Amazing Camping Food?

[Hollywood]

What actually is IN SPAM?

Mean Girls..

 

[chinooktrail]

Hahahahahahahahaha!

Good one Hollywood!

 

[skiguy]

What actually is IN SPAM?

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_229.html

 

[MarshallM]

Pizza

Has anyone out there made pizza over a campfire?

Dutch ovens are great for this. Trust me, if i can do it, it can't be very difficult. Use the twiggy fire method as described above. Just be prepared for a possible feeding frenzy if you are not alone.

marshall

 

[NewHampshire]

Well, I picked up the Freezer Bag cooking book and Backpack Gourmet to add to the two Lip Smackin' Backpacking books Poison Ivy turned me on to. I must admit the two books proffer some ingenious ideas that take the Lipsmackin' concept even further. Very interested to try out some of the stuff!

Brian

 

[forestgnome]

Canned food is underrated. I eat asparagus and beets right out of the can. Take a good look at the canned vegatables and fruits and fish/meats next time you're at a large supermarket.

happy spring

 

[chinooktrail]

Skiguy, do you seriously eat SPAM?

I guess people must, because they still sell it...

Just brings back childhood nightmares of my grandmothers Spam, potato and Cambell's cream of 'whatever' casserole. (In all other respects she was the perfect grandmother, this was her one and only flaw.)

I found a few recipies for grilled pizza that I think I can adapt well to a campfire. That should be fun to try. If any of them work out I will post a recipe.

 

[DrewKnight]

Grilling pizza...

I was always somewhat mystified as to how exactly a grilling pizza would work (I mean, it takes 20 minutes in the oven to get the right balance of crisp crust and browned toppings, right?)... but I recently saw a cooking show that seemed to solve the mystery.

The trick, as this chef (apologize, I can't remember which one... Alton Brown? Bobby Flay?) described it, was to get the grill good and hot, stretch the dough very thin, corn-meal it so it slides easily, then grill it un-topped on one side. If I remember right, he turned it, grilled it on the other side to set it up, then removed it or flipped it and topped it. Obviously, all that flipping would be a lot easier on a home grill with a piel, but it the essence of the trick was grilling both sides at least some of the way before topping it.

This should be doable over campfire coals, if you have a good grill-grate and maybe a pair of tongs for turning. I would also guess that having along a pie-tin to top the 'za would speed the toppings along their way.

Having learned this trick, I am psyched to try grilled pizzas myself (probably cheating and using Trader Joe's whole-wheat pizza dough)... but that'll have to wait a few more weeks, as the gas grill is out the back door and surrounded by about 3 feet of densely-packed snow, and the kettle-grill is somewhere in storage this winter.

 

[skiguy]

Skiguy, do you seriously eat SPAM?

I guess people must, because they still sell it...

Just brings back childhood nightmares of my grandmothers Spam, potato and Cambell's cream of 'whatever' casserole. (In all other respects she was the perfect grandmother, this was her one and only flaw.)

I use to eat alot of it back in my Summer camp days. That was over 25 years ago and I donot eat it now but the residual physical effects are still apparrent. I've had some pretty funky Spam Dishes over the years but you could never make me eat your grandmother's casserole....let's just say just the thought of it gives me nightmares

 

[Nessmuk]

Skiguy, do you seriously eat SPAM?

I guess people must, because they still sell it...

Oh, you must never have been a scout. There's nothing like a slice of spam grilled on a forked stick over a campfire. But my favorite is "spam on a leaf". Just place a slice on a green leaf (maple preferred) directly upon hot campfire coals. Let sizzle for a bit, then turn over on another leaf to finish the other side - great flavor. Let the kids do the cooking themselves... they'll think there's nothing better (and they are right)!

 

[Nessmuk]

more spam

And then there's the famous Spam Haiku web page. Some of my favorites are:

Slaughterhouse product
The screams of a thousand pigs
Silent within you

Grotesque pinkish mass
In a blue can on a shelf
Quivering alone

Silken pig tofu
The color of spanked buttocks
Blushing at my knife

Leaves wither and fall,
Snow descends, then the spring thaw--
The SPAM is still fresh.

Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian

Born in World War Two
Hogs marching off to battle
Dressed in tin armor.

Twist, pull the sharp lid
Jerks and cuts me deeply but
Spam, aaah, my poultice.

Ears, snouts, and innards,
A homogenous mass
Pass another slice

The color of Spam
is natural as the sky:
A block of sunrise

Blue can of steel
what promise do you hold?
salt flesh so ripe

Fifty blocks of SPAM
A giant PEZ dispenser
Crowned with a pig's head

Perfection uncanned
Like a beautiful redhead
Fresh from her trailer

"Slow down," she whispered,
now guiding my trembling hands,
"Turn the key slowly."

Tastes like ham, sorta
But clogs up my aorta
Pig rigor morta

Pink as partridge eyes
But its vitreous humor
Is on the outside

Eating SPAM is like
Having two tongues in your mouth,
And swallowing one.

Cooked over mesquite,
SPAM enrobes the desert moon
In a fragrant stole.

Savory pink block,
Like a deer at a salt lick
I give you my tongue.

 

[skiguy]

Like forestgnome said canned food is underrated

 

[chinooktrail]

No, I never was a scout, but as I mentioned, I did have to eat SPAM as a child. And Devilwood ham. And Velveta. And a LOT of puffed rice cereal in very large plastic bags. And probably a lot of things that I have simply let out of my memory banks and refuse to allow them back in.

BUT, this is about REALLY GOOD YUMMY FOOD that you wouldn't expect to have while camping on an island in the middle of Lake Umbagog for the first week of July.

I will work on the pizza this week, fortunately my grill is on my screened porch, so unless the snowbanks cave it in, I should be ok.

I will also look around for a real dutch oven, that sounds like it could be fun.
And I will have to have a few bonfires in the back yard to practice with it.

 

[skiguy]

No, I never was a scout, but as I mentioned, I did have to eat SPAM as a child. And Devilwood ham. And Velveta.

Velveta...yuk.....Cheez wiz all the way; and don't forget the Ritz

 

[MarshallM]

Pesto Pizza link (sorry about the low resolution). I'm sure the real cooks out there could do a better job, but this particular pizza turned out to be very edible.

Twiggy fire link. Yes, coals are good to use with a dutch oven, but a small stick fire (or logs spit into small pieces) works too and will consume much less wood and no waiting for the coals to develop. You don't even necessarily develop any coals of consequence with a small cooking fire.

 

[Nessmuk]

Twiggy fire

Yup, a twiggy fire is the way to go. Any cook pan with a firm tight fitting cover will work. Using that same model pan in the photo I've baked pizza and a few gloriously thick and sweet wild blueberry pies (you need to bring a few scouts along to pick all the blueberries first).

 

[chinooktrail]

Hum, I don't have any scouts handy, but I do have a lot of OPK's around. (Other Peoples Kids)

They are used to doing my bidding in exchange for Mac and Cheese, Chicken Chili, and LOTS of baked good and cookies and even more FLEECE clothing!

Good kids, every one of them. Even the furry four pawed ones. Who also get fleece clothing...

So, I will have my own little Island Domain, I am really starting to like this whole vacation thing. I may have to make myself a tiarra for this event. And a small one for Geneva of course, the fuzzy little princess.

Does this mean I will have to have some whacko plan to take over the world though? Cause frankly, I don't want to have the world and all of its problems, I have enough of my own...

 

[MarshallM]

Using that same model pan in the photo I've baked pizza and a few gloriously thick and sweet wild blueberry pies (you need to bring a few scouts along to pick all the blueberries first).

Great to hear of young scouts experiencing the joys of traditional cooking over a campfire. The "thick and sweet wild blueberry pies" part sounds pretty good too!

 

[Solitary]

In Praise of Quinoa

Do you know about quinoa? It is a grain from South America. Few people have heard about it, yet I find it in regular old supermarkerts (e.g. Shaw's in Keene, NH). Unlike rice it is a complete protein (all nine essential amino acids) so you can eat it by itself (unlike beans and rice). Another difference from rice is that it only takes 12 minutes to prepare, making it a good trail food. When it is cooked it is still a little crunchy and chewy, and its taste is a little nutty. The seeds have a coating, called saponin, which protects the seeds from birds and UV radiation. The coating should be rinsed off or the quinoa will taste bitter. The brand I buy at Shaws, however, is prewashed and ready to go (Bob's Red Mill Organic Quinoa). Here's a recipe that I mix in my kitchen and put in a freezer bag, so I can just dump it into boiling water on the trail. I originally got the recipe from National Public Radio.

Quinoa Breakfast Porridge (4 servings or 2 hiker-sized portions)

1 cup quinoa, rinsed (unless you are using Bob's Red Mill which is prerinsed)
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup whole dried appricots
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Add to 2 cups boiling water. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed (about 12 minutes).

Of course, I've added other dried fruits instead of the appricots. I've also thrown in brown sugar, honey and dried milk if I have them.

 

[chinooktrail]

Yeah, Cooking Light magazine did a few articles on it over the last few years. I have not tried it myself yet. Too many grains still in my cupboard that need to get used up first!

But I know if you go to their website www.cookinglight.com they will have a lot of quinoa recipies!

I'll have to try it out!