morning. You now have a flatbread dough that’s ready to fry.” Once cooked, slather the bread with butter and honey, and “that’s a great snack for hiking trips”.
And if your idea of a good time includes something sweeter, keep things simple with s’mores or thin millet pancakes, Cole says: “Do this in a pan that’s almost too hot, so the edges caramelise, then put in a couple of marshies and a bit of maple syrup.” Roll them up, squeeze over some lemon juice and job’s a good’un. But remember, he adds, less really is more when you’re in the countryside: “The more you take with you, the more you have to bring back!”