Easy Camping Meals to Cook Over a Fire

Camping is the perfect way to use a bit of downtime and get away from the hustle and bustle of technology, work, and the modern lifestyle. But that doesn’t mean you should settle for dodgy frozen and canned meals when you’re out in nature. To help take your camping recipes from mediocre to MasterChef, we’ve compiled some easy camping meals for you and the family to savour. All our recipes have been designed to feed 4. If you’ve brought more or less people, simply scale the recipes to suit your party.

Beer-Battered Fish Fillets:

Ingredients:

• 800g of fish fillets

• 1 ½ cups beer

• 2 cups flour

• 2 cups buttermilk pancake mix

• ½ cup cooking oil.

Prep:

Make sure all your fish fillets have been cleaned and dried. If you’ve caught them yourself, ensure they’ve been skinned, cleaned, deboned, and dried. It’s technically easier to buy them this way, but where’s the fun in that?

Also, ensure you’ve started thinking about your oil in advance. Before you start much more of your prep, put your oil in a pan and get it heating.

Steps:

1. Take your fish fillets and coat them as evenly as you can with flour.

2. Stir up the pancake mix with the beer.

3. Once the batter is smooth, dip your floured fish fillets in. Again, try coat each piece evenly.

4. Pop pieces into the preheated pan with oil and cook until golden brown. Naturally, it should only need one flip to finish the job.

5. Let them rest on a piece of paper towel for a moment before serving – just to remove some of the excess oil.

6. If you’re feeling a bit fancy, finish with some lemon, dill, salt, and pepper. Or if all you’ve got is a bottle of tomato sauce, that’s just as perfect.

Smokey Sausage Sizzle:

Ingredients:

• 100g low-sugar tomato sauce

• 100g passata

• 100mL cider vinegar

• 100g raw sugar

• 1 crushed garlic clove

• 2 tbsp butter

• 1 tsp chipotle paste (if you wish)

• 12 sausages (pork works particularly well)

• 1 loaf of bread.

Prep:

To prepare your sauce, simply mix all the ingredients that aren’t bread or sausages into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved and it’s got a glossy look/texture to it. You can season to taste if you wish.

Once that’s done, set it aside to cool. It’ll generally last for a couple of weeks in the fridge, or 6 months if you freeze it.

Steps:

1. Cook sausages over a fire.

2. Introduce a sausage to a piece of bread.

3. Lather carefully in the smoky tomato sauce. Or pour it all over the shop – there’s no points for making it look pretty. Tuck in.

4. Repeat as necessary

5. If you want to be 100% sure a sausage is cooked without snapping it in half, grab it about halfway up with your tongs, and try wiggling it. If it stays firm, you can just about bet it’s cooked through.

Campfire Jaffa Cakes:

Ingredients:

• 4 oranges

• 1 box of brownie mix (ideally one that only requires water)

• Any ingredients required by your brownie mix

• Any toppings you’d like to serve with your jaffa cake (if you’re lacking imagination, crushed peanuts and caramel are a safe bet).

Prep:

Cut the hat off your orange. Scoop out as much of its inners as you can. Eat what you can – it’s delicious.

On the brownie side, you’ll want to follow their instructions on preparing the cake mix. Whatever ingredients or processes they suggest – they’re worth following.

Steps:

1. Fill your orange with the cake mix. Pop the lid roughly in place.

2. Wrap the whole orange in foil. Try and securely wrap it, so no brownie mix can sneak out.

3. Using tongs, place it in a fire, making sure the opening of the orange is kept at the top.

4. Cook it for around 20-30 minutes, depending on how hot your fire is, and how hungry you are. You’d probably rather it be a little underdone than overdone, but 20 minutes is about as low as you’d want to go.

5. Carefully unwrap it and serve.

6. Nuts and caramel make for terrific toppings, but it’s dealer’s choice.

If you’re ready to get into the outdoors, check out Outback Equipment’s range of camping equipment.