Feasting Regardless of Travel Frustrations!

We've been away on holiday for a week or so, hence my absence from the kitchen of late. We decided this year - in our infinite wisdom ;-) - to go camping down further south in England. When I came to stay in England with my dad a few years ago, I stayed in late August/early September in Bath, and the weather was amazing. Hot dry sunny days and long summery nights. This was what I imagined our camping holiday would be like. It wasn't. Many dramas - weather related and otherwise - ensued, and while it wasn't exactly the restful holiday I'd planned, we did have fun and now that it's over, we like to look back and laugh at our misfortunes along the way. One of things which caused my partner Andrew to laugh most often was my cooking. Not because it was bad, I hasten to add, but because it was probably more ambitious than your ordinary camp cooking. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the menus, but other friends laughed outright when I told them our meal for the first night...lamb biryani with freshly made (at the campsite) naan bread. I'm not completely deranged, I do realise that this sounds a bit mad for camp-cooking, but there is a reason. I took frozen lamb chops from home for the biryani, and when I was taking them out of the freezer I noticed that I had some pre-made naan dough in there so I threw it in the chiller bag as well. Why not?! It actually worked remarkably well. I basically just fried them in a hot pan with oil, pulling them into vague shape rather than rolling them. Then I kept them warm in tin foil while I made the biryani (which, in fairness, is actually not a difficult meal - it's onions, garlic and spices, then meat or fish of choice, rice and water which you leave to cook by itself for about 20 mins. Actually very simple). The verdict? Campside naan bread were a total success! Sort of like Indian damper (you know the scone dough stuff you used to wrap around sticks and roast over a campfire when you were a kid?)

Aside from the Indian feast, my meals were fairly normal I think. The next night we had creamy smoked salmon pasta (sauteed onion and garlic, a lot of cream, parmesan and smoked salmon chunks stirred through hot pasta with some baby spinach leaves. What could be simpler?!) and stirfries other nights. Actually we had fajitas one night too, which were a big hit. And, in a nod to the more traditional camp cooking, one night we did have sausages in warm rolls, but I cooked some apple slices to pop in beside them and frankly it made all the difference. Just because you only have one wee gas ring to cook on, doesn't mean standards should drop!


Me cooking the infamous naan bread

Since we've been back I haven't done much of any great note in the kitchen, although I did make a pretty yummy plum cake yesterday which I thought I'd share. The recipe is one my friend Rach gave me for an apple sponge cake (she serves it warm as a dessert, but it's pretty good for a day or two afterwards as well). I had some lovely English plums in the fridge which were thrown in there before we went away in the hopes that they'd still be ok when we got back. They were ok, but past their best eating fresh date. Yesterday the time had come to do something with them, so why not a cake? In the apple version, the apple slices stay on top of the cake and form a delicious fruity crust, but the plums did their own thing. Some of them sank, some floated, and some hovered mid-way through the cake. The ones on the bottom went almost jammy and the ones on top are sweet and crispy - really quite good.

Rach's Apple/Plum Cake

125g very soft butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2-3 apples or 6(ish) plums, sliced but not peeled
Topping - 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon mixed together

Place butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk, flour and baking powder in food processor. Beat on low to combine then on medium for 3 mins.*
Pour into greased cake pan (I use a brownie tin, but any cake pan will do. It'll be a thinner cake the bigger your pan - doesn't really matter).
Place slices of fruit over the top of the cake (in pretty patterns if you fancy, or just in lines if you're in a hurry for yummy cake!) Sprinkle over the topping evenly.
Bake at 180degC for 30(ish) mins or until it is firm in the middle.
Cool in tin then slice.

* If, like me, you don't have a food processor, just make this with the old school method. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla and beat for a couple of mins. Add dry ingredients and beat together well.