Campervan Food

I recently went away for a week in a campervan, we went around southern Ireland, started off in Dublin from the ferry port and went all the way south, then all the way west, then north to level with Dublin again and back across east. It was a fantastic week for loads of reasons but what I wanted to write about was how excited I was about cooking in the van for a whole week!

I enjoy cooking and have a small but varied cookery book collection. I take great pleasure in searching through my spice rack to find the right tubs, some of which are my own mixes for specific dishes. I tend to cook a recipe once from the book then try to recreate it with usually not the right ingredients, just what I happen to find cheap in the supermarket. I suppose that makes me quite resourceful in the kitchen ingredient wise, but not utensil. I have been criticised more than a few times for my lack of sympathy with my washer-upper, mountains of crockery, pans, pots and cutlery litter the sink by the time I’m finished. I saw cooking in the van as a bit of a challenge; we had two gas hobs and a grill, limited pans and utensils and not much space for my beloved spices. I prepared a box of tricks before we went...

Box of tricks: Olive oil, garlic, stock cubes, salt and pepper and an Italian herb mix (I wish I’d thought to add flour and maybe some thyme).

I also insisted on taking a sharp knife (I’d tried with swiss army before but it’s just not big enough) and a baking tray for under the grill. I wasn’t allowed much more, the driver wanted to keep things simple.

I had a few dishes in mind that I thought we could manage, but wanted to avoid the usual ravioli pasta with stir in sauce (although we did have this at the bottom of Carrantuohill after a soggy walk up and it did taste amazing!) We ended up with…

Cahore Point Creamy, cheesy, bacon and veg Pasta with home made garlic bread

Dungarvan Chicken Fajhitas

Carrantuohill Fruity Balti with Basmati rice and naan bread

Carrantuohill after the mountain A Well Deserved Rest Pasta and Sauce

Brandon Bay Thai Green Curry with noodles and chips (yes chips!)

Best Dish Doolin Sausage Casserole

Lough Ree Spag Bol a la Washer-Upper (I had a well deserved night off!)

I saw my real achievement of the week as the chips with the thai green curry, my washer-upper is fussy about having chips with curry so I thought I’d try it. It was pretty simple to do….

1.Cut the potatoes into chip shapes.

2.Boil them until soft

3.Put in baking tray sprinkle with oil and salt and pepper and put under grill

4.Leave for as long as you can bear it, so they go extra crispy (or chippy if you like)

5.Serve!