Camp Fire Recipes

The best camp fire recipes are simple. They use the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid).

Your food tastes different and more appetizing when eaten round a camp fire. And when it's been cooked on the camp fire as well, it's twice as good.

You need camp fire recipes that are simple. No fancy ingredients, and you don't want to spend great amounts of time or energy on them. The whole idea is for you to enjoy the cooking as well as your guests.

Chicken wings are delightful when done properly. The trick with these is to soak them in a marinade first. A Cantonese friend of mine soaks his chicken wings in soy sauce and garlic for a few hours before grilling them over the camp fire coals. The skin is crisp and brown, and the meat - what little there is of it - is utterly delicious.

Steak can be soaked in meat tenderizer for a few hours before cooking. Papaya (paw paw) juice does the job perfectly, since it is full of natural enzymes. Another way is to soak your steaks in beer or wine overnight and leave them safely in the fridge or ice cooler as the flavor seeps through the meat.

We've all eaten bananas, but how many people have enjoyed them grilled on a barbecue? You place the bananas in their skins on the hot plate or flame less grill. You can even do them in foil on the hot coals. Let them cook slowly until the skin blackens and the oil starts seeping out from the mushy banana inside. It looks odd at first but it is truly delicious... like banana fritters without any batter. I learned this from Fred, my ex father-in-law.

Ham steaks are excellent for cooking on a grill or barbecue. Since the ham is already cooked, you only need to heat and brown the meat a little. Serve with rings of grilled pineapple and potatoes with salad. Your spuds can be baked in foil - in the hot coals or in an oven. Or they can be boiled in their skins. Just be sure to have washed and scrubbed the skins first, if they needed cleaning, to get the farm dirt off.

There are many ways to cook eggs apart from the obvious boiling and frying. Eggs can be wrapped in foil and cooked in hot coals. You can scoop out the inside of an unpeeled onion. break an egg into it, then place the onion and its egg in hot coals (ashes) until the egg is hard. The outside of the onion will be burned, but peel off the burned layers and eat the cooked onion together with the egg. Fun and delicious.

Experiment, have fun, and don't take it seriously when the meal is less than perfect. Perfection comes next time, or the time after that. life is too short already.

Try all these food enhancement tricks and select the way you like best.