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Fire Pit Recipies


sadistick

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So...we have graciously been lent a cottage for a week starting this weekend, and I want to do as much cooking outside as I can.

One thing when we go camping is that we are limited to what we can bring in terms of weight, but now that we get to drive there, our options are endless!

They have no BBQ, but do have a fire pit, which I plan on utilizing to the fullest extent...I have a grill already yanked out of the BBQ.

The question now is, besides steak's (doing on the first night) and sausages/burgers etc...what other suggestions can you think of for great food, which would benefit from being cooked over coals (which are not the easiest to manage given the setup)?

So far we are doing Italian home made sausages one night, steak the other - have some salads and do some roasted coal potatoes as sides - -

The thing to keep in mind is temperature control, it will not be consistent (obviously) and it will take lots of work to tend...

Cheers.

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One of my favorite things to grill is pineapple. Fresh cut into planks. I do not like any additions like marinades or sauces. Just slap it on and grill it. It is great warm with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream.

Corn on the cob grills nicely.

Pork chops are nice.

Salmon or trout are nice quick cooking fish. Hot coals short time over coals. Oil, salt, pepper, herbs, lemon. Skin side down on hot grill.

Good luck.

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I love to bake potatoes wrapped in foil in the ambers. You can actually cook a lot of things this way: vegetables, fish, dessert. Bananas with butter and brown sugar is a classic but the liquid gets very very hot, so you need to be careful.

Other than that, you can also move the ambers aroung your grill to have a more gentle heat. This is useful for larger pieces of meat.

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At our last Cub Scout campout we made potatoes-in-foil with a bit of a twist: the potatoes were sliced and we also added sliced onion, butter s&p to the pouch, and tossed them right on the coals. They came out great, with enough caramelized bits to blend in with the other bits.

aka Michael

Chi mangia bene, vive bene!

"...And bring us the finest food you've got, stuffed with the second finest."

"Excellent, sir. Lobster stuffed with tacos."

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Kofta. You could even season the meat before you go so all you have to do is squeeze it on sticks and cook it over the fire.

Edited by Tri2Cook (log)

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Don't forget corn, zucchini and you can roast an onion in foil with herbs & spices. Actually I've been told to just stick the onion in the fire until it's well charred. Then take it out and strip away the charred layers for a perfectly cooked onion but I've never tried it.

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Don't forget asparagus and broccolini dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper!

"...which usually means underflavored, undersalted modern French cooking hidden under edible flowers and Mexican fruits."

- Jeffrey Steingarten, in reference to "California Cuisine".

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I am in the camp (no pun intended), that enjoys putting potatoes including sweet ones, and whole onions and garlic directly into the embers. You may have to play around with the fire more than a traditional grill, such as moving things around, mounding the burned down wood. Marlena di Blasi writes in one of her books about a market vendor putting an apple directly into the embers and roasting it for a snack. I have yet to do it, but it sounds like the base for a nice sweet after the meal. Maybe with some condensed milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

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  • 2 months later...

They have no BBQ, but do have a fire pit, which I plan on utilizing to the fullest extent...I have a grill already yanked out of the BBQ.

The question now is, besides steak's (doing on the first night) and sausages/burgers etc...what other suggestions can you think of for great food, which would benefit from being cooked over coals (which are not the easiest to manage given the setup)?

Corn on the cob is perfect for the fire pit. Peel back the husks to remove the silk, then put them back and soak tip first in water for an hour or so. Roll them around on the grill until the steam has gone past the kernels, maybe ten minutes, then peel and serve. Get somebody to bite into the cob that looks the least cooked to make sure it's not still raw.

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Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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This is fitting, we just got back from a short camping excursion. I do almost all my cooking on a firepit, when we camp. I have a small stove for heating things up real fast in the early mornings before we start the fire, but besides that, we do everything on the pit from bacon and biscuits to a dijon and rosemary rubbed roasted pork loin smothered with onions, to brownies. This trip I made fajitas with London Broil, and charred peppers and onions one evening, and a bolognese sauce (with all the leftover meats, bacon, and burgers), spaghetti, and garlic bread the next night. With a good controlled fire, and pots and pans that you don't care if they get black, you can do anything you do on your firepit. My suggestion is split a bunch of wood to small pieces, and use them to better control your heat. You have to tinker, and fiddle, and spin the pots to get the heat even, but to me, that's all part of the fun.

This is a great thread, we're going camping again around Columbus Day, and I'm already making up a menu. We're gonna be out there for a week, this time, so I need a lot of good ideas. We're already talking Greek, something like souvlaki. Maybe a paella, or jambalaya. Also, I'm in the mood for gumbo. Rice gives me trouble, on the pit, though.

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This is a great thread, we're going camping again around Columbus Day, and I'm already making up a menu. We're gonna be out there for a week, this time, so I need a lot of good ideas. We're already talking Greek, something like souvlaki. Maybe a paella, or jambalaya. Also, I'm in the mood for gumbo. Rice gives me trouble, on the pit, though.

This is a great thread. For twenty years my idea of camping food was based on no-nonsense ingredients that travel well, are highly nutritious/caloric, and easy to cook and clean-up. These things are important when you're hiking and biking, but I also like the challenges of car camping. How close can I get the tailgate to the fire pit? How long can I go without a real fridge? How many opulent and absurd culinary gizmos can I fit into a minivan?

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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Nothing like a good old fashioned pig roast. That's a lamb in the back.

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Dutch oven with beef stew.

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“Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!”
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I haven't seen eggplant mentioned yet. I am very, very fond of eggplant in just about any cooked incarnation. Slice it, brush with olive oil and herbs and then grill the slices, and toss with balsamic vinegar and more oil. Roast the whole eggplant until it collapses, let it cool, peel it, and then turn that luscious smoky pulp into baba ganou, or an Egyptian salad with chopped tomatoes and onions, tossed with a lemon vinaigrette. Imam beyaldi (swooning imam) might even lend itself to the grill, although I haven't tried it.

This thread is terrific. I should have realized that Steven Raichlen would have a web site, but I hadn't thought about it before seeing the link upthread.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Butterflied leg of lamb, leapfrog (kind of a funny way to cut and flatten it) chicken, whole fish on spits or in those fish or vegetable holders for the bbq (just made two red snappers in a square one, a large red snapper earlier this year in a fish shaped one - these are nice because they have handles and you can move them away from the heat. Work for meat too of course) Rabbits on a spit, any small game birds. Yes, onions just in the coals works fantastic, just don't pop them in the hottest part ;-) Same with potatoes in heavy duty aluminum foil. I often make small red potatoes that way, throw in some garlic cloves (can be unpeeled), some rosemary, s&p and olive oil. Wrap up tightly in two layers, make sure no openings. turn occasionally. Corn in the husk was mentioned already. I just soak the corn in water before I do that. I read a recipe where they take those hair things out first, I've never bothered doing that. Turn those too, you'll get wonderful fire roasted corn with a bit of char/darkening here and there.

But, if you still have the time and option, run to the book store and get the book 7 Fires by Francis Mallmann and you will never have to wonder what to do with a fire again. You might want to buy welding equipment though....

Get a cheap camping dutch oven for anything you want to boil/steam/simmer etc, I think Lodge is the brand.

And if you have any, bring fireplace tools or at least very long tongs and maybe gloves, a mister bottle with water.

Wow, now I'm hungry! Have fun at the cabin!

Oliver

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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Welding equipment! Among all those lovely suggestions (now I'm thinking some cornish hens) welding stuff... we got welding gloves before the last trip, and they were amazing. I used them for everything, moving around hot pans, poking the fire and adjusting logs, even digging around in the ice filled cooler. If you plan to pit cook often, welding gloves would definitely come in handy. That, and loooong handled tongs, spoons, and spatulas.

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