Travel Food

Recipes for Wanderers

 

 

Creamy Campfire Chicken

500g Chicken thighs

1 x White onion

1 x Can of Cream of Chicken Soup

600ml (1 x large bottle) of thickened cream

1 x Zucchini

1 x Capsicum (any colour)

+ any other leftover vegetables you need to use!

 

This recipe warms the tummy like nothing else! After a long day of hiking, or fishing or simply lying beside a river and congratulating yourself on your excellent camping skills – this dish is almost too easy. Stun your new backpacking buddies at the hostel, or shut the hungry kids up at the end of the day.

Method: Dice the chicken thighs and brown in a large pot (a little olive oil wouldn’t go astray, but that depends on your resources). Throw in the can of chicken soup and the cream, and mix together with a spoon (or a stick, or a tent peg…whatever you’ve got at hand).

Dice the veggies, and chuck those in as well. Now, if you want to get really creative, you could add a pinch of paprika, some salt and pepper and Bob’s your creepy uncle: Wa-lah! Serve with rice, if it’s available, or eat as a humble chicken stew if it’s not. Either way, you’ll be licking your lips – and the bowl.

 

 

 

Damper

500g of self-raising flour

80g of butter (or oil, at a pinch)

Pinch of salt

1 cup of water

 

Damper, or ‘camp bread’ for the non-Australians of you out there, is an age-old way to ruin your carb-free diet for the day. We all know that cost and ease of cooking rank far higher than your diet regime when travelling. After all, you’ve got to replace those calories after all that hiking/swimming/walking/drinking you’ve been doing.

Method: In a bowl (or whatever kind of receptacle you have), mix all ingredients together. No need to knead the bejesus out of it, just combining will do. Grease some foil, wrap the dough up in it and throw onto your campfire for 15 – 20 minutes. Peel the foil back and give the bread a poke with your finger to see if it’s done yet – or simply wait until black smoke starts to arise from your tasty little parcel. Never mind the charcoal-like crust on the bottom of the bread once you’ve taken it off the fire – the blacker it is, the more authentic a camper you are! Smother with lashing of butter, if you’ve got some. Dip it into your Creamy Campfire Chicken too!

 

 

 

 

Cheap Ass Salad – Vegan Option!

1 x packet of almost-dead, ‘on special’ lettuce leaves

1 x cup of cous cous

1 x cup of water

1 x small tin of pineapple

1 x small tin of corn

1 x small tin of tuna (ditch the tuna and throw in some beans, for a vegan option!)

 

Ok, so every now and then you need a salad in your travelling life. There’s no need to hit up the local café and spend your rapidly-dwindling dollars eating inexplicably expensive kale and drinking the obligatory single-origin coffee for $6 a cup. This cheap and easy (your mamma is…) salad will put a smile on your dial, and keep your grumbly tummy happy too!

Method: Boil the water and pour over the cous cous in your camping mug/bowl/waterproof hiking boot. Cover with a plate, and while you wait for it to cook, empty your lettuce, pineapple, corn and tuna into a bowl. By the time you’ve done that, your cous cous will be ready – pour that over and stir to your heart’s content. Now go and sit with your Ernest Hemingway collection, under an old oak tree by a river and watch the world go by.

 

 

 

Corn Fritters and Bacon – Vegetarian Option! (Just kidding, bacon is magic!)

 

1 x cup of flour (self-raising or plain, whichever you can get your hands on)

1 x large tin of corn

¾ cup of milk

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

Bacon – as much as you want, or can afford

For serving: Some sour cream, a sprig of herbs, a dollop of yoghurt or whatever you find in the back of the communal refrigerator that looks as though it may once have been a dairy product.

If you’ve managed, miraculously, to not write yourself off the night before you might just have enough energy to whip up a batch of corn fritters for breakfast! Well done, you!

Method: Combine all ingredients in a bowl, then dollop in large spoonfuls into a hot pan and flip once they start to brown on the underside – you’ll only need a couple of minutes per side. Set aside your little discs of happiness, and chuck on your bacon. Cook it the way you like it, then serve it up with the fritters and give yourself a smug pat on the back!

 

 

 

Potato Skins with Savoury Mince and Cheese

1kg bag of washed potatoes

500g mince (choose your poison, beef, turkey or pork – or an unholy mixture of all three!)

1 x small tin of corn

2 x carrots, diced

1 x small tub of tomato paste

½ cup of water

Cheese – any kind, and lots of it.

 

Oh holy spaghetti monster, these are some tasty little devils! Impress the whole gang at the hostel or feed the hungry masses over the campfire – these are so easy to make, it’s almost cheating! (Cheating at what? Lazy cooking. Ok, so it’s not cheating, it’s simply clever. Something something cheese).

Method: Cut potatoes in half, and scoop out a little of the flesh (don’t go nuts, potato is awesome, you’re just removing enough to turn your spuds into little receptacles for even tastier stuffings). Chuck on a baking tray and into the oven at 180° celcius. If you’re camping, wrap in foil and throw over the fire or into your pot; either way, just cook them for a while at a reasonable heat. Next, brown the mince in a pan and throw in the rest of the ingredients. If you’ve got some extra veggies that you need to use up, because the idea of throwing away food makes you cry silent tears into your pillow, then chuck those in too. Pull out one of your spuds and ensure that it’s cooked through (should be soft enough to stick a fork in, without having to grunt). Spoon the mince mixture over each of your spuds, and then cover with cheese. Seriously, go nuts with the cheese, you deserve it. Pop back in the oven, under the grill for a few moments. Again, if you’re camping, you can simply pop in a pot and rest over the campfire – you really just want to melt the cheese a little. Then, huzzah, you’re done! Enjoy the magic!

 

 

 

Avo-Cheesy-Cados!

1 x avodaco

2 x eggs

Cheese of your choice

 

If you’re one of the few of us who can still afford avocados, or perhaps you find yourself in a country which is still blissfully ignorant of the global avo price scandal – this easy breakfast option is for you!

Method: Cut your avocado in half and remove the seed. Scoop out a little of the flesh from each half and dice up. Mix the flesh (mmmmm, flesh) with some grated or crumbled cheese of your choice, and pop back into the awaiting avocado halves. Finally, crack an egg carefully over each half and stick under a warm grill for a few minutes while the egg cooks. Just before it’s done, sprinkle over some more cheese (because why not?!) and once it’s melted over, you’re done! Enjoy the glorious union of avocado, cheese and egg!