Outdoor Cooking
By Sidonie Maroon, Culinary Educator at The Food Co-op, Abluedotkitchen.com
Already, as a ten-year-old Girl Scout, I had a fascination for kitchen organization and teamwork. Little dumpling that I was — on camping trips I hung close to the food and was more interested in making the morning eggs than kayaking.
I have clear memories of helping, as our leaders gave orders and we set camp up on red clay beneath Ponderosa Pines. I loved everything about our makeshift kitchen — the boxes of supplies labeled for separate meals; the coolers packed with eggs, cheeses, meats, and perhaps a few vegetables. Even as a child, I noticed the ducks in-a-row it took to cook outdoors. We had teams for preparing, eating, and cleaning up. We worked together, and the food always tastes better cooked outdoors.
Those women introduced us to cooking over fire, and I’ve realized since how much this ancient activity is a right-of-passage. There were so many important life lessons packed into a weekend outdoors. I would love to step back in time and thank them for their patience and ingenuity. They were amazing! Years of mothering and teaching have taught me to appreciate what went into those trips.
If you’re new to cooking outdoors, here are twelve tips to get you started
1. Sit down with a cup of coffee and plan: make a chart with dates and mealtimes including snacks. Picture how much time you want to spend cooking. Write out how you’ll delegate chores! Do a search for “one pot camp meals” and make a list of what sounds good.
2. Create a detailed shopping list. I break mine down into the store areas. Make a list of pantry staples to take.
3. Measure ingredients and pack items specific to each meal together. Use stackable containers to keep dry ingredients dry and wet ingredients from leaking.
4. Freeze your meat. It will keep longer, and lower the temperature of your cooler. Bring a frozen stew to warm up for the first night.
5. Prep. most food at home. It’ll save you time, mess and energy once you get to camp.
6. Think through what cookware to bring. Only bring what you’ll need. Cast iron is great for camping.
7. Heat your dishwater while you eat. I keep a large pump-pot filled with hot water for cleaning up as I go.
8. Prepare and cut messy food on parchment paper. It’s easy to roll up and toss in the fire.
9. Make block ice in gallon milk jugs. The method will also keep your cooler dry. If you do use block ice, put it in a container so it doesn’t leak into the rest of the cooler.
10. Organize your coolers by meals. I dedicate one cooler to breakfast, because it saves a lot of rooting around.
11. Keep a binder of easy camp meals with ingredient lists and notes, so you’re ready to go for next time. Review what worked when you get home.
12. Prepare for bugs, darkness, wet, heat and cold and people. Oh, and have fun and don’t forget a can opener.
Please be aware of the Burn Ban in our area when cooking outdoors and be safe!
EFFECTIVE July 2, 2021 – AND UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, a burn ban will be in effect for all outdoor burning, INCLUDING RECREATIONAL FIRES, PITS AND THE USE OF CHARCOAL BRIQUETTES.
Contact the East Jefferson Fire Rescue for details. 360 385-2626
Sweet Potato and Cashew Camp Stew
African Inspired
Serves 4 (makes 6 cups)
EASY and YUMMY
30 minutes cooking plus initial prep. time
Ingredients
Saute
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ginger paste
2 cups sweet potato, cut into ¼ inch cubes
Broth
2 cups zucchini, cut lengthwise into quarters, and then into ½ inch thick slices
2 cups water
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 15-ounce can drained)
Spice Mix
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Finish
½ cup creamy cashew or peanut butter
¼ cup lime juice or as needed
Directions
Read through the recipe and visualize cooking in camp conditions. Make a list of all the tools and equipment you’ll need as you imagine your way through the process.
1) Cut up the veggies to store in separate containers in your cooler.
2) Prepare and store spices in a baggie. Put other ingredients in a box and label. Don’t forget a can opener.
3) Use a large skillet with a lid or Dutch oven.
4) When your pan is medium hot, add the oil, then onions. Saute for 8 minutes. Add the ginger paste and garlic; saute another 3 minutes.
5) Add the water, tomato paste, spices, sweet potato and zucchini. Cover with a lid and simmer until the sweet potato is tender, and zucchini is soft but not mushy. (You may want to add the zucchini a few minutes after the sweet potatoes to keep them al dente. It’s up to you.)
6) When the veggies are cooked, stir in the chickpeas and cashew butter. Taste and add the lime juice before serving.
Extra Chickpea Recipes
Spice Mix for 1 gallon Indian Curried Chickpeas
1 gallon or 16 cups cooked chickpeas = 6.5 cups dried = 32 (½ cup servings)
Quick Version
6 tablespoons onion powder
3 tablespoons ancho chili powder
3 tablespoons sweet paprika
3 tablespoons whole cumin seeds, toasted and ground
3 tablespoons whole coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon ginger powder
1 tablespoon tamarind powder
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons ground black pepper
2 ¼ teaspoons cardamom powder
1 teaspoon allspice powder
3 bay leaves ground
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Spicy Chickpeas with Roasted Carrots
Serves 2 with leftover chickpeas in chili sauce
1 hour
This is what a good potluck dish, or easy supper, should taste like. No bland flavors here. It’s spicy, sweet, salty and sour with Persian spices. A low stress dish that uses the Instant Pot and oven to do the cooking while you make a simple dressing and chop parsley. The extra chickpeas in chili sauce are good in their own right and will make another tasty meal.
Ingredients
For Instant Pot chickpeas, (the recipe makes twice as many chickpeas with sauce as needed)
2 cups dried chickpeas
1 dried pasilla chili
6 cloves garlic, with inner growing stem removed and minced
2 tablespoons fresh turmeric, minced or 1 teaspoon dried
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 quart water
For Roasted Carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 medium carrots, washed and thinly cut on the diagonal
1 medium onion, cut in half stem to root and thinly sliced
All of the spice mix
Spice Mix
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon black peppercorns
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon desiccated cardamom or 3 green cardamom pods with hull removed
½ teaspoon, fine sea salt
Dressing
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh Myers lemon juice
1 tablespoon raw runny honey
½ cup chopped parsley
Directions
1. Using an Instant Pot, add 2 cups of dried chickpeas, chili, garlic, turmeric, salt and 1 quart of water. Check the Instant Pot seal and put the lid on. Set to high pressure for 45 minutes with a natural release.
2. Preheat the oven for 425 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Prepare the carrots and onions and lay them on the baking sheet. Measure and grind the spices together using a spice or coffee grinder. Rub the vegetables with the olive oil and spice mix. Roast them, on a middle rack, for 20 minutes, stir and roast for another 15 minutes or until sweet and flavorful.
3. While the vegetables roast make the dressing, measure out the olive oil, lemon juice and honey into a small bowl and whisk together. Chop the parsley and set aside.
4. After the chickpeas have naturally released, strain them into a colander over a wok bowl keeping the liquid.
5. Make the chili sauce by adding the liquid and chili, with its top removed, to a high-speed blender and pureeing until smooth. Add the chili sauce and chickpeas to the work bowl and stir.
6. When the carrots and onions have finished roasting, add half of the chickpeas with sauce to a serving bowl, add the roasted vegetables and dressing. Fold together with ½ of the parsley. Add the remaining parsley to the top and serve.
Save the extra chickpeas and sauce for another meal.
Tunisian Spiced Chickpea and Zucchini Casserole
Recipe In Three Parts
Part One: Slow Cooking The Chickpeas
Ingredients
2 cups dried chickpeas
4 dried New Mexican chilies
5 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
Fresh water for soaking and then cooking
Instructions
1. Soak the chickpeas overnight covered by 2 inches of water
2. Next day drain chickpeas, cover with fresh water in a medium pot, bring to the boil straining off any foam, let cook at a high simmer for 10 minutes.
3. In a slow cooker, put dried chilies, garlic, and 1 teaspoon sea salt. Add chickpeas after the 10 minute high simmer.
4. Set slow cooker to high and cook for 4 hours.
Part Two: Roasting The Vegetables
Ingredients
1 ½ lbs (610g) summer squash-yellow is lovely, green is great. Cut in a large square dice
2 medium onions (484g) halved and sliced thin
3 large red sweet peppers (281g) cut into matchsticks
3 tablespoons fresh minced garlic (46g)
2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger (22g)
¼ cup olive oil
Sea salt
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 450F (232C) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Slice, dice and mince all vegetables--I mince garlic and ginger together in a food processor.
3. Massage olive oil into veggies, sprinkle with salt
4. Roast for 20 minutes, stir and roast another 15 minutes until sweet and melty.
Part Three: Spicy sauce and Finishing
Ingredients
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 ½ teaspoons whole caraway ground
1 teaspoon whole coriander seed ground
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns ground
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons high mineral sugar
¼ cup sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon hot chili sauce
Pureed and strained N.M. chilies from chickpea cooking
Instructions
1. Measure out all ground spices
2. Measure and grind all whole spices in a spice grinder and sift through a mesh strainer
3. Puree the chilies from the cooked chickpeas with about a cup of the chickpea water. Put the puree through a food mill into a large bowl
4. Add ground spices, vinegar, sugar, salt, chili sauce to the chili puree
5. In a heavy bottomed pan, I use cast iron, set on medium heat combine the chickpeas, and sauce and reduce until thick, about 6-8 minutes stirring occasionally. The flavors should meld and vinegar’s harshness cook off.
6. Correct chickpeas and sauce for salt. The taste should be a beautiful balance of sweet, spice, heat and sour. Sometimes a bit more salt will bring out the right balance.
7. Layer the saucy chickpeas with the roasted veggies ending with the colorful veggies on the top. Keep warm until served.
Serve with flatbreads, or roasted barley.
