Author: Cath

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.

Feta and mint salad

Serves 4

If you can get fresh peas in their pod and a decent crumbly feta cheese, then this is great for lunch served with hearty chunks of brown bread.

Ingredients
1 x 200g packet of feta cheese
100-150g (about one bag) tasty leaves like watercress, lamb’s lettuce, rocket or a mixture
100g fresh peas, shelled (if they are quite big peas, then boil for a couple of minutes and drain)
1 courgette, cut into batons or sliced thinly using a vegetable peeler
4 tbs olive oil
1 tbs lemon juice
1/2 clove of garlic, crushed with salt using a knife
A couple of sprigs worth of fresh mint leaves, sliced finely
Salt and pepper

Equipment
Chopping board
Large bowl
Sharp knife
Fork
Vegetable peeler (optional)
Pan and stove (optional)

Method
Make the dressing in the bowl with the garlic, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Whisk it in the bowl until it emulsifies, then season and taste. Add the leaves courgettes and mint, then toss the salad. Crumble the feta on top and the peas last as otherwise they will sink to the bottom of the bowl.

Salade nicoise

Serves 4

A classic salad easily prepared outside a tent on a warm evening.

Ingredients
300g salad potatoes, Jersey Royals if you’re feeling flash
100g green beans, topped and tailed
4 eggs
1 tbsp herbs such as tarragon, chervil and/or chives, chopped
4 tbs olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
1 clove garlic crushed with a pinch of salt
Salt and black pepper
½ tin of anchovies, drained
2 tins or jars of good quality tuna, drained
½ red onion, finely sliced
1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
2 little gems or 1 romaine lettuce, leaves separated

Equipment
Chopping board
Sharp knife
One ring cooker
Small bowl
Fork and spoons

Method
Boil the potatoes in salted water until cooked, drain and set aside. Cook the green beans for a couple of minutes, drain and set aside. Put the whole eggs into a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and then count three minutes, they will be soft boiled and hopefully not cracked. Drain and leave the eggs to cool.
For the dressing, put the garlic and salt with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper and mustard into a small bowl and whisk with a fork until it emulsifies. Taste, adjust the seasoning if you need to.
Dress the leaves. Shell and quarter the eggs. Assemble your salad: put your leaves into bowls, cut the potatoes in half and add those, arrange the beans, tuna, anchovies and tuna and shelled quartered eggs. Sprinkle the herbs on top.

Corned beef hash

Serves 4

I remember eating this on the shores of Anglesey with my Dad, aunt and uncle. My auntie made it beforehand and reheated it on the two-ring burner Calor Gaz stove. You could easily make it from scratch or it would make the perfect ‘just pitched’ meal to take along and reheat. My local butcher Martin of Boathouse Organics corns his own beef, which I prefer to the tinned stuff. You can serve this with green beans or peas and brown sauce or as it is below with just the fried egg on top.

Ingredients
400g potatoes (King Edwards or Maris Piper are best), peeled and diced
1 onion, sliced
400g corned beef, from the butcher or a 340g tin , and shred the beef with a fork
Oil for frying
1 litre beef stock, fresh, either from the supermarket fridge, or made with a beef stock cube
Finely chopped chives and parsley
Salt and pepper
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
Brown sauce for serving (optional)
4 eggs

Equipment
Two-ring stove
Chopping board
Sharp knife
A large saucepan
A frying pan
Fork

Method
Put potatoes in the sauce pan, just cover with stock and cook without a lid. What you want is cooked potatoes, not burnt or browned, and hardly any liquid. Once the potatoes are nearly cooked then heat a tablespoon of oil and fry the onions and the beef in the frying pan. You want the beef to be warmed through. Roughly mash the potatoes with a fork, add the onion and beef and season with salt pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Add the herbs.
Once the whole hash is hot through, heat the oil in your frying pan and fry the eggs. Serve on top of your hash with brown sauce if you like.

Spaghetti vongole

Serves 2

I cooked this traditional Italian recipe on a sloping field in Cornwall using only a Trangia meths stove. Unfortunately Math’s filling was prised free by a rogue shard of shell, which meant he was dosed up on painkillers for the rest of our trip. You can put this meal together on store cupboard ingredients, none of which will go off if you don’t have decent refrigeration. You only need one cooking ring; if you have two, then you can prepare the pasta on one and the sauce on the other.

A sloping field in Cornwall
A sloping field in Cornwall

Ingredients
200g dried spaghetti
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Handful of fresh parsley, chopped
Jar of preserved clams, drained (Carluccio’s in St. Ives provided mine)
Half a glass of white wine
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper

Equipment
One or two ring stove
Frying pan
Large saucepan with lid
Knife
Chopping board

Method
Cook your pasta first in salted water. Once cooked, drain, but leave a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water in the pan. This will stop your pasta sticking together as you cook the sauce and form a cooking liquor. Cover to keep warm.
Fry onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft. Pour in the wine and let it cook for three to five minutes. Throw in the clams.
Once the clams are hot add the parsley and pasta with its reserved cooking liquor. Taste and season with salt, pepper and lemon if needed.

Minestrone

Serves 4

Tinned soup is the first food you associate with camping. Instead of opening a tin of Heinz Big Soup, get chopping fresh, seasonal vegetables, supplemented with a can of borlotti beans. If you are feeling adventurous, source fresh borlotti beans as they are around at the height of summer, but they do need preparation, requiring 40-45 minutes cooking, which is a fair amount of faffing for a camper. If you do persist with fresh beans, pod them, discarding brown and mouldy ones and cook them in unsalted water for about 40 minutes until soft, drain and then add to the recipe as follows.

Ingredients

1 red pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed with salt against the chopping board with the blade of a sharp knife
4 tomatoes, quartered
2 tbs parsley, chopped, also other herbs, like chives or rosemary
1 x 250g tin of borlotti beans, drained, mash half with a spoon, leaving the other half whole
400g seasonal mixed green vegetables like fresh peas, green beans and broad beans in the summer
¼ seasonal cabbage, finely sliced
100g pasta, small shapes or spaghetti broken up into small lengths if possible, but any will do, larger shapes may need a bit more cooking though
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 litre of water or vegetable stock, made with a cube, concentrate or fresh from the supermarket fridge

Equipment

1 large pan
Single ring stove
Chopping board
Sharp knife
Spoon for stirring
Bowl
Sieve or colander

Method

Heat the oil and add the red pepper, onion and garlic. Fry very gently until soft. Add 1 litre of water or stock if you have it. Bring to the boil, turn down and simmer, add the mashed borlotti beans and stir thoroughly. After five minutes, add the pasta and green beans, whole borlotti beans, tomatoes and other green vegetables, except the cabbage. Cook for five to ten minutes and check the pasta and the whole borlotti beans, cook for another few minutes if necessary until the pasta and beans are done. Then add the cabbage and parsley, stir it round until it has wilted over the heat. Season and serve with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh bread.

For a variation: At the beginning of cooking you could add bacon or pancetta cut into small chunks and fry with the onion, garlic and red pepper, if you are feeling carnivorous.

Pesto

Serves 4 with pasta

The pesto revolution arrived in my world (or more accurately Math’s world) in the early 1990s when we were both at university. When I visited him in his scabby house, he used to cook it for me with mushrooms. It was either that or the other pasta dish he invented – fusilli and frozen sweet-corn, the wonder of this dish being the way the kernels would hide in the twists of fusilli. Obviously there would be a mound of cheddar on top to serve as the protein.

Homemade pesto is fresher and less tacky than the stuff sold in jars. Not just good for pasta, but a teaspoon of pesto served on a bowl of minestrone or on top of some barbequed field mushrooms adds flavour. When I make it I omit the salt and pepper until serving, so our two toddlers can enjoy it as well.

Ingredients
75g pine nuts
25g fresh basil, finely chopped (a mezzaluna is perfect for this job)
6 tbs olive oil
Salt and black pepper
75g pecorino or parmesan, grated
1 garlic clove, skinned
Juice of a ½ lemon

Method
Dry-fry the pine nuts and garlic in a frying pan over a medium heat. Shake the pan every minute or two, it is far too easy to burn the nuts. Once the pine nuts start to brown, remove them and the garlic from the heat. Crush the pine nuts, the garlic and a pinch of salt in a pestle and mortar. Add the basil, the lemon juice and cheese, season and mix well. Taste and cover with oil. You can keep it in an airtight jar for a week.

Add to just cooked hot pasta, stir well and serve straightaway, even eat it cold as a salad.

Spicy minted peas

Serves 4 as a side dish

Mint and peas are a great match, to which I add chilli and coconut for a veggie curry.

Ingredients
500g fresh peas in their pod, shelled
1 red chilli, split lengthways
Half a small onion, very finely sliced
1 tbs fresh mint, chopped (or ½ tsp dried mint)
Half a tin of coconut milk
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt

Equipment
Chopping board
Sharp knife
Saucepan
1 ring stove

Method
Gently cook the peas, chilli and onion in the coconut milk for a few minutes until the peas are cooked and the onions softened. Add the mint, lemon and salt to taste.

Tomato and onion salad

Very simple but effective side dish.

Ingredients
2 tomatoes, deseeded and sliced
½ onion, finely sliced
½ cucumber, sliced in half lengthways, middle scooped out and sliced into half moons
A pinch of sugar
3 tbs fresh mint, chopped
A squeeze of lime (or lemon)
½ tsp fresh red chilli, very finely chopped (optional)
Salt

Equipment
Sharp knife
Chopping board
Bowl

Method
Mix the cucumber, tomato, onion, chilli (if using), salt and sugar together, leave for ten minutes. Add the lime and mint.
Ready to serve.