hearty – The Art of Camping

Eridge Park venison stew

The retort of hunters’ guns sounded throughout our stay at Forgewood campsite on Eridge Park. Wandering through the forest, we startled a small deer. At the sound and sight of us galumphing over splintering wood, the deer fled in one flash of his white tail, back toward the hunters. When we returned to the campsite, we asked if they sold any venison shot on the estate. They did. And so I devised this stew for the campfire.

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 venison steaks, fat trimmed and cubed
1 onion, diced
1 large or 2 small carrots, diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
Olive oil
Knob of butter
Couple of tablespoons of plain flour
Salt and black pepper
3 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
3 or 4 cardamon pods
1 bay leaf
Two slivers of orange peel

Method
Marinate the venison in oil, salt, pepper, bay leaf, onion and carrot for about an hour.
I cooked this stew in a large, lidded billy can over a wood fire, but it could be done in any lidded pan on a gas stove. I heated a pan over the fire and put in the marinated meat. Once the meat was browned all over, I added some water, the spices and orange peel, put the lid on and left it cooking for half an hour or so.

Meanwhile I made a thickener with flour and soft butter, mushing it with the back of a fork until completely incorporated. I mixed this thickener with a bit of the liquid from the pan and then stirred it all into the stew. I cooked the stew some more, regularly stirring it and checking it had enough liquid. Once the meat was tender, I crushed the garlic against the side of the pan and stirred it in. Once seasoned the stew was served with fried gnocchi and a watercress, raisin and pine nut salad.

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.

Puy lentils and spicy sausage stew

Serves 4
Sausage stew was the first meal we cooked when camping, made with red table wine from a plastic bottle and a Mattesson’s sausage that Math’s Mum had pushed into his rucksack. Things have moved on since then but the principle remains the same: a warming and easy dish that does not require finesse. Here the sausages should be sturdy bangers and sufficiently dense to withstand boiling without turning into mush. A string of fat cooking chorizo is ideal. If you don’t want a particularly spicy flavour then omit the chilli. The dish could be made with Toulouse sausages, chives and parsley.

Ingredients

250g puy lentils
8 sturdy spicy sausages, such as cooking chorizo. Brindisa make some good ones
1 small or 1/2 large onion, chopped
1 long red chilli, spliced length ways
2 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
Juice of ½ lemon
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 stick of celery, diced
8 baby tomatoes (or 4 standard tomatoes quartered, the important thing is they are the tastiest you can get)
2 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper
3 tbs fresh herbs, flat leaf parsley and/or coriander, chopped

Equipment

Chopping board
Sharp knife
Sieve
Large bowl
Large lidded pan
Wooden spoon

Method

Rinse the puy lentils and put in the bowl, cover with cold water and soak while you get the other ingredients ready. Heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the onion, carrot, red pepper and celery until soft. Drain the soaked lentils and add to the pan, add the whole garlic cloves, pepper, the split chilli and sausages. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat to a simmer and cover. Stir regularly, but carefully, making sure the lentils don’t stick to the pan. You want enough liquid to make a soupy sauce, but not so much that the dish is watery. After ten minutes, add the tomatoes. Once the sausages are cooked through (should take about twenty minutes in total) and the lentils are soft, but still whole, then you’re ready to serve. Turn off the heat, squash the garlic cloves, against the side of the pan and throw them in, along with the herbs, season with salt, stir and serve with chunks of bread and olive oil.