Campfire Recipes, Home or Away

We’re all starting to adjust to a new way of living. Hopefully it’s a temporary one, but for a while longer we’ll all be spending the majority of our time at home. So if you’re running out of ideas for what to do and fancy giving something new a try, here’s a few campfire recipes to get you out into the garden and cooking up a feast, camping style!

In search of adventure

There’s a good reason we (me and my husband Jim) started a UK adventure holiday business. It’s because we love the great outdoors and can’t get enough of being out in the fresh air! Wales, and the UK as a whole, is a beautiful place. After years of saving up the pounds and the days off work to jet off around the world in search of adventures, we finally realised that every time we came back home we’d fallen that little bit more in love with that place we were proud and grateful to call home.

Now we spend our days creating new exciting adventures here in the UK, so we can share our passion and inspire other adventurers like us to discover just how incredible the UK’s wild spaces are. So to have our new business, our baby, taken away from us just a few weeks ago when the UK went into lockdown was heartbreaking.

But we’re all in this together. We’re all having our freedom curtailed and the things we love taken away from us for a while. And do you know what? That’s okay, because it’s how we’re all going to get through this. We all have to make this sacrifice now so that we can come back fighting another day. And we will come through this, together.

A taste of the wild (in your garden)

So right now our small group adventure tours are missing two vital ingredients: travel and guests! So like most of us right now, we’re having to find new ways to keep ourselves entertained. Or to at least stay sane!

Making the most of the walks and trail runs we can do from home is one way. And another is to enjoy our garden, which we are more grateful for than ever right now. So the other evening we packed our bags and set off to find the perfect camping spot.

Luckily it was only 20m from the back door, so for once I could pack anything I liked! I dug out our big old cast iron wok (sadly redundant since getting an induction hob…), a cast iron skillet and a bottle of last autumn’s homemade sloe gin. Three luxury (heavy) items I’d never get to take on a wild camping trip!

Campfire recipes

After a bit of research and a quick call to our friends at the Wild Bushcraft Company, I had three new campfire recipes ready to keep me busy for the evening:

• Chorizo & potato casserole
• Bannock bread
• Vegan brownies

Chorizo & Potato Skillet with Baked Eggs

This was inspired by a real recipe but, as usual I couldn’t help but tinker. So after a few tweaks it became a suitably tasty variation that we could make with meat-free sausages and the limited range of food in our cupboards to avoid an unnecessary shopping trip. So in the same spirit, take this as inspiration and vary to suit your own preference and available ingredients.

Serves 2 greedy adventurers:

4 chorizo sausages (we used a meat-free version)
6 new potatoes, cubed
1 small onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
½ red pepper, chopped
1 large handful of spinach
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbs fresh thyme leaves
300ml vegetable stock
1 tbs oil
2 eggs
Salt & pepper

You can do this on a camping stove if you have a large pan, but a firepit or small campfire is ideal if you can do this safely and responsibly where you are. Once the fire is established place your cast iron pot or large skillet above the hot, but not flaming, logs.

Heat the oil and gently fry off the sausages until coloured all over. Remove and place to one side.

Gently soften the chopped onions for 2 minutes before adding the cubed potatoes. Keep stirring so they don’t catch and once starting to colour, add the chopped peppers, tomatoes and garlic. Stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Next cut the sausages into chunks and add back to the skillet, stirring. Add the thyme, spinach, vegetable stock and seasoning before covering with a lid. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. If the heat is too high the stock will evaporate faster than you want it to. If like us, you can’t control the heat, add more liquid as needed!

Make two small divots in the mixture and crack an egg into each. Recover and simmer for 4-5 minutes until the eggs are cooked but the yolks still runny.

Serve into plastic bowls and devour with a spork. Well this is camping!

Bannock Bread

There’s nothing better than fresh bread to dip into that runny egg yolk and mop up the casserole juices. And as we’re campfire cooking, bannock bread cooked on sticks over the fire is the perfect accompaniment.

We gave our friends over at the Wild Bushcraft Company a quick call to double check the recipe as this is a campfire treat they regularly cook up. Anyone who’s been on our Discovery North Wales tour will recognise this from the foraging and bushcraft experience with them on the tour.

First, find yourself a couple of long thin branches. Ideally about 1.5m long so you can hold them at a comfortable distance from the fire or prop them over the heat with a couple of rocks or a stake in the ground. It’s best to whittle away the outer bark from the end of your sticks so you have a clean smooth surface to wrap your dough around.

Serves 2 greedy adventurers:
2 handfuls self-raising flour
1 handful milk powder
Salt & pepper
Water

Combine the flour and milk powder in a small bowl. Keeping some of the flour mix to one side, add enough water to the rest of it to make a wet mix, using a fork to combine together. Then slowly add the rest of the flour mix, using your hand to bring it together. Flatten the mix and fold, repeating until you have a light malleable dough.

Divide the dough into two balls. Take one and roll it between your hands to create a sausage shape that you can start to wind around your first stick. Repeat with the second dough portion.

Prop the sticks up or simply hold high enough above the fire, turning occasionally to cook evenly. You want the bread to cook long and slow to ensure the dough is cooked all the way through for a light fluffy bread. They should take around 20 minutes to bake.

Vegan Campfire Brownies

The perfect way to complete your campfire feast. These scrumptious brownies are fudgy in the middle with a light crispy crust underneath and around the edges. Top with whatever you fancy to add your own personal touch. We had a packet of vegan marshmallows left over from a previous camping trip so went with these for a gooey finish. Dried fruit and nuts work great though, such as cranberries and flaked almonds.

Serves 2 very greedy adventurers (though should probably be shared with more!):
½ cup flour
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
¼ cup sunflower or vegetable oil
¼ cup water

Topping suggestions (optional):
Marshmallows
Flaked almonds
Dried cranberries
Peanut butter
Chocolate chips

Combine all the dry ingredients in a small bowl: flour, flaxseed, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

Next add the oil and water, and mix to a smooth dough. Leave for a few minutes whilst you prepare your toppings.

Press the dough into a small shallow cast iron skillet. Top with your chosen extras, pressing them down lightly into the dough, and cover with foil.

You want to cook it over a low/medium heat for approximately 10 minutes. This is perfect for cooking on a campfire at the end of evening when the fire is starting to die down. Try to find a cooler part of the fire, towards the edge where the heat will be less intense. If necessary turn the skillet after 5 minutes to ensure your brownie cooks evenly.

You’ll know it’s ready when the edges start to look lighter and slightly cakey but the centre is still dark and fudgy looking.

When ready, grab a spork each and dig in! (Like we did before we remembered to take a photo…)

Back Garden Campfire Feasts

We’re all looking forward to getting the green light to head a little further afield on our adventures. But in the meantime, if these campfire recipes have inspired you to get out into your own back garden, we’d love to know how you get on!

Share your campfire recipe pics on Instagram with #foradventurersathome and we’ll give you a shout out on our Instagram page