Food for the Fireside

The HMHB family do quite a bit of this ‘ere camping malarkey and I reckon I have got the food side of the evening honed to a fine art.

The key is simplicity, long gone are the days of trying to assemble stuff out in the desert, everything has to be prepared at home and all that is required is to fire up the Barbie, open a blizzard cold can of beer and throw a couple of steaks on the fire.

For the children I boil up a pile of penne pasta and once cooked I stir through a couple of heaped teaspoons of pesto sauce. Give it a good mix, throw some grated parmesan on and stick in a sealable freezer bag. In the desert I grill some sausages and, hey presto, children’s food done. Pasta, sausages and ketchup, perfect!



For the grown-ups I prepare a yummy potato salad and stick it in a freezer bag. In another freezer bag I put some roughly chopped romaine lettuce, roasted pine nuts, shavings of parmesan, chopped fresh parsley and, if I can be arsed, some garlicky croutons. In a small Tupperware jar I mix 3 tbsp of my classic vinaigrette with 1 tbsp natural yoghurt as the dressing. Before eating this dressing gets poured into the freezer bag with the salad and that’s it.

I take with me a boerewors and a rib-eye steak per adult. I usually marinade the steaks in Mama Sita’s BBQ marinade which is one of the best I have ever tried (available in Spinneys and Choitrams). I start off by grilling the boerewors, cutting it into bite sized pieces and then passing it around with toothpicks stuck in them for nibbles.

Next up grill the steaks and once done serve them with the potato salad and the green salad.

Dessert in the desert is usually Lovely Wife’s amazing chocolate brownies which always go down a treat.