CAMPFIRE COOKING IN THE COLD

Not to be too corny about it but I recently had a pretty major craving to spend some time outdoors and wake up in a tent. In this post, Here are a few things I enjoyed about my one chilly night camping in Hertfordshire - mostly the food.

Everyone put in some decent effort ahead of time to make sure we only ate deliciously. Here are the things we cooked in order of my enjoyment.

Rotisserie Poussin Flatbreads with Naga butter.

Oh my god this was one the nicest things I have ever eaten ever ever.  A worthy focal point of the evening’s eating.

Will brought a spit and cooked four birds for about two hours over the camp fire. The fat rendering and dripping down onto the coals lent a little lick of fire without being full on Traeger level smoke fest.

He had also pre-prepared some dough using some kind of yoghurt drink. We rolled those out with a bottle of Rioja, brushed with oil then slammed it down on the plancha set on some bricks above the fire.

Once cooked, a hearty slab of very spicy butter went down before an entire butchered bird filled the bread. My hands were absolutely covered in delicious poultry juice at this point so I didn’t snap a photo.

It took about two hours to cook so I was fairly well appetited but the time it came to eat. Imagine the best chicken kebab you’ve ever eaten after the perfect amount of alcohol and you’ll get somewhere close to my enjoyment of this sandwich. Unbelievable effort from Will.

Iberico Secreto with Lemon Pepper

We had this for lunch the next day. No side dish. No sauce. Just pork.

The secreto is a thin fatty muscle taken from the shoulder. It’s a bit like skirt or bavette steak but of the piggy.

We cooked it on the chimney topper directly over the embers for about 5 minutes total then sliced it up against the grain.

Oh my fatty lard in heaven that was a tasty morsel. Slightly nutty and intensely porky but without that almost pissy flavour you sometimes get from supermarket pork.

Sausage and Egg Baguette

This doesn’t really need much of a description other than to say it was very welcome after a night on the terps.

Also it was fun frying eggs on a ripping hot plancha with only two butter knives for manoeuvring.

Tender Stem Broccoli with Anchovy Butter

Very simply cooked on a grill over the fire and dipped in some melted anchovy butter. Great veg finger food that isn’t corn on the cob.

The Unseasonable Cold

Sure I woke up with cold feet. Sure Marcus took bricks warmed in the fire into his tent because he packed the most threadbare sleeping bag in existence. Sure we burned all the wood we thought we’d need for the weekend in the first night.

But things being less than perfect are what makes camping fun. I also had the foresight to bring a hot water bottle which I cannot recommend highly enough.

Hammerschlagen

Grab some big nails, find a nice tall log and get to playing this ridiculous game. We used the back of a hatchet and the forfeit was drinking heartily from a bottle of Makers Mark while everyone else shouts ‘Meet your maker!’ in a Scottish accent for some reason.

I am absolutely shit at this game which goes some way to explain gin how I fell asleep in my camp chair.

Fun fact: Chris the blacksmith is so good at this game that in a recent contest he was only allowed to use only his left hand. Pretty sure I still lost.

Lessons Learned

• I don’t go camping nearly as often as I should considering how much I enjoy it.
• Having a pre-packed camping box is the future. While I do like the build up of planning and packing everything, time is always at a premium. Having a bug-out box ready to throw in the car full of things you will definately need would be great. I might do a video detailing it.
• Lee Valley Almost Wild campsite is good if you’re looking for somewhere close to London that still feels fairly secluded.