Vstay at home, I cook at the campsite. Under the appearance of a joke, a crappy plan or even an oxymoronic concept, the proposal can keep its promises and well beyond, by reserving unsuspected surprises. Fans of the outdoor hotel industry in all its forms know this well, who have not waited for the videos of influencers to find charm in small dishes from off-road cuisine, even with nothing at all.
Carried by the pandemic and the prolonged sedentary lifestyle, the desire for the fresh air, so-called “leisure” vehicles are as attractive as ever: sales of campervans or vans recorded a record in 2020 with 234,000 units sold in Europe (+12 % over one year), according to the European Caravanning Federation. Ditto for those of motorhomes (160,000 copies, + 21%). These travel companions combine the assets for holidaymakers in love with freedom, in search of a more economical lifestyle, closer to nature, and an assumed minimalism.
An approach that also applies to their way of getting supplies, of eating, of cooking: make way for a mess of bits of string, little transformed, leaving an important part to inventiveness without condemning or overdoing it. frugality or the mediocrity of the all-prepared. In summary, a simple cuisine that can be quite healthy and varied, as long as we know how to find small recipes from behind the bundles.
Stove, barbecue and wood fire
“We are so used to the precision and reliability of our modern kitchens that we feel liberated when we manage to cook without constraints around the fire”, advance, in their introduction, Marnie Hanel and Jen Stevenson, the American authors of The real camper’s kitchen, the French version of which has just been published.
The cooking instrument is the sinews of war: the mobile homes being, with some exceptions, devoid of ordinary sedentary equipment, it is gas stoves, compact charcoal barbecues and old-fashioned wood fires that take hold. the relay – most often a combination of two or three of them. “With the addition of papillotes, very useful for obtaining a casserole dish on the fire, we have a sufficient arsenal”, explains Delphine Lebrun, author of Cooking in a van and camping. “For more convenience, however, long and simmered cooking is avoided and the cooking times are adapted depending on the source – longer on a stove. “
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