The New Camp Cookbook by Linda Ly

The New Camp Cookbook: Gourmet Grub for Campers, Road Trippers and Adventurers
by Linda Ly (photography by Will Taylor) [641.578 Ly] 

Every wonder what would happen if you turned a gourmet chef loose at a weekend campground? The New Camp Cookbook is one possible result.

Linda Ly offers up 90 delicious sounding recipes that are supposedly capable of being cooked while out in the wilderness (with caveats), while photographer Will Taylor accompanies over half of Ly’s recipes with absolutely gorgeous images of the finished dishes. Ly first provides an extensive introduction identifying the cooking equipment necessary for her recipes — 12″ skillet, 2 quart saucepan, 4 quart stockpot, 6 quart Dutch Oven, metal skewers and a roll of aluminum foil. She also identifies the pantry items (beyond the specific main ingredients) needed to fully realize her dishes — spices, sweeteners, aromatics, condiments, canned goods, quick-cooking sides, and beverages. Her recommendations for items that can be used as “flavor bombs” include citrus zest, compound butters, strong cheeses and nuts. She then goes into how to start and maintain a fire for an open grill, how to best cook packages wrapped in foil, how to cook in a Dutch Oven, and how to cook with a camp stove (like a Coleman stove).

Finally, on page 40, the recipes start, and she breaks them into types of meals — Rise and Shine (breakfasts), Midday Meals, Small Bites (afternoon snacks), Camp Feasts (dinner), and Sips & Sweets (beverages and desserts). Recipes range from incredibly simple — for instance “Grilled Guacamole”, where the avocado and onions are char-grilled before being diced and combined with seasonings for a traditional smoky guac — to moderately complex — “Grilled French Toast and Bacon Bites” (on skewers) — to quite complex — “Korean Flank Steak with Sriracha-Picked Cucumbers”. While the concept of this book is “cooking in wild wide-open spaces”, I can’t see many of these recipes working in a truly rustic environment, say someplace you have to hike to get to, or “pack in” your gear. However, at the beach, or a campsite, where you can have your car parked nearby, in which you hauled all the cooking supplies, these would be great! Or cooking out with your grill in your own backyard — some of these recipes would be marvelous!

I’d love to have a camp-out cook-out day filled with the following scrumptious recipes from this book: “Peanut Butter-Stuffed French Toast with Honeyed Blackberries” and a side of “Sweet Potato, Apple, and Pancetta Hash” for breakfast; “Foil-Pack Salmon with Pineapple Salsa” for lunch; an afternoon snack of “Grilled Guacamole” or possibly “Peak-of-Summer Peach Caprese Salad”; an evening meal of either “Garlicky Shrimp with Olive Oil, Tomatoes and Orzo” or “Dutch Over Beer-Braised Baby Back Ribs”, with a “Summer Ale Sangria with Ginger and Peach”. And to finish off a day at the lake, or a casual evening after hiking, either gourmet S’Mores, or “Applelicious Dutch Baby“. Even if you don’t anticipate tying on a chef’s apron on your next visit to a camping site at one of our marvelous State Parks or Recreation Areas, you may still find some recipes here that strike your fancy!

[ Lynda Ly’s official Garden Betty web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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