Our Car Camping 101 segment on The Daily Refresh was such a big hit that they asked us to share some of our favorite campfire cooking tips!
Click the image to watch the segment now on The Daily Refresh (WTVC-TV, ABC television), then read on for more details and our favorite recipes.
Here are our top tips and gear to make campfire cooking a breeze:
Prep meals before you leave home. We like to do most of our mise en place at home, where we can mix marinades and stir up sauces using all the resources of our kitchen. That keeps us from having to carry around lots of fresh herbs, dried spices, vinegars, oils, and other ingredients, not to mention measuring cups, chef’s knives, and other tools.
We pack the prepped dishes in glass jars, leaving some empty space at the top so we can freeze them prior to our trip. The contents stay fresher longer, which means we don’t have to cook everything at the beginning of the trip, and the frozen contents help keep other items in the cooler cold longer, too.
Here are some of our favorite recipes for grilling:
Campfire Pork in a Jar
Hawai’ian Huli Huli Chicken
Greek Lamb Burgers
Argentinian Gaucho-Style Steak with Chimichurri Sauce
Greek Pork Souvlaki
Moroccan Kefta
Pack a pair of silicone grilling gloves. We use ours (get a similar set) for handling hot grill grates, moving cast iron cookware, repositioning burning logs and coals, and generally keeping ourselves safe when we’re cooking over live fire.
Use a “blow poke” to fuel the fire. Our favorite retractable pocket bellows allows you to keep your face safely away from the fire while you add air to fan the flame. You can also use it to gently shift logs and keep the fire burning bright.
Cook with cast iron. This time-honored material is made for cooking over an open flame! It distributes heat well, which can otherwise be challenging with live fire, and you can’t bang it up like you can when you’re traveling with thinner cookware. Our favorite — which we’ve lovingly nicknamed “Cookie” — is the Lodge Cook-It-All. Its multiple pieces and combinations can be used as a grill, griddle, wok, skillet, and even as a pizza oven. Well worth the investment if you’re an avid campsite cooker like we are!
Do you love to cook when you camp? We’d love to hear about your favorite tools and recipes!