One of our favorite things to do is go camping as often as we can. Just load up the car and go somewhere. It is so relaxing to unplug from our daily grind and breath in mountain air. One of our next favorite things to do once we are ready to enjoy a meal is cooking over a campfire. This recipe for campfire mushrooms is one of our favorite campfire recipes to make.
When we camp we do not deny ourselves a good meal, by eating freeze-dried, prepackaged food. After all, it is car camping, and a cooler full of fresh food is easy to bring along. A little secret, sometimes we even bring homemade creme brulee! Or make Paella, over the campfire. The key to planning out your camp meals is to plan your menu and pack everything before you leave town. We learned the hard way years ago, by waiting until the last grocery store before we headed into primitive land; the food choices were grim, and we were extremely disappointed.
We are usually gone at least three nights, so we plan three meals a day. This may sound like a lot of food, but it really isn’t and we usually do not come home with anything. A typical camping trip menu may look like this:
Lunches: Friday afternoon (the drive), Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (the drive home). Turkey or Roast Beef sandwiches and a potato or macaroni salad, as well as freshly cut carrot/celery sticks. I will pick up about a 1/2 pound of each meat, thinly sliced, from the deli. I bring pita bread, mustard, sprouts, or some lettuce, cheese (which has been thinly sliced at the deli), and mustard. I make the salad the day before leaving, it packs easily.
Breakfast: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. One morning we have cornmeal griddle cakes with sausage patties. Another morning will be eggs with sausage patties, and the last morning will be yogurt with fruit and nuts, maybe even some granola. To prepare beforehand, I pre-make my cornmeal griddle cake mix and store it in a large mason jar. I buy a pound of ground pork sausage, season it with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme leaves. Fruit, I bring blueberries, blackberries, or bananas, along with either pecans or walnuts.
Dinner: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. One evening we usually have steak or tri-trip with Campfire Mushrooms. Another meal maybe grilled chicken and vegetables, or maybe grilled burgers. Sausages also make a great meal, just add some grilled onions with red peppers and put it on a baguette. I always have grilled vegetables of some sort as well as a salad.
Dessert and Snacks: Lots of fresh fruit and nuts to snack on. Usually, bring either homemade cookies or maybe homemade marshmallows with the fixings for smores as well as our token creme brulee.
Beverages: We are not juice or soda drinkers, so we bring a lot of water, as well as some lemons and limes to toss in for flavor. A bottle of pre-made ice tea is also nice as well. Coffee and tea for the mornings. As well as beer and wine for later in the day.
Do you like to camp? Have a favorite campfire recipe you’d like to share?
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Campfire Mushrooms
Ingredients:
1 pound brown cremini mushrooms, cleaned and cut into thirds (which are baby portobellos)
1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and cut into thick slices
1/4 pound morels or other wild mushrooms of choice, cleans and ends cut off
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small shallots, minced
3 small sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 lemon, optional,
1/4 cup red or white wine or stock or water
How To:
Start your campfire using wood; the smoky flavor will add depth to your mushroom dish.
Once the coals are ready to put a cooking grate over the top of the fire.
Set a large frying pan that can handle the heat on top.
Add the olive oil and butter; stir until melted.
Add the shallots, stir, and cook for a minute.
Add the garlic and rosemary, stir.
Add the brown cremini mushrooms, stir and cook for about 3-5 minutes, until slightly soft. Cooking time will depend on how hot the fire is.
Add the shiitake mushrooms, stir and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
Add the lemon juice if using, stir and cook for a minute.
Add the wine, stock, or water and cook down for about 5 minutes.
Stir in morels or other tender wild mushrooms, and lightly heat for 3 minutes.
Serve over grilled steaks or chicken.
Wonderful! I love campfire cookouts!
Those mushrooms look amazing, and I am a sucker for photos with steam and flames in them! So impressed by your approach to camping fare that it *almost* makes me want to go camping. 🙂 xx
So, I do not camp anymore. But I would totally go with you guys if this kind of food was on the menu! I’m obsessed with mushrooms these days. I made Momofuku’s miso butter last week and am in love!
I have to admit I am not a fan of camping, but with you guys that would change for certain. Your meals sound wonderful!
Cookin’ Canuck and I would love if you linked up this recipe & any 2 other side dishes in this weeks Get Grillin’ event posted on both of our blogs.
And why is it that people assume when you camp you must eat terrible food?! Terrible assumption, because camping should mean eating wonderful food, like these mushrooms. You have the open flame to cook wonderful things on! Those asparagus look heavenly too!
I’ve never seen anyone make camping look appetizing before. Beautifully prepared food and great photos.
Gorgeous! Scrummy! I miss the beautiful outdoors of California! California camping with this MEAL of MUSHROOMS and those ASPARAGUS and TRI-TIP!!! A dream.
These look so great! Although I do more overnight backpacking than car camping, I definitely agree that you can still eat well if you plan ahead of time.
Try these campfire grilled bananas – They are my fave 🙂
http://www.ilovenesting.com/?p=791
I think we need to go camping together! We love getting into the outdoors, but we also don’t compromise when it comes to food. Case in point: last time we went camping, I brought homemade brioche buns. Mushrooms are Matt’s favorite food, so this should definitely make an appearance at our next camping trip.
You sound like avid campers and someone to learn from as we may be doing a lot of camping and traveling to Maine and around Minnesota
Wow I really love your post. Me and my co-blogger / roommate were just talking about how we miss camping and are planning a trip for this summer. We always get super into our campfire cookery, although your three day menu definitely wins. I love mushrooms and cooking them over an open fire sounds perfect. Thanks so much for sharing this great post!
What’s up with Captain Cranky Pants?
This may sound weird… but I love the frying pan you used for these mushrooms! Rustic and tough, it looks like some of the best meals would come off of that thing, be it camping food or not!
I can’t wait for the next post on how to pack for the whole shebang! Great post!
This is my kind of camping!!! Full of good food! The mushrooms look incredible!
Man, if only we came up a day earlier, we might have had a *real* camp dinner and some of those gorgeous mushrooms! Snow or not, we had a great time, it’s definitely a tale to share over and over again 🙂
because the poster didn’t bother to link to the actual recipe: http://mushroominfo.com/campfire-mushrooms/
I cant fine you camp fire mushrooms recipe. What for herbs and spices do you use. I love cooking with mushrooms And I love camping. I have used foil on the grill. But I have just brought a basket to put over the fire. And my friend cooks all the time with cast iron. But we don’t all ways get to camp together. Is that thyme in your fried mushrooms.
Here Carol – here is the link for the recipe it is a favorite for us when camping as it is not only good but easy to make. Great on burgers as well.
Why do you post a picture of campfire mushrooms and you can’t put the recipe with it. I have tried for hours trying to get the recipe for it.
Hello Joan! That is a great question. The answer is that the recipe was created for a client and I linked to it on their site. Unfortunately, they changed their site and did not let me know. I just added the recipe back to my site and now you do not have to go anywhere but Chez Us to get it!