Eat well, camp well!

Going camping? You can still eat like kings!

I am no camping expert, but I have just returned from an European road trip with my partner where we camped in various countries in Europe including France, Italy & Switzerland.  I found cooking outdoors a really exciting experience, which gave me the opportunity to buy cheap, fresh produce from local markets enabling us to eat like kings in some very otherwise expensive places.

Camping can be exhausting if you do it for a couple of weeks, and so eating well is really important. You really don't have to eat crap or heavily processed foods just to keep things easy. Having said this, you can create wonders from some tinned food, especially fish, which I will try and show you in this blog. 

All recipes shown are for 2 people and i rarely give detailed quantities when it comes to ingredients. You really don't want to be fussing around with measurements, so go on, just chuck it in!

Spicy Sausage with Pasta and Red Pesto

Ingredients:
Red pesto with chilli
Pasta
1 onion
Smoked pork sausage (pre-cooked pack)
Dried Italian cheese
Salt + pepper to taste



Boil some water in the pan, add a little salt and the pasta.
In the frying pan, add a glug of olive oil and fry the onions and diced sausages until the onions have softened.
When the pasta is ready, drain.
Add the pesto, smoked sausage and onions in with the pasta and mix well.
Serve immediately and sprinkle with some dried Italian cheese.
Serve with a nice bottle of local red wine.

Chicken in White Wine and Tarragon served on a bed of Spinach.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts 

4 whole carrots

Lemon + coriander couscous

1 onion (chopped)

2 garlic cloves (chopped)

2 glasses dry white wine

Spinach

Slice of Lemon

Butter

Dried tarragon
Dried Thyme

Salt + pepper to tase

Heat the frying pan and add a glug of olive oil.

Add a tablespoon of butter.

Add a good sprinkling of tarragon and thyme

Add the chicken and fry for a few minutes.

Stir in the garlic and onions for a few minutes

Add the wine, squeeze of lemon and whole carrots.

Cook all the ingredients for around 25 minutes.

While this is cooking away, make the couscous in a separate pot. Just follow the simple instructions at the back of the packet, it will cook in 2 minutes. 

In another pot, melt knob of butter, then add some garlic and fry until soft. Add the spinach until it wilts in the pan and give it a good stir. This should take about 3 minutes.

When the chicken is cooked through and the carrots have softened check the taste of the sauce and add more herbs, butter, lemon or wine to taste. 

Serve the chicken on a bed of spinach. Accompany with carrots and cowscous and cover the chicken with any remaining juices/sauce from the pan.

Serve with a local dry white wine.

The fresh ingredients for the above meal were bought in Morges Market near Lake Geneva, Switzerland which took place every wednesday and Saturday.

Spicy Chorizo + Potato stew served with French bread

Olive oil

1/2 chorizo sausage, sliced or diced

1 tin potatoes

1 onion (chopped))

1 garlic clove

1 red chilli (chopped)

1 tin chopped tomatoes 

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

2 glasses red wine

1 French baguette

Salt + pepper

Heat some olive oil in the pan.

Add chorizo, and onions and fry until onions are soft and chorizo has browned a little.

Add garlic, oregano, basil and chilli and continue frying for 2 minutes until the flavours are released.

Add the red wine, tomato puree and stir.

Add the potatoes and stir.

Add chopped tomatoes and sprinkle a little salt and pepper

Simmer the pot for around 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Keep tasting and add herbs, puree or wine to taste.

Serve with French baguette to tear and share!

Spaghetti Carbonara

Ingredients                                                           
Spaghetti
Chopped Ham, bacon or pancetta
1 egg
1 garlic clove (minced or chopped)
Olive oil
Dried Italian Cheese
Salt + pepper

Cook the spaghetti in a pot of boiling water and a pinch of salt.
In the frying pan, heat some olive oil
Add bacon and cook until almost crispy
Add garlic for a further 2 minutes
lightly whisk 1 egg 
Drain the pasta
Add pasta to the bacon and garlic
Stir in the whisked egg
cook all the ingredients on a very low heat and mix well 
Serve immediately with a sprinkle of dried italian cheese and black pepper.


Mussels in escabeche and rich tomato sauce

                                                                                Ingredients
                                                                                    x 2 tin Mussels in escabeche sauce                  
(escabeche is a vinegary sauce loaded
 with herbs+spices!)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Tomato puree
white wine
                                                                                    Fresh bread

Heat the frying pan and add both tins of mussels in sauce
After about 2 minutes add a glass of white wine and stir
Add the tin of chopped tomatoes and a tsb of tomato puree
stir well and cook until the sauce becomes a rich red colour.
Serve with fresh bread 

This was one of the simplest, yet most delicious meals of the trip. It's easy to dismiss tinned fish a not being fresh or healthy. Do give this a try, you will be amazed how tasty and nutritious it is. You can also add chorizo.


Local cheese, Pate, bread and wine

Whilst travelling in countries in western Europe such as France, Italy and Switzerland, you would be mad not to try the local cheese, wine and bread. 

Local Pate         
 Selection of  local cheeses    
Local red wine
Fresh bread

Just get them all out on your camping table and enjoy gorging away in the beautiful outdoors!





Chicken + mushroom pasta cooked in white and red wine

Ingredients

Pasta
Chicken breasts diced (fresh and local)
Mushrooms
Thyme
tsb Mixed Italian herbs
tsb Dried Oregano
tsb Dried Basil
knob of butter
glug of Olive Oil
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
1 onion
Glass of white wine
Glass of red wine



Heat the pan and add the butter and oil.
Add the diced chicken
After a couple  of minutes, add all the herbs, mushrooms then onions and garlic
Cook until the aroma of the italian herbs is released.
Add the white and red wine
Stir and simmer for a good 20 minutes 
Add any ingredients to taste + salt and pepper.

While this is cooking, boil some water and cook the pasta in a separate pan.

Serve the chicken and mushroom over a bed of pasta.