My Top Chef recap for this week was pretty critical of the cheftestants’ take on campfire cooking. Just so you don’t think I’m a total hater, I thought I would share some pearls of campfire cooking wisdom with you.
I’ve gone camping a few times with the lovely Kelly, and let me tell you that she knows her way around a campfire. On our last trip to Pedernales State Park, she made a delicious peach cobbler using a dutch oven
Not the fancy enameled cast iron le creuset kind of dutch oven…
Le Creuset has no place on the campsite (though it is more than welcome in this waspy kitchen) Campfire cooking calls for Lodge cast iron.
See the cute little feet? That allows the dutch oven to rest in a bed of coals. And the lip along the edge of the flat lid enables you to put coals on top so you get even heating all around.
Recipe:
1 large can sliced peaches in syrup
1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/2 sticks of butter, cut into small pieces
Directions:
Dump the peaches and syrup into the dutch oven. Pour the dry cake mix over top. Dot the surface with the butter.
Place the dutch oven lid on and then add 10-15 hot briquettes. Carefully transfer the dutch oven into the campfire. Channel locks and gloves are handy for this.
“Bake” over the campfire for approximately 45 mins
Suuuuuper yummy! Especially on a brisk night.
The perfect pairing for this dish is a high quality organic box wine such as “Bota Box”
Just because your’re camping doesn’t mean you have to drink Franzia for goodness sakes. The Sav Blanc went down really well that weekend.
One of the key components of using a dutch oven, or any cast iron for that matter, is cleaning it correctly. You will work hard to develop a patina or “season” on your cast iron, so you don’t want to rinse that away with harsh detergents.
Please enjoy this incredibly low-budget how to video on cleaning a dutch oven…starring Kelly (though you can’t so much see her, but you can see her headlamp), myself and Steve.
