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Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Camping - and cooking - in the rain
To all of you still cleaning off the mud from Austin City Limits this weekend, I can sympathize with the mess.
We skipped the festival this year and opted for a weekend outside the city limits on a two-night camping trip to Colorado Bend State Park.
I’ve waxed on and on about how much I love to cook outside, and this trip was no different, except we had to deal with the same rain that turned Zilker Park into a big muddy mess.
The rain held off long enough for us to cook some late-night eggs and bacon on Friday night and go fishing on Saturday morning, but by Saturday afternoon, the rain had quietly started falling on the park located on the Colorado River.
Good thing that after breakfast on Saturday morning (more eggs and bacon), I started roasting a chicken in our beloved Dutch oven.
After our adventure in not catching any fish (do I look surprised?), we took a not-so-quick trip up to road to Alamosa Wine Cellars, where we picked up a bottle of their signature El Guapo wine to go with dinner. When we got back to the campsite, the chicken was still happily cooking in a stew of potatoes and carrots.
The rain stopped just long enough for us to enjoy our bottle of wine and succulent chicken and vegetables.
For much of the rest of that night and the next day, minus another late-night round of grilling protein over the fire, we were cramped in our tent playing Yahtzee as the rain soaked that part of the Hill Country.
By the time we packed up our campsite the next morning — in the rain, of course — we didn’t have it in us to swing by the final day of the Texas Fall Fest that was taking place at Fall Creek Vineyard in nearby Tow.
Thank the comfort food gods for Country Kitchen in Lampasas.
We rolled in, starving and soaked, and enjoyed some fine Texas fare, including homemade bread and chicken fried steak.
It wasn’t cooked over an open fire, but it was the perfect end to our camping adventure.
Campfire chicken in a Dutch oven
2 Tbsp. oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 onion, chopped
1 whole chicken (cut off the excess fat and skin before you leave home)
3 Tbsp. paprika (optional)
salt and pepper
1 carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 potato, cut into 1-inch pieces
2-3 cups water
charcoal briquettes, heated
Heat up Dutch oven by placing on top of hot coals (charcoal or wood coals work fine). Heat oil in pan and add garlic and onions, stirring often. Rub the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika. Push the garlic and onions off to the side of the oven and place the chicken, breast-side down, in the oven to brown the skin. After five to 10 minutes, depending on how hot your coals are, flip the bird. Wait a few more minutes, then add carrots and potatoes and pour two to three cups of water in Dutch oven. (You want enough water to cover the potatoes and carrots, but with enough of the bird above water to continue browning the top.)
Put the lid on top of the oven and place about a dozen already heated charcoal briquettes on top. Cook for at least an hour. Bring along a thermometer to check the temperature in the thigh. Chicken should reach at least 170 degrees (the temperature will continue to rise after removing from Dutch oven).
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Chef John Besh brings tale of New Orleans recovery to Austin
As the recovery continued, he expanded his restaurant empire (La Provence and Luke) and got to work on a cookbook, which came out this month. “My New Orleans” (Andrews McMeel, $45) is more than a collection of recipes; it is a tribute to one of the richest culinary cities in America. He’ll be in Austin on Sunday for a talk and book signing at BookPeople at 3 p.m.
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Kitchen Confession: Drinking milk from the carton
This is the first of an occasional series about bad habits in the kitchen.
It’s time I fessed up: I drink milk straight from the carton.
Not all the time, of course, but sometimes, when it’s late at night and all I want is a swig of thick, creamy milk, say, after a cookie or sweet bite to eat. I don’t want enough milk to warrant dirtying a cup, but just one tiny sip won’t hurt, right?
I hid this habit from my parents, roommates and now my husband for a long time, but I suspected that they, too, sneaked a sip of milk or juice here and there without going through the three-second step of getting a cup. I’ve even caught Ian — who has this weird aversion to sharing milk as it is — in the act.
Family members swap so much bacteria as it is, what’s another contaminated surface?
Besides, there’s something deeply satisfying about drinking milk from the carton. I can’t say it necessarily tastes better — it’s the same milk, after all — but maybe it’s rebelling against the nagging motherly voice in my head that tells me I shouldn’t.
Kitchen Confession is a series of blog posts highlighting the bad habits we refuse to break in the kitchen. I can’t be the only person who occasionally cuts up vegetables with a steak knife. My husband, for example, always puts olive oil in water before boiling pasta and, no matter how many times I explain how it affects how well the sauce sticks, washes off the pasta when it’s done cooking.
What’s your dirty kitchen habit? E-mail me at abroyles@statesman.com. Photos are optional, but encouraged.
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