beach – The Art of Camping

Sardines stuffed with chermoula

Sardines are good value compared to other fish and their oil content makes them perfect for a spicy sauce and will help keep the flesh moist on the barbeque. Stopping fish from sticking on the grill can be a problem, but a light coating of oil on the skin and a fish holder will see you right. I make the Moroccan chermoula at home and take it camping with me in an airtight jar, where it will keep for a week.
fish-barbecue

Chermoula

Ingredients
1 tsp paprika
A pinch of chilli flakes or cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
4-6 tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
80g (large bunch of) coriander, chopped
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt to taste

Method
Crush the garlic, chilli flakes and salt together in a pestle and mortar, then add that mix to the other chermoula ingredients. Taste, spice it up if you want a stronger sauce but remember you only using a teaspoon or two for each fish. As with any marinade you need to leave it for at least half an hour, preferably longer for the flavours to soak in.

To prepare your sardines and couscous

Ingredients
1 or 2 sardines per person, if you are serving other meat or fish
Olive oil for brushing
Couscous
2 tbs herbs such as mint, parsley and/or coriander chopped
1-2 tbs olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt and pepper

Equipment
Barbeque or campfire
Fish holder
Teaspoon

Method
Gut and rinse the sardines and put a teaspoon or two of the chermoula in the cavity of each fish. Rub the skin lightly with olive oil and leave for at least twenty minutes, longer if possible. Over medium heat on the barbeque or campfire place your sardines, turning once, very carefully. A fish holder is useful as it stops you losing your fish to the sticky bars of the grill. You can see the flesh turn from translucent to opaque when they are cooked. Serve hot with couscous.

To go with your fish, serve instant couscous which is ideal for outdoor living, following the instructions on the packet. Once the couscous is rehydrated add the olive oil, lemon juice, herbs, salt and pepper, stir well with a fork to separate the grains.

Beach Barbeque

Math recently acquired a portable barbeque, the Weber Charcoal Go-Anywhere Grill. It has a pleasingly vintage shape, and is solidly constructed. We spent an afternoon at Homebase checking out the other portable barbecues, all of which felt rather neurotic and liable to fall apart in a complete collapse of nerve. The Weber has a vented lid which traps a convective circulating heat, much better for cooking larger boned joints.

We took the Weber out for a test run to Birling Gap, a pebbled beach tucked in amongst the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs. A steep tower of stairs leads down from the eroding cliff edge to the beach itself. It was late afternoon and the surf was lively. High tide was at six o’clock.

Math began cooking. The grill does not have separate settings, you cannot raise or lower it in relation to the heat. Once his pyramid of coals were lit, he arranged the heat into thirds, with two hot patches either side of an empty middle section. Having a section of the grill that is not over any coals works on a lidded barbecue because the circulating heat will be sufficient for slow cooking.

“Don’t make the mistake of presuming that we know what we are doing,” he warned

Some chefs prefer arranging the coals in a gradually declined slope from left to right, but the portable barbecues lack the depth necessary for this arrangement. The trick is to create the variety of temperatures required to cook a variety of meats – in this case, boned chicken thighs, venison kebabs and sausages, all with a light coating of oil so that they would not stick to the grill.

The tide battled its way up the beach, making for an anxious moment in which we wondered if we would have to strike camp and break for the stairs. Another family arrived with their barbecue, took a doubtful look at the churning rising waters, but were reassured by the sight of us blithely cooking. Math went over to speak to them;

“Don’t make the mistake of presuming that we know what we are doing,” he warned. They set up as far the encroaching waves as was possible on the narrow strip of beach, and started cooking. Fortune favours the brave.

Here are my barbecue recipes

Fennel coleslaw

Serves 4

My daughter and her little friends dare one another to eat the school coleslaw, so ingrained is the revulsion toward this traditional side salad. But a freshly made coleslaw with fennel is delicious with barbequed chicken or fish.

Ingredients
1 bulb of fennel, outer layer and stem removed and finely sliced, save any soft fronds
1 tsb flat leaf parsley (optional)
1 large carrot, cut into batons
¼ to ½ onion, white salad one if possible, finely sliced
1 pickled gherkin or 6 cornichon, chopped small
2 tsps mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice or white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Equipment
Bowl
Sharp knife
Chopping board
Mixing spoon

Method
Mix all the ingredients together at least ten minutes before needed to allow the flavours to mingle. Add the fennel fronds if you have them, chopped parsley if you don’t.

Secret sites

Yesterday I met up with the neighbours for drinks. Talk turned to summer plans and I mentioned our intention to spend the whole season camping.

Cath and Alice at Caherdaniel campsite in Ring of Kerry

The recession has introduced a natural break into my working life. I will seize the chance to live more freely, at least until the leaves turn in Autumn. On hearing our plans to camp, the neighbours all chipped in with suggestions for places to go, but then withdrew those suggestions when it became clear that I intended to include them on this website. “But they are secret,” they pleaded. No, I will have no secrets. Slapton Sands in Devon was mentioned, the scene of a terrible disaster in the Second World War, when Exercise Tiger – a rehearsal for D-day – was attacked by German motor torpedo boats. The tragedy was kept secret lest it damage morale.

My neighbour clammed up before revealing precisely which site they had stayed on, but I reckon this one looks a likely candidate. No secrets around here.