Those Campfire Recipes - Poor Man's Pad Thai

I love easy and I love recipes that you can add to and still keep to the spirit of the dish. Poor Man's Pad Thai is one of those. The original backpacking recipe is simply a package of Top Ramen (the oriental broth flavor) and a big spoonful of peanut butter. This in itself is surprisingly filling but for those that need more you can certainly add.

Traditionally Pad Thai is a street food and varies according to what is available. According to Wikipedia, "Pad Thai or Phat Thai (Thai: ผัดไทย [pʰàt tʰāj], "fried Thai style") is a dish of stir-fried rice noodles with eggs, fish sauce (Thai: น้ำปลา), tamarind juice, red chilli pepper, plus any combination of bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, garnished with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime, the juice of which can be added along with Thai condiments. It is usually served with spring onions and pieces of raw banana flower." Adding elements like this keep it traditional and with a little enginuity be a fun and offbeat campground treat.

Here is what we have tried.
Canned Bean Sprouts
Canned Shrimp
Canned chicken
Chives

The only thing we didn't like was the canned shrimp...good while very hot and fresh but as the dish cooled it got extremely fishy. My favorite is at it's simplest, though. Crunchy peanut butter and garnished with chives...delicious!

My favorite version, just chunky peanut butter and chives.                                                          ©Marcia Mauskopf 2011

Cast Iron At The Campsite? You Bet!

So, J. and I constantly argue...I mean, discuss, how much I can possibly carry to the campsite and not blow a tire on the truck. For years I have tried to minimize as much as possible and that included my kitchen box until last May, when I rolled some hot olive oil around a backpacking pan and right out onto my hand. It was then I started thinking about nice heavy cast iron pans.

Aluminum nested pots are great on the trail but they have their drawbacks and one big one for me is that you have to really control your temps to keep from burning the pot and not everything is easily cooked in these lightweight pots. From pioneers to cowboys on chuckwagons to weekend car campers, cast iron has been the choice tool in the outdoor kitchen.

Once seasoned, cast iron spreads the heat evenly, can be nearly non-stick and is easy to clean. Other than the weight, cast iron has a welcome place in any campsite. Seasoning is easy to do and instructions are available at What's Cooking America.

A favorite piece for many is the dutch oven. You can make most anything in one, from swiss steak to pizza to cherry cobbler. You can learn all about them at Dutch Oven Cooking.

Got a favorite camp recipe? Share it with me and I'll test it here. Great submissions will get blog-kissed with a credit back to you ;-)

I got these to skillets at a garage sale for a song.                                                                           ©Marcia Mauskopf  2011