When you’re camping, eating healthily and deliciously helps you maintain your energy level and boost your morale,” Caroline Decque explains to us from the outset. But cooking without equipment requires a little imagination and curiosity. “We rediscover forgotten products, we experiment with the diversity of regional breads and cheeses, we revisit preserves (vegetable macedoine, tomato paste, sardines, etc.) and we change our habits. Sprinkle the pasta with brewer’s yeast, a possible substitute for parmesan that doesn’t mind the heat, or improvise a harissa by diluting a sprig of lavender in a double tomato paste with curry and capers…
Simply indulge yourself
Why not? After all, holidays are also made to relax a little and get out of your comfort zone.” Deprived of equipment, but not of ideas, Caroline also sometimes cooks without a fire. At the campsite, she relies on the sun to “tan” tomatoes to slip into a salad or a sandwich. She slowly cooks vegetables in acid, onions in vinegar, zucchini in lemon juice… Her big tip? Preparing tabbouleh in the morning, which she places in a lunch box, where the semolina grains will macerate and swell in contact with the vegetable juice, during a walk. And if vegetables are not enough, she “makes sure to add a bag of green mint tea infused in a little hot water to flavor it, olive oil or orange juice.” While the airtight container is essential for preserving transported food, mixing sauces and reserving products during cooking, the stove and a cooking pot (a bowl with a lid) remain essential “for cooking rice, pasta, polenta, semolina, and rehydrating dried mushrooms.”
Tropical and Mediterranean dishes are a great source of inspiration
As for supplies, she travels light, with two tote bags to slip into her backpack, easy to wash and dry (for fresh produce and utensils). She never travels without a multi-purpose organic lemon essential oil (which adds pep to raw dishes, perfumes pasta water and disinfects the pot), olive oil and soy sauce, transferred into small plastic vials, and her favorite spices (curry, ras el-hanout, etc.), already mixed with salt in zip pouches.
Particularly practical are products that can be used in a variety of recipes: honey, in an infusion, on toast, in a sauce, or peanut butter, comforting by the spoonful, on a square of chocolate or cooked in a mafé sauce. “Tropical and Mediterranean dishes are a great source of inspiration when hiking in hot places.” It doesn’t take much to prepare dishes to devour in the open air, around an improvised table or by the fire, without weighing down your backpack. Let’s go for travel cooking!
Sardines flambéed on the stove (and lemon rice)
“A hot recipe that revisits canned sardines.” Light your stove and place a can of sardines in sunflower oil on top. Place two sheets of paper towel in place of the lid so that they soak up the oil. Light them like a wick. When the oil has disappeared, the sardines are grilled. Remove the paper towel. Cook 2 cups of rice (quick-cooking) in 3 cups of water for 3 minutes with 1 teaspoon of wasabi, 3 of salt, 3 of sugar and 2 sprigs of rosemary. Once the rice is cooked, add the juice of 3 lemons and a little olive oil.
Spicy tomato pasta
“When you don’t have much water to cook pasta, you do the same as you would for a risotto: gently in a tomato paste, in which you dilute a stick of instant coffee to thicken it. The almond powder topping absorbs the moisture and binds all the ingredients, like parmesan would.” Prepare a tomato sauce by sautéing oregano in olive oil with 3 tomatoes cut into large cubes. Dip the pasta in the sauce. Add 1 stick of freeze-dried coffee and pour in water until (almost) covering the pasta. Cook until the water has evaporated. Add salt, pepper and 100 g of almond powder.
Pizza on tortilla
“A good idea for improvising a meal on lazy evenings.” Suggested by Margot Cirou in “La (Vraie) Vie en van!” (published by Larousse). Rinse and cut 2 mushrooms, 1/2 pepper and 1 zucchini into thin strips. Grill them with a drizzle of olive oil for 10 minutes then set aside. Place 1 tortilla wrap in the pan, spread the tomato coulis on top, add the grilled vegetables and sprinkle with mozzarella. Cover the pan and cook for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with oregano then serve.
Dehydrated Aligot Puree
“When hiking in the mountains in the summer, aligot is the comfort food we dream of! For an equally delicious alternative, the dehydrated Mousseline flakes, regressive and practical, are precious allies.” Heat 3 glasses of water with salt and pepper. Add 1 sachet of dehydrated puree with 5 drops of lemon essential oil and 200 g of young Cantal (or other Comté-type cheese). Stir until you obtain a comforting elastic texture. Sprinkle with small pieces of garlic.
Summer drink sun tea
Flavor the water in the gourds with well-scented plants: rosemary, bay leaf, ginger or 1 tea bag, for about 6 hours. It is a slow infusion, accelerated by the sun and heat. Sublimated coffee, prepare an infusion with ginger or cardamom, and add it to your freeze-dried coffee.
The essentials
A good stainless steel knifewhich does not rust, which is oiled from time to time and which is not washed every day.
A lightweight anodized aluminum cooking potwith a lid that serves as a plate and a colander (bring two if camping with the family).
A sponge cut into two pieces : one for cleaning greasy dishes and the other for glasses.
A cheap stove is enough if you are camping for two, but choose a model that can carry large quantities of food.
A wooden spatula to stir and prevent it from sticking.
Two glasses or cups whose capacity is known (generally 20-25 cl) to measure rice, water, etc.
