Real cooks, real fire: 5 best campfire meals

Come-on baby, light that campfire. Cooking in the wild just got a whole lot more interesting! Whether you’re digging a fire pit or working over a fire ring, rimmed with rock or brick, you want to be sure the blaze has died down a little to an even burn.

A Taste of the Apostles guide and cookbook author, Beth Dooley, shares the best five meals you can make over a campfire.

First, the essential packing list

• A campfire grill is great for grilling fish, meats, and vegetables as you might over your backyard grill at home. For a medium-high heat, allow the flames to burn off a little.
• The cast iron Dutch oven is a must. It works as a saucepan, oven, and frying pan. Clean-up is a breeze once it’s seasoned. Use a cloth to wipe it out.
• Pantry essentials: use plastic containers to pack out coarse salt, seasoned salt, freshly ground pepper, red pepper flakes, good olive oil, butter, balsamic vinegar, red pepper flakes, chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, and flour. For a touch of sweetness, bring brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey – and really good dark chocolate.
• Vegetables and fruit: These are easy to pack and need little refrigeration – onions, garlic, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, potatoes, winter squash, summer squash, black radishes, beets, turnips, large carrots, cherry tomatoes, Asian eggplant, apples, oranges, grapes, cherries, lemons, and limes.
• Cheeses and meats that need little refrigeration: hard cheeses such as parmesan, romano, cheddar, manchago, aged gouda; beef jerky, turkey jerky, salmon jerky, summer sausage, pepperoni, etc.

1. Campfire mushroom quesadillas

• Mushrooms will keep several days, stored in a paper bag, with no need to refrigerate. They make hearty filling when paired with cheese.
• Film a Dutch oven with olive oil, set on a medium fire and sauté sliced mushrooms, onions and garlic, until the onions are very soft and the mushrooms have released their liquid. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
• Place several flour tortillas on squares of foil. Arrange the cooked vegetables over the tortillas. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese. Fold into a packet and place on the grill. Cook for 10 minutes per side. Remove and serve with salsa.

2. Campfire chili

• This is not really a recipe, but a guide to making chili PDQ.
• Boxed cooked kidney beans are much lighter to carry and easier to pack.
• In the Dutch oven, stir together equal amounts cooked kidney beans chopped fresh or canned tomatoes, onions, chopped beef jerky or summer sausage. Stir in 1 chopped, seeded jalapeno, chili powder, ground cumin, salt, and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Set over a moderate high flame, cover, and cook, stirring frequently, for about 20 minutes, or until the flavors have melded together. Serve topped with shredded cheddar cheese.

3. Campfire potatoes

• One of the easiest and most delicious ways to roast both sweet potatoes and baking potatoes is in the coals. Wrap the potatoes in foil and place them directly into the campfire. Cook until soft, about 45 minutes. Remove, unwrap, slit open, and top the baking potatoes with shredded cheese and chopped jerky or salami. The sweet potatoes are great with sweet butter, lime juice, or balsamic vinegar, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper.

4. Fruit crumble

• Easy, satisfying. Leftovers are great for breakfast. Use any fruit you happen to have on hand, fresh and dried, and any berries you find on the trail.
• Generously grease the Dutch oven with butter. Add fruit, season with lime juice, toss in a little flour, more butter, sugar and cinnamon. Top with granola and a few more dabs of butter. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, until the fruit is soft and bubbly.

5. Grown up s’mores

• Not the cloying milk chocolate, wimpy graham cracker, gooey things. Here’s that favorite with flair: use ginger snaps or thin biscotti, very dark chocolate, and gourmet marshmallows. Do not burn the marshmallows; just before they toasted to be perfectly golden, lay a few squares of dark chocolate on the cookie, sprinkle with just a little coarse salt, then top it off.