cellio | camp cooking

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camp cooking

Dear LJ brain trust, help me figure out what to feed my camp-mates at Pennsic. :-)

We take turns cooking dinner for everybody, where "everybody" is around 25 people, give or take. Cooking facilities are propane-fueled stoves and grills; it's camping, so no electricity, and our camp doesn't build a firepit (especially this year when we'll probably be packed like sardines). We do also have a small propane oven, big enough to bake a dozen muffins, but I'm not sure what role it could play in dinner for twice that many people.

My night is late this year and I don't like to leave site once I'm there, so my usual of grilled fish (and/or grilled meat) doesn't work (I wouldn't trust either in a cooler for the better part of a week). We tend to be a meat-heavy camp, more than I'm used to eating, so I personally lean toward vegetarian (or fish, if that worked). We have a couple people in camp who are lactose-intolerant.

Dry goods (or canned) can obviously be stored for the week with no problem and there is a vegetable stand on site.

I prefer to make food that is period or plausible as opposed to modern.

Any suggestions? I'm currently thinking that something with chickpeas could provide protein, and I could have rice and grilled veggies, but can I improve on this?

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Rock soup. It's easy, it's delicious, it's nutritious, it can be stretched for more hungry people, and, of course, it's easy. Start with a big pot of water then add what you have. I like beef, if I have it, potatoes, carrots, celery, anything I have. And whatever spices I have to add some flavor. Flour if necessary to thicken the broth. Drat, now I'm hungry. Brb

Drat, now I'm hungry. Brb

Isn't it a little late where you live to be starting a pot of soup? :-)

Thanks for the suggestion! This is the sort of thing that can also tame leftovers from prior nights, too.

Late, aye, but I can whip up a pot of soup in about 30-45 minutes. Got it going now, in fact.

I was going to suggest the "using up leftovers" idea, too (which you know I like to do, though it requires being flexible and creative).

Also, remember that you can buy fruits and veggies on site, at the store next to the ice cream place in the food court.

Soup/stew is a fine idea, though I would probably add bread or crackers on the side (and you can buy "good" bread like Italian at the veggie stand, too).

Yes, planning to buy veggies on-site, and thanks for reminding me that I can get fruit and bread that way too. (I had given up on any decent bread for my meal because neither baking it on-site nor bringing it from home would work.

I know you like to use up leftovers and you have the last night for that purpose, but I suppose you won't mind if I use some of them earlier. :-)

Actually, I was pretty successful last year at making biscuits in the camp oven. You just need to allow a little time in advance since it is small, but really, you can fit two racks in it, so at least a dozen at a time means you would only have to do 4 iterations to have 2 rolls per person. I haven't tried making a more tradition risen bread dough in it yet but I was kind of thinking of trying that this year during Peace Week - making rolls instead of whole loaves because of the size.

My wife and I will be at war this year. Having been before, I now have a better idea of what to ask such that I might find you. What block are you in? With whom do you camp? I'll make a greater effort this year to make my way over to that somewhere at some point during War Week, unless we want to make more specific plans.

I'll be in N10 with Polyhymnia, a sub-camp of Debatable Lands. Look for the white house with the black "tile" roof. Where will you be camping?

(I'm planning to make a separate post in a few days to try to collect the "who's there when and where?" info from everyone I know.)

As it turns out we'll be camping in a hotel this year. Rebecca isn't yet sure that she's ready for a week of camping so the hotel was easiest. We'll be around from Sunday to Friday of War Week.

As a soup base, I use a veg broth and add chick pea flour as a thickener, flavor, and protein. It's too heavy for many nights.
Stir fry, meat added separately?
Spinach and feta dish, mushroom and fava dish, or lentil dish, with a whole grain and seasoning, served with a salad?

Ooh, never thought of thickening with chickpea flour. (Err, do you render your own flour, or buy that somewhere, or what?)

And thanks for reminding me of lentils -- one of my favorites but Dani doesn't like them so I rarely cook them.

Bob's Red Mill, a health food store brand, sells it for about $4 per pound, which is quite a lot. I use perhaps a cup per gallon to make a soup quite thick.
I boil it til it "blops", to be certain the pease are properly cooked.

Lentils can be a delight, and work in so many kinds of dishes. A cold day or a warm one can benefit. Lentils and rice in a vinaigrette with dried cherries is very pleasant on a hot day, while a lentil onion soup with a coarse bread is about the nicest thing to come to camp for on a cold miserable day.

Glad to be of service!

I thickened my chili two days ago with chickpea flour. Excellent consistency and taste.

You can find chickpea flour in Indian groceries. They use it for a lot of different things.

I've also seen chickpea flour at Whole Foods.

Chickpea soup, with harissa, to spice it up a bit. Serve with flatbread. Aubergine/eggplant/moutabal. More flatbread. Cauliflower with tahini and pomegranate molasses - steam the cauliflower, and then mix it up with the tahini and seasonings, dribble with molasses. Cous cous.

Or, pasta, with smoked fish and/or tomato sauce. Can't go wrong with pasta.

I think you'd just need big pots and a stove to make all these things. But I'm not sure what period requirements entail, so disregard if none of this fits the bill.

Thanks! Good ideas; I'd forgotten about smoked fish. Tell me more about pomegranate molasses? I've never heard of that. Where might I find it?

Pomegranate molasses is boiled-down pomegranate juice, I believe; I've found it here in Middle Eastern food stores, and in funky co-op type groceries.

Sorry, lj was down for about 8000 years. I use pomegranate molasses because yotam ottolenghi tells me to - I get most of my veggie recipes from him, because he does the recipe page in the paper I read at the weekends. Google him, he has lush recipes.

As far as I know, it's just down boiled down/concentrated pomegranate syrup. Often used in middle eastern food. I get mine from a halal butcher/grocery store round the corner.

Possibly something tagine-ish with nuts and dried fruit, with a couscous/rice/bulghur base and the chickpeas, plus black pepper and some sauteed onions?

Also, theoretically something like jerky or aged salami could last fairly well.

How about 'fridge' pickles, that should last well enough with cooler levels of coolification? They could be made at home, so you wouldn't have much to do on site.

Potato salad with other boiled root veggies (carrots, beets, etc), maybe hb eggs?

I was also going to suggest jerky as a side for those people who cannot stand a meal without meat.

Good point; there's still enough time to make jerky. Thanks.

Thank for the suggestions! Your tagine-ish dish sounds yummy; now I'm going to have to make something like that at home. :-) I don't have anything the right shape and big enough for 20+ people's worth of food; I wonder if pans on a covered grill could produce similar effects. Or maybe foil tents?

What are fridge pickles?

(Sorry for the tardy response; no LJ for me since Sunday.)

I don't have an official tagine; I just use big pots and try to time things appropriately so I only need one pot, if I can. Not sure what your set-up's like, so I don't know what to suggest for your camping. When I make something similar at Burning Man, I just do solar cooking...

Fridge pickles, as opposed to canned (shelf-stable) pickles: I've made them with cucumbers, dill, sweet onion, and garlic/garlic scapes, plus some black peppercorns in a jar, then pour a boiling brine of vinegar, salt, and water (Google for proportions) to fill the jar. Once it's cool, put in the fridge until you want to eat them. They do need to be kept cold, but it's not as nervous-making as raw poultry or something like that.

Vegetarian, lactose-intolerant AND camping. Don't make this easy on us. :)

Here's a slightly crazy idea -- breakfast for dinner.

Waffles are period. (This requires a camping waffle iron but that may not be too hard to find.) Maple syrup isn't period but powdered sugar is. Strawberries and sugar make a nice syrup too.

Pancakes are period too, if waffles are too difficult.

Eggs are period. (I am pretty sure you can get eggs at the store.) You could easily scramble these.

Frumenty is basically hot wheat/barley cereal in almond milk. You could add some fruit to this as well.

Just an idea. :)

Vegetarian, lactose-intolerant AND camping. Don't make this easy on us. :)

But surely nothing too hard for a cooking goddess. :-)

I like your crazy idea! Maybe that day I can get them to not make breakfast for breakfast. (There's no organized breakfast in camp, but people often cook and share.) Or just warn them. :-)

And hey, I could put vegetables in scrambled eggs, just like at home...

I personally would be happy to eat two breakfasts in one day. And have. :)

Oooh, vegetables in scrambled eggs. Yum.

Cheese and mushroom pies. If you make the pie shells on site, you know what's in them.

That might be hard on the lactose-intolerant folks, otherwise I could make quiches of various sorts at home and bring them up frozen. (I know ember-day tarts are very durable because I've done that before.)

http://cunnan.sca.org.au/upload/1/18/Pyes_de_pares.pdf

They are also reasonably successful if you make them with the following fillings:

* Lamb and rosemary. I actually don't use any rosemary in the pye, I make a rosemary tea and add it to the lamb while cooking. That gets the flavour without the crunchy bits.
* Beef and kidney.
* Chicken and mushroom.
* Egg, cheese and anchovy. Crack an egg into the pie base, and partially cook with the lid off. Top with a few bits of anchovy and some grated cheese, put on the lid, and cook to completion. Apicius has something similar (Romans seemed to be fond of anchovies).

I didn't know a coffin could keep a filling good for that long. Thanks for the tip!

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