Easy and Tasty Campfire Recipes

Tracy Green’s Sausage Stew

We cooked this stew whilst glamping recently, using the glampsite’s kotlich equipment (which we all fell in love with). It’s hearty, chunky and warming.

• 6-8 sausages (veggie or vegan ones will work too)
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 6 large carrots (chopped)
• 5 large potatoes (chopped
• 3 large parsnips (chopped)
• 1.5 pints of stock
• 1 tbsp cornflour (or something to thicken the stock)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• Crusty granary bread

Add a little oil to the pot and fry off the sausages. Remove and set to the side. Add the onion to the pot and fry until light brown. Add chopped carrots, potatoes and parsnips to the pot. Add the stock and cornflour and bring to a steady simmer. Cut the sausages in half and add to the pot.

Leave kotlich pot cooking over the camp fire for 45 minutes to an hour. Serve in bowls with a hunk of crusty bread.

Donna Campbell’s Chocolate Chilli – our kotlich competition winner!

I got my inspiration from A Girl Called Jack by Jack Monroe. The recipe serves three to four people.

• 1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans in chilli sauce and 1 x 400g tin of baked beans
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small chilli
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 veg stock cube
• 4 squares of dark chocolate

Peel and dice onion, garlic and chilli. Add oil to the kotlich and fry onion till translucent. Add garlic, chopped chilli, paprika and cumin and fry for a few minutes. Add red kidney beans in chilli sauce, baked beans and tomatoes.

Crumble stock cube into pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate till melted. Served with baked potatoes or rice.

Christopher Hobbs’ Goulash

A real Hungarian gulyas simmering nicely in north Wales.

My friend David, who’s Hungarian, made this Aporka Gulyas. We made it by the beach in Borth y Gest in North Wales. It was delicious. Aporka is a village south of Budapest, by the way. Serves six.

•  750g beef chopped to 2cm cubes (tastes good without the meat too. Add some chickpeas for protein)
• 8-10  carrots
• 4-6 parsnips
• half celeriac
• 3 onions
• 4 rashers of smoked bacon, chopped into small pieces (omit, of course, for a veggie/vegan option)
• 6-8 medium potatoes
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• dried basil and dried thyme
• 1 whole garlic, chopped small
• 4 tomatoes chopped small
• 1 packet of passata
• 1 red pepper chopped small
• 1 bay leaf
• A glass of dry red wine

Fry the bacon, then add the onion, and the red pepper, after a few minutes add the tomatoes. When it’s all browned, add the paprika and then the meat, the garlic and the black pepper and salt and herbs. When the meat is brown, add a glass of red wine and let it cook for a bit. Add enough water to cover the meat, but no more. Add the bay leaf.

Wait until the meat is fully cooked (you can add more black pepper and salt if you want) add the chopped vegetables, then add enough water to cover everything, along with the passata. It’s ready as soon as the vegetables are cooked.

The Johnson-Renshaw Family’s Fish Chowder

Our family always has this meal bubbling away on our first night of camp. It is easy to prepare, tasty and nourishing. It’d work fabulously in a kotlich and is a perfect seaside camping recipe. Serves four.

• 2 diced carrots
• 1 large onion
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Podded peas
• 2/3 smoked haddock fillets
• Small tub of single cream
• Fish stock cube
• 3 large potatoes diced
• A handful of spinach
• Black pepper & cayenne pepper to taste

Fry the onions and carrots in the kotlich. Add the potatoes, peas and stock. Simmer till the potatoes are soft, then add the peas. Five minutes before serving, add the diced fish. Stir in the cream, spinach and pepper just before serving. Eat with some crusty bread.