NEW! Now you can tune in here for your very own culinary tips, news, insights and thoughts direct from our kitchen. Learn more about some of your favorites and soon to be favorites on our menu, discover new recipes and stories we'll share and more in this fun, brand new featured section we call Notes from The Kitchen. Only at www.theoschophouse.com
Page 1, 2
Camping and Food; though simplicity is the name of the game here, you don't have to sacrifice amazing adventures in taste. Let's say you have signed on as official
camp chef.
Last month in part 1 we some covered things to consider before hitting the road. We set up a typical scenario, covered a few of the things getting ready
involved to prep and plan for a smooth camping food experience, covering some essentials in nutritional concerns, some basic foods that would be great choices and the
cookery involved.
This month in part 2 we're actually at the campsite or wilderness area you'll be in.
As camp chef you'll have assessed the situation and be arriving at your campsite area well prepared. Ideally you'll be walking in knowing how many days with how many people and how many meals are required. You'll have the recipes for each of these meals along with all the ingredients, cookery, supplies and utensils to easily make it happen. And you'll be ready for surprises, be able to improvise and have the ability to scale up or down to some degree if need be. Somewhat related, a cruise ship chef has these concerns and more to deal with, luckily you'll be dealing with a smaller scale of operations.
Simply, it's all about setting yourself up for optimum workflow out here, just as in your kitchen back home. With a storage area, prep area, cooking area, dining area, and trash area; even if you have limited room, remember, one of the keys to a successful camp kitchen is organizing and managing this space. Not such a big deal with two people and 3-6 meals for a weekend but a different story altogether for 75 meals during a week's period for 5 people, and that's what you've got. But don't worry, it's not difficult at all, it just involves some proactive thought for a few minutes, and you're done. You're here to have fun.
SETTING UP YOUR CAMP KITCHEN
OK, we've just arrived at the campsite, it's a beautiful afternoon and as you and your party of five get out and begin to stretch you look around. You can now see what you have to work with onsite as far as layout, cooking areas, things like extra picnic tables, etc. For this example let's say you have brought a separate tent for the kitchen area. You also see the campfire area you will be using with a nice picnic bench that comfortably seats six nearby. It's looking good. You can see that cooking and dining can be done outside and now look for a place to set up for storage and prep. After some thought as to layout, you have an area staked out and with some help you have your enclosed mesh kitchen tent set up in no time at all.Now before you begin to load all your kitchen items inside, as camp chef it might be a good time to take a moment and visualize how you can best make use of this space knowing what you've got. Chances are there will be a higher traffic area and a quieter area where you can work uninterrupted out of the way. Your storage, meal planning and prep area will have it's own separate items, the higher traffic area it's own items for everyone else. You might begin arranging with this in mind. Somehow the kitchen is usually the busiest room of the house.
Let's say in your kitchen tent you'll now have chosen one side to set up for your chef prep and storage area. The other side could be the higher traffic area with the items grabbed more often during the day by everyone else like drinks, snacks, etc. We could begin with the high traffic area. Ideally you'll have two coolers, one would be opened more often for the drinks and things needed to be chilled, let's put this there. You can add whatever else in the way of snacks, dining utensils, etc that would be getting accessed more often in this area in a separate storage container or bag or two. Ok, done for now there.
Tip: Once inside the coolers with ice, instead of plastic bags, contain all of your food items in a smaller plastic container with a snap-shut lid.
All of, say a certain kind of food, will then be located in one place and you won't have to deal with a bunch of plastic bags holding everything.
The container will also protect the food from getting wet or damaged. next >
Page 1, 2