Campfire Gourmet

What do you think of when you think of camp cooking?  If you ever have gone camping with my friend Andy, you'd think of some of the tastiest, soul-satisfying food ever.  I think I'll call it Campfire Gourmet Cuisine.  Andy has an amazing knack for bringing basic ingredients together in--may I say primitive--campsite conditions to create delicious stews, curries, and vegetable medleys.

I spent this past week camping just outside of Bishop, California, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, with a group of rock-climbing friends led by Andy and his wife Mary.  Days were spent climbing and bouldering (hitting up Little Egypt, Owens River Gorge, and the Buttermilks, for those climbers wondering where we went), and evenings were spent cooking and enjoying great food and friends around the campfire.  Okay, one night drove into Bishop to watch Clash of the Titans (not as good as the original I have to say), and another night we did actually eat at a restaurant, but the real fun, and some of the better food of the trip, was had around our own campfire.

From the camp stove we had a great mix of sauteed vegetables (broccoli, orange and red bell pepper, and zucchini) over quinoa and topped with a velvety pumpkin curry.  The curry was essentially a base of sauteed onions, spices, canned roasted pumpkin puree, and finished with some creamy goat's milk yoghurt.

Another night Andy made a fantastic stew, combining onions, garlic, herbs, Chianti, kidney beans, zucchini, potatoes, and chicken in a Dutch oven.

After over an hour of slow-cooking in the campfire coals, the stew was bubbling hot and served with deliciously salty bagel toasts.  Pure genius.

Practically the perfect way to finish a day that had started out with a small snow storm!