Easy Camping Recipes

Salmonids by the Shore

Easy camping recipes are always a joy. Salmon
and Trout fishing provide some of the best
camping food ever; especially when prepared right
from the water. They don’t come any fresher than that.

You gotta love it when a plan comes together. We were salmon fishing the hot water discharge at Waukegan, Illinois, and I was showing my friend Dave, who happens to be a chef as well as a fisherman, one of my easy camping recipes. After building a driftwood fire, and waiting for it to burn down, I laid out all the ingredients.

“Okay, Dave,” I yelled over to the water. “Get me a small one, something about four pounds.”

Dave lobbed his spawn sack quartering upstream and followed as in bounced down. About halfway down that drift he lifted his rod tip, and set the hook. The beached steelhead tipped my pocket scale at a smidge more than four pounds.

Quickly filleting the fish, I laid each half on a sheet of buttered foil. I then packed salt around the fish, in a thick layer. This was followed by an even thicker layer of brown sugar. Sliced onions formed the next layer. This was all dotted with butter, and the foil sealed around it.

Laying these packets in the hot coals, I cooked the fish for ten minutes per inch thickness. When it comes to easy camping recipes, it’s hard to beat that.

Sounds like an odd combination, I know. But the salt and sugar act as foils for each other, producing one of the best camp cooking meals you’ll ever eat. And this is one of those easy camping recipes that works for any of the salmonids, from small rainbow trout to giant Chinook salmon. Plus other salt-water fish as well.

The salmonids---trout, salmon, and char---lend themselves especially well to campfire cooking. So it comes as no surprise that guides and anglers have a long history of cooking their catch right on site and developing easy camping recipes to take advantage of the fresh fish.

The most obvious of the easy camping recipes is also the simplest, and most familiar method - simply pan fry them. Sprinkle dressed trout with salt & pepper. Dip in milk, then coat with cornmeal. Fry in bacon drippings until the breading is brown and crisp, and the fish flakes when tested with a fork.

Here are three more easy camping recipes for your salmon and trout fishing adventures:

On Canada’s George River it was traditional for the guides to slice Atlantic salmon into steaks, and broil them over hardwood coals while their sports took a break, or just kept fishing. It’s equally delicious with the more robust Pacific salmon, or even large trout:

George River Salmon

4 salmon steaks, cut about 1-inch thick 3 tbls Dijon mustard 2 tbls olive oil ½ cup dry white wine Salt & pepper to taste

Mix the oil, mustard, wine, salt and pepper in a zipper bag. Add the salmon steaks to the sauce and marinate, chilled, for two hours, occasionally shaking the bag to assure equal coverage.

Place the steaks on a greased grill rack, about four inches from the hot coals and broil about ten minutes, turning once, until the flesh flakes. Brush with additional marinade at least twice during cooking.

Alternatively, place steaks on a sheet of buttered foil, and broil in the oven.

For a neater presentation, truss the steaks before broiling.

Although most popular in the Pacific northwest, where cedar is the wood of choice, cooking fish indirectly on planks has a long tradition of its own. To help keep the fish intact, split them to the back skin, but do not remove the bones. This is called kiting, and is a perfect way to make:

Crucified Trout

1 trout, about a pound, per serving, kited Melted butter Dry mustard Brown sugar Paprika

Spread the fish open and nail them around the edges, to a plank. Cedar and juniper add flavors of their own, but any hardwood will do.

Brush the fish with melted butter, and dust lightly with the mustard, then a bit more heavily with the brown sugar, and, finally, with some paprika.

Cook the fish by reflected heat from a wood fire. This is one of the few times you want high flames instead of just coals. Depending on size of the fish, and distance from the fire, cooking takes 10-20 minutes.

Lift bones with a fork and discard. Serve with lemon wedges. Foil can be the fish cook’s best friend when working on a campfire, allowing you to make turn some rather complex dishes normally reserved for home cooking into easy camping recipes. For example, you’ll really impress the troops with:

Rainbow Trout with Mushroom-Herb Stuffing

6 pan dressed trout, ¾-1 pound each 2 tsp salt 4 cups fresh bread in ½-inch dice 2/3 cup butter 1 cup sliced mushroom ½ tsp marjoram 2/3 cup sliced green onions ¼ cup chopped parsley 2 tbls chopped pimento 4 tsp lemon juice

Sprinkle 1 ½ teaspoons of salt evenly inside and outside of the fish.

In a skillet sauté the bread in ½ cup of butter until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Add the mushrooms and onions. Cook until mushrooms are tender. Stir in remaining salt, the parsley, pimento, lemon juice and marjoram; toss lightly. Stuff fish with this mixture, dividing it equally.

Lay each fish on a piece of buttered foil. Brush with remaining melted butter. Seal the foil around the fish. Lay each foil package directly on hot coals and cook 10-15 minutes, depending on thickness, turning halfway through cooking.