Trailer Park Cooking

It’s often part of an “Ulster Fry,” and it’s delicious! Fried up with bacon, sausages, eggs, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes if you like, and even wheaten bread slices also fried up in the bacon fat. Some say such a breakfast is a “Heart Attack On A Plate,” but me, me Da, his Da – my Granda and the Granda’s before them ate this stuff regularly. Mind you, it wasn’t usually for breakfast – perhaps their breakfast of steel cut oats – big steaming bowls of it (my Granda also laced his with copious amounts of ginger along with goat’s milk).

Being originally from Cape Breton, C. is quite familiar with white and black pudding – where it often still has the Gaelic name of ‘Marag‘.  She doesn’t like the black pudding though, but she can eat a plateful of the white along with her sausages and eggs. It’s a perfect addition to a camp meal – hearty and tasty with oatmeal, onion and suet being the primary ingredients.  The black pudding which has an almost cake like texture and a rich taste with hints of chocolate has the addition of pig’s blood (sometime lamb’s blood). I know the thought of that might turn some off, but it’s been a part of Scot/Irish cooking for generations as well as in The America’s and other parts of the world.

Neither C. or I have had Marag or white/black pudding in a long time, so when I saw some in the freezer of a British tuck shop, I grabbed it. This morning, I cooked it up band was rewarded very well by C. for serving up one of her most favorite foods in the world.  She didn’t care much for the black puddin’ but I ate mine up and have some left over for another morning.

Mmmmmm! Nothing like cooking outdoors – and an Ulster Fry is one of the best and tastiest meals to make in cast iron frying pans!

I love stainless steel appliances. My dream is to have a log cabin in the woods (serviced, of course!) and all stainless steel appliances.  I love the look of them, and think it would be awesome to have a stainless steel fridge and gas stove.  C. also likes stainless steel too which is a bonus. So about five weeks ago, when we saw the Kuuma Stainless Steel “Stow N’ Go” barbecue, we both knew we wanted it, even if just for its looks.

So, we bought it. We’ve been using a Lodge Sportsman’s Grill which is cast iron for sometime and I really like it, but a gas barbecue offers some conveniences that a charcoal grill does not.  Such as less waiting times – and on our schedule, it can be a pain at times to wait for the charcoal to be ready before cooking on it.

Often referred to as a barbecue for marine use because of its stainless steel construction, the model we purchased, 83790, has  about 160 square inches of cooking space – not huge – but enough to do a few steaks or pork chops, or enough burgers for C., David, and I. It’s design is very handy for small spaces and its legs fold away for storage.

The manufacturer also says that it will put out 13,000 BTU’s of heat.

When we picked it up and brought it back to the trailer, one of the awesome things about the Kuuma was that it needed no assembly whatsoever. All we did was pull it out of the box and hook up the propane tank. The hose from the regulator to the tank was not included with the barbecue, so you would need to have one before you can start cooking.

The stainless steel does look beautiful too! But how does it cook?

Well, there are a couple of disadvantages with this barbecue. First, there is a warning that the lid should not be closed when it is on high. Actually, you might not want to close it on the medium setting either.  In our first evening with the barbecue, we decided to cook up a couple of steaks, and C. and I both like ours done medium to medium-well done.  The heat was on medium, and I closed the lid. After a few minutes, I went to open the lid, but it had seized! I had to use a screw driver in between the lid and the base in order to apply some leverage to get the lid open. The heat had sized up the screws and nuts that the lid is attached with and turn on to be opened and closed.

I have not yet tried to loosen the screws as they seem to use a TORX type of head, which I don’t have here at the trailer. And ever since that first cooking, the lid is very stiff to open and close.

The next issue with this barbecue is that even though it seems there is flame evenly distributed from the left to the right side, the heat on the right side seems quite a bit lower than on the left.  Steaks and chops that are on the extreme right hand side of the grill need to be moved toward the center after the other steaks and chops have finished cooking.

Still, even with the above issues, it cooks food, and the food tastes great. Obviously as with any barbecue that is propane, you don’t get the flavours that charcoal can impart to cooking food.  But with its small size which makes it easy to stow and store, the Kuuma is a beautiful cooking machine when you need something small and that should last a very long time because it is 100% stainless steel.

The price we picked up the Kuuma Stow N’ Go 83790 was $119.00 Canadian.

July 27, 2010

Last night, we did our first roast in the dutch oven over an open fire. We weren’t quite sure how it would turn out, but we really wanted to try. C. brought up some baby potatoes when she arrived Sunday night. There were baby carrots in the fridge.  And I’ve got the Lodge cast iron dutch oven which I’ve used quite often in a regular electric oven.

We went to town and got a nice looking blade roast that was on sale. After getting the fire going to make sure there would be some nice hot coals, I poured a couple of tablespoons in the bottom of the dutch oven.  On top of that, went the roast. The baby potatoes were washed and put inside the cast iron, all around the roast. Then came the baby carrots. Next, I cut up a small turnip (or rutabaga as they are sometimes called) and in went that. Finally, a chopped onion with some fresh ground pepper and the lid went on.

Some red hot coals were pulled out from where the fire was burning, and we set the Dutch oven on them.  Within 20 minutes, we could hear the sizzle and smell the cooking.

Normally, it would take a roast of this size to cook in the over 90 to 120 minutes at 350. But what was the temperature inside the Dutch oven?  Being the first time we’d ever done this, we weren’t sure what to do. After about 50 minutes, we both agreed we should probably check and see what was going on inside.

The bottom side of the roast seemed overdone. So did some of the vegetables. The top side of the roast however, was not cooked – a quick cut with a knife revealed lots of red blood.  Hardly even done rare.

So we scooped out the veggies into another pot, turned the roast over, and did it for another 15 or so minutes on the coals. In the end, we had a delicious dinner!

Next time, we’ll just try to remember what we did and then make some cooking time adjustments. Probably cook the roast a good half hour before adding the veggies instead of doing it all at once.

After dinner, it was a couple of games of Scrabble by the fire with the Coleman lantern.

Years ago, I used to go camping quite often and we’d set up camp right beside my father-in-law’s site. He made the best camp breakfasts! He had it all organized and knew exactly what he needed to cook, when to start the sausages, bacon, pancakes and eggs so everything would be ready at the right time.

For cooking pancakes, he had a nice flat cast iron griddle (I highly recommend these and have one myself) that was well seasoned. Here’s the simple but scrumptious recipe for his buttermilk pancakes. Naturally, you’ll have to remember to pick up some buttermilk. If you don’t have it, you can substitute whole or 2% milk – but buttermilk does give a better taste in my opinion.  But then I’m an Irishman – and I drink buttermilk like some folk drink water.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 cups Buttermilk

1/2 cup whole or 2% milk

1/4 cup salted butter, melted

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method:

You need two bowls. In one, combine they dry ingredients. In the other, whisk the milk, buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter together.

Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar).

Mix it all together so it’s blended well.

Heat the griddle on medium high. The skillet should be hot enough so that if you sprinkle drops of water on it, they dance or bounce on the surface.

Pour the pancake batter onto the skillet to make small pancakes. When bubbles appear on the top sides, flip them over and cook until golden brown.

Eat them with REAL maple syrup and more butter melted on top. Do yourself a favour and splurge on the real maple syrup.

I think I’ll go heat up my skillet! I’m getting hungry as I write this.

If you’re a backpacker, this post is not for you.  I know – I’ve done some backpacking and hiking too – although it was years ago – and I know that weight is THE most important consideration of anything when filling that pack. Cast iron cookware? Forget it! Not a chance.

But if you’re camping where weight is not a consideration, cooking with cast iron is a real joy. In fact, not only do I use cast iron when camping, or living in my trailer, I use cast iron every chance I get for cooking anywhere. Cast iron is the original non-stick cooking material, and has little risk of toxicity like stuff made of teflon.  Not only that, when used properly, cast iron can be just as easy – if not easier – to maintain and clean than other types of cookware. The only toxicity you would need to worry about is if you have too much iron in your body, and you cook a lot of acidic foods such as tomato in your cast iron. But for those (as are most of us) that have an iron deficiency, cast iron is the perfect material to cook in.

I never wash my cast iron in dish soap or detergent. I don’t worry about germs. The stuff gets hot enough to kill any germs before the food that is to be cooked is put into it.

Cast iron imparts a taste and a crispness to food that you just won’t find when cooking in cookware made of other material. And you don’t have to worry about dents, scratches, soot, scrubbing the bottoms to keep shiny looking – in fact the blacker it is, the better it is!

You can use cast iron over the kitchen stove top, on a Coleman camp stove, or even the fireplace. I use it in all three.

In the future, I’ll provide some cast iron cooking tips and recipes.  If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, do yourself a favour and go out and get one. Probably today, the best manufacturer is Lodge – they use a better quality iron than the stuff imported from China.

One of the delights about getting up in the morning when camping is smelling the coffee percolating and hearing the little “plop plop” noise as the water gently boils up through the tube and comes down through the coffee grounds.

I don’t think you can beat camp coffee! Not even Tim Horton’s or Starbucks comes close.

Although I generally make my coffee over a Coleman stove outside, a propane stove inside the trailer can be handy on wet rainy days. Or, if the fire is still hot enough and there are some hot coals, placing the percolator on those coals can get the coffee ready fairly quickly as well. However, if you do this, make sure you don’t have a plastic handled percolator like mine – it may melt when placed over a fire.

Although I have a plastic handled camp percolator, I really like it. I’ve had it for about 15 years, and I’ve never cleaned the inside of it other than to give it a good rinse. Some say that coffee tastes better when made in a percolator that is never cleaned. I’m not sure but I do know that the taste is not adversely affected if not cleaned other than a rinse.

It makes about 8 cups of coffee – enough for me to get going in the morning and get my shot(s) of caffeine. When C. is hear, it’s still plenty big enough for the both of us – although I wouldn’t mind a larger percolator just to have extra coffee for those “morning afters” when the campfire went to 5AM, and a few more drinks were consumed while staring at stars, cuddling, and enjoying the warmth of the fire.

I’ve just finished my first cup of coffee. I have to admit to liking mine “double double” as we say here in Canada. Double cream and two teaspoons of sugar. And it has to be real cream – not that powdered stuff that seems so prevalent in the USA. But in a pinch, I also enjoy camp coffee black – but still need the sugar!

I’m about to have my second cup of coffee, and it looks like it will turn into a pleasant day with a mix of cloud and sunshine. There is a breeze blowing and no humidity in the air. A beautiful day to be living in a camping trailer park!

I had to get into the office and today was my first experience with hitch hiking from the trailer to there. The highway the trailer park is located on is not a well used highway, and after about 15 minutes, only about 5 vehicles passed me while I hitch hiked and walked down the road.  I continued walking – thankfully it was not as hot as yesterday – and began thinking that I would probably end up walking all the way to the next town, about 8 KM or so away before I’d get a ride.

I walked around a corner and as I did, a driver of a pick up truck that was turning left onto the highway south of me saw me trudging along. He waited as I drew closer and when within range, the old fellow yelled, “Need a ride?” I ran up to the vehicle as he waited for me and I told him where I was headed.  Turns out M. lives not too far away, hauls horses for a living, and was heading into the next town.  He sympathized with my predicament having experienced it himself 6 years ago.  We chatted awhile about life in general, and M. decided that he was going to give me a lift all they way down the next highway where I needed to go east. I was very grateful for him going out of his way on my behalf and taking up his time to help me out

After a quick smoke, I stuck out my thumb again. I waited less than five minutes when another pick up truck driver pulled over to the side of the road.  Mike had never driven along this highway before; he had made a delivery of some parts he makes in his machine shop further up north, and decided to visit a friend he hadn’t seen in  awhile.  Mike commented that it had been a long time since he had seen anyone hitchhiking! Well, I was sure glad that Mike decided to travel that highway today. I was able to help him out on the best way to his destination and he was able to help me out by dropping me off only a block away from my office.

After a bit of a medical scare and a trip to the doctor (who then promptly sent me off to the hospital for some imaging), my girlfriend C. kindly arrived to pick me up and help me out with some supplies. First thing we did was head to Future Shop and picked up a Sunbeam 3.2 cubic foot fridge. Model # SBCR039W, it wasn’t the biggest fridge available, but the nice thing about it is that it does have a small freezer area.  Both C. and I decided that the smaller size of the fridge, with a bit of a freezer that will hold a couple of pounds of ground beef, an ice cube tray, and maybe a pound of bacon was more advantageous than a larger fridge without a freezer. This Sunbeam will keep six cans of beer cold, has room for a large carton of milk, a litre of cream, ketchup, mustard, 18 eggs, sour cream, butter, and a bunch of other food that needs to be kept cold.  I can’t stock up for a week, but as long as I have the fridge and a good supply of canned goods along with a bag of potatoes and onions, I’m not going to starve. By the way, if you plan on doing potatoes in the fire pit, wrapped in foil, do yourself a favour and pick up Russet potatoes.

After the fridge purchase, it was off to the grocery store for supplies. Pretty much everything in the list above – ground beef, mushrooms, mi lk, cream, eggs, butter, etc. It was after dark by the time we arrived at the camping trailer and with a few minutes of light panic because I couldn’t find the gate card, we finally were able to lug everything into the trailer.  The fridge was set up first, the grocery bags were emptied, and then the fire was lit.  We checked the fridge and celebrated:  The beer was getting cold!

C. had brought up a couple of awesome T-bone steaks (I told you last week she’s awesome!), so “Cowboy Charcoal” was put into the barbecue, and about midnight, we were eating Greek salad and very tasty steak.

I know, not the best time to eat, these “midnight snacks,” but a few hours of some good conversation around the fire and then 3AM came too quickly. Bed time for us.

After C. left this afternoon, I decided to take the new propane tank out of the Jeep and put up in front of the trailer. At the time, I decided to turn on one of the tanks that is hooked up, and when I did, I realized that the spewing propane was not coming from the regulator at all! There is a hole in the hose that goes from the tank to the regulator and it’s from here that the propane is leaking.

That means I just need to get a new hose.

When I discovered this, I turned on the other propane tank (the first one is turned off, of course), and there were no leaks.

With that wonderful discovery, I got myself busy at getting the stove and oven in the trailer working as well as the hot water heater.  Attached to the inside of one of the cabinet doors in the Glendale Camper is a sheet of paper with the specifications of the camper and original equipment. On it, it instructs to light all pilot lights after turning on the propane. So I busied myself looking for any pilot lights that needed to be lit.

First was the water heater. I went around back of the trailer and easily figured out how to turn on the pilot for the water heater. Pretty standard – turn the control knob to “Pilot,” hold down the red button, and stick in a lighter where the pilot light is. A blue flame!

Next was to figure out the stove and if it had a pilot light even. I turned one of the burners on, and there was no “clicking” sound like on other gas stoves I’ve had. I was able to light the burner with a match. Then, I lit all the burners, thinking that if the stove had a pilot, it would catch with all the burners lit. It was kind of dark near the stove, so seeing a pilot light flame somewhere should be easy, but I couldn’t see one nor could I see any place where a pilot light would be.

I turned off all the burners, waited a while to see if I could smell propane which would be evidence of an unlit pilot light. Nothing. Then I lit a long match and slowly went over the top of the stove and into every part near the burners, seeing if something would light. Nothing.

So I am sure there is no pilot light for the stove. Which is fine by me.

Next was the oven. I opened the oven door and smelled. No gas. But a gas oven usually does have a pilot light, even those that have stoves that do not have pilot lights. Once again, I lit a match and slowly hovered it in and around the gas burners trying to light something. Perhaps the oven was not working?

I don’t like playing around with gas and flames very much.  But I thought I’d try to see what happens when I turned the oven on to “low.” With the match lit, and kneeling in front of the stove as far away as physically possible, I turned the knob to low.  The oven burner did not light up. Using a flashlight, I could see what appeared to be a pilot light burner burner near the back. I put the match close to it, and voi la! I had it lit.

I then turned the oven on to full blast. The main oven burner lit up. I turned it down to low again. The main burner went out but the pilot light stayed on. I turned the oven off. The pilot light went out.

So it seems that in order to light the oven pilot light, I have to turn the oven on to low and then adjust the temperature control. I have no idea if the oven thermometer works or not but that will be tested another day.

After being very excited about figuring out the oven and stove, I turned on the hot water tap. I had warm water coming out! The hot water heater was definitely working, and an hour later, I had very hot water flowing from the tap!

I can now do dishes without having to boil water.

No pots, no worries!

This evening we had steak. Delicious steak dinner! Remember, the stove in the Glendale camper trailer is not working on account of the three way propane regulator. But we were starving, and when we went into town we bought:

• Mushrooms
• Onion
• Butter
• Can of corn
• Can of beans
• Sour cream
• Ketchup
• Firewood
• Coleman fuel
• Beer (Molson Canadian and Harp)
• Campbell’s Chunky Clam Soup

We didn’t use all of that for our dinner mind you. But by the time we got back, we were starving! But we had planned on biking around the trailer park today, and wanted to see what we could see. So on our bikes we got. The sites that are back out on the river are absolutely gorgeous! Long and deep with a beautiful view. As far as privacy though, we are thinking that the site I have is probably the best! The sites along and across from the river are all scrunched up against each other, but – many have done a lot of work to really beautify their spots. Decks that would make many home owners envious. Gardens that are awesome. Cute signs and names for their sites.. which got me thinking…. 

But you want to know how to cook over a campfire and a barbque, without pots.  And have lots of nutrition too.  Thank you, C.!

So you’ve got steak.  Potatoes. Mushrooms, onions. A can of corn. A can of beans.

You’re going to do the steak on a bar-b-que – I have a nice cast iron unit from Lodge.

First, you get the fire lit. You will need some hot coals. When you have hot coals, wrap the potatoes in tinfoil and lay those on the coals.

Then, light your barbeque.  I like to use “Cowboy Charcoal.” To have it ready, it will take a good half hour or so. In the meantime, slice your onion and mushrooms and lay them in a sheet of tinfoil, about 18″ long. Add a tablespoon of butter.

Fold over the tinfoil lengthwise on both ends, then fold over the edges width wise. Take out another 18″ length of tinfoil and double wrap what you’ve just wrapped.

That’s your onion and mushroom package and now you’ll want to make a corn and beans package in a similar manner.

Drain the liquid from the can of corns and can of beans and add a tablespoon of butter after pouring beans and corn onto tinfoil. Once you’ve folded this up and double wrapped, lay both near the hot coals in the  fire pit.

Put steak on the barbeque and cook them as you like.

Make sure potatoes are done and then remove the two tinfoil packages and unwrap the mushrooms and onions, beans and corn and you’ll have an amazing dinner with no pots to wash.

Thanks to C. for how to cook veggies without a pot.