Eating outdoors, especially over a fire, is a huge treat for many adventure fans. Here are seven tips to make the outdoors cooking experience a big success.
Plan your outdoors meals
Taking an entire kitchen cupboard worth of ingredients and thinking that you will “just decide what to whip up when you get there” is a big no, no.
Make a plan and structure what you are going to eat and when. This means you take exactly the ingredients you need , as well as all the right utensils. You’ll carry less with you and be sure oyu have everything to hand for a great outdoors feast.
Home prep before going
Cooking from scratch can be hard work when you do not have the right surfaces and sharp knives to hand so it’s a good idea to do some preparation in the comfort of your own kitchen before you leave. Added to this, nobody wants to be fiddling around with little jobs when everyone’s tired and hungry after a long walk or an afternoon messing about in boats or swimming.
Practice makes perfect
You can keep it really simply or try the meal at home first or get yourself on a cooking course before you try your prefect meal on a camping trip. Attempt to cook things using your camping equipment in your garden and see what you can and can’t do, then practise the meal so you are ready to do it more easily in the great outdoors.
Don’t be fussy
You may be the kind of person who wouldn’t touch canned goods at home and needs everything to be fresh… but packaged foods can be really useful when on a camping trip.
Keep it simple
Barbecued fish or kebabs of meat or veg are easy to cook and delicious. Add to this a quick salad or a home-prepared pasta or rice-based salad and you have a tasty meal. It’s the cooking and eating outdoors that makes the meal rather than trying to come u with something very complicated.
Bring a Plan B
Alternative heat sources are key when it comes to camping. You could start by learning how to build yourself a natural cooking source using what mother nature gives you. But if this doesn’t work, or it’s a wet day, you will need an alternative cooking source, such as a camping stove.
Invite good friends
Another vital ingredient of a great outdoors meal is to invite people who you know will love camping and being around a fire (or camping stove). The more the merrier!
