Category: Store cupboard

Food stand-bys to make campfire cooking easier

Just Pitched Spanish tortilla

Serves 4

I have been making this tortilla for years, it is a real store cupboard recipe. Waxy potatoes are a must, floury ones like King Edwards will fall apart and leave you with just oniony mashed potatoes. Older new potatoes are ideal, as they are waxy, but less work than new potatoes because they are bigger. Slice them lengthways as thinly as you can, or use a mandoline.
Serve with salad and a mild cheese like Ossau Irraty or Manchego and membrillo.

Ingredients
500g onion, thinly sliced
750g waxy potatoes, scrubbed (not peeled) and sliced thinly, 3mm thickness
3 eggs, beaten
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 tbs fresh oregano, chopped

Method
Boil the potatoes for seven minutes in salted water. They should be just cooked, but not falling apart. While they are cooking, gently fry the onions in oil and a pinch of salt until they are soft, sweet and browning.

Drain the potatoes and put them back into the dry pan over a low heat for a couple of minutes. This is so they dry out as wet potatoes will cause you trouble. Don’t take your eyes off of them or they will burn. Mix in the cooked onions and stir in the beaten eggs and pepper, do this gently so you don’t break up the potatoes.

Heat the oil in a decent non-stick frying pan. Once the oil is hot, add the potato, onion and egg mixture, squashing it down into the pan a little. Turn the heat to medium and wait for the eggs to cook. Use a spatula or fish slice to look under the tortilla.

Once it is browning, you are ready to turn it over. Loosen the tortilla all the way round with a blunt knife. Turn the heat off, place a large plate over the pan and a rolled up tea-towel over that. Turn the pan upside down, the tortilla should come out cleanly. Wipe the pan down with kitchen towel and heat another tablespoon of oil. Once hot, slide in the tortilla to cook the other side. Once both sides are cooked, serve onto a plate, season with salt and oregano. Wait for it to cool. You can serve it at room temperature or cold.

Variations
Add 1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced and cooked with the onions.
Add a clove of garlic to cook with the onions.
Add a couple of slices of Serrano ham, shredded.
Add chives or parsley instead of oregano

Salsa romesco

Prepare this at home before the trip and spoon it into a jar to save you having to pestle and mortar until you are blue in the face outside the tent. If you store this red sauce in a sterilized jar, it can keep for ages. Salsa romesco is mildly spicy and tangy and so great with meat and fish that has been simply cooked over a barbeque or campfire. This should make two small jars worth.
The romesco chilli is traditionally used in Spain, but ancho chillis are more likely obtained in the UK. Failing that, use dried kashmiri chillis with some smoked paprika to add barbecued sweetness. For a milder fruitier sauce, use just the one chilli. You can always add spice, but you can never take it away.

I made this for a barbeque in my back garden in London. It went perfectly with seafood kebabs and Andalusian lamb (marinaded in red wine vinegar and juniper). I recently made this in a pestle and mortar, but you can throw all the ingredients in a blender, just don’t over blend as you want a sauce with some texture to it.

How to sterilize a jar

Clean jars and new lids in hot soapy water. Put the jars in a pre-heated medium oven for ten minutes. Use as soon as they are cool enough to fill.

Ingredients

3 red peppers, roasted, deseeded and skinned, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3 tomatoes, score the skin in a cross all the way around and roast for a few minutes
80g hazelnuts, roasted in a medium oven for 5-8 minutes until brown, then rub until the skin comes away
2 dried ancho chillis, if not available then 2 dried kashmiri chillies plus a pinch of smoked paprika
2 tbs red wine vinegar
75ml olive oil
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Crush the hazelnuts in a pestle and mortar until crumb-like, then add the garlic and ancho chillis (or the kashmiri chillis and paprika), salt, and crush some more. Add tomatoes and peppers, red wine vinegar and a pinch of sugar: you may need to decant to a larger bowl unless you are using a massive mortar. Add the oil in a fine drizzle, stirring each bit in well, otherwise you may end up with a greasy sauce, rather than a velvety one. Taste, season.

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.

Garlic and ginger paste

Make this at home and use in curries, Moroccan and Chinese dishes.

Ingredients

Equal quantities of garlic and ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
Water
1 tbs vegetable oil

Method

Finely chop the garlic and ginger, use a mezzaluna or a food processor, add a splash of water. Store in a jar for a week or two, covered with oil.