Brunch. One must have at least one brunch while camping.
That is one of my rules.
That means hopefully that you let yourself sleep in. Then
get up slowly. Make coffee. Then leisurely go about making a meal.
Eggs. Definitely. Veggies. Of course. And some cheese in
there of some sort.
This trip, I decided a frittata would be just the thing. If
you’ve never made a frittata, it’s the easiest thing. It’s rather like an
omelet but easier.
You start with eggs, whipped up with a little water, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then you need to decide what to put in the frittata. I scrounged through my cooler
and came up with red onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, a little spinach and some
feta cheese.
First I sautéed all the veggies, then I poured in the eggs
and topped it off with the feta. The first stage of cooking a frittata is the
lightly cooking the eggs (and additional ingredients)) gently on the stove top.
For about 5 minutes. At home, that would be the signal for me to slide it into
a heated oven for another x minutes. But
it was camping, so I slid it on top of a grate over glowing coals. And topped it with some foil so this would
“bake.”
That brings up mention of the most important item I always
bring on a camping trip—a cast iron skillet. No problem to go from stove top to
the campfire.
But my frittata wasn’t going to be happy alone, so I cubed
potatoes and sautéed them with some rosemary oil and onions on the stove. Then I transferred them to an old square metal
baking pan to finish their cooking covered with foil (over the wood fire) while I started on the
frittata.
How long you leave things over a burned down wood fire, depends on how hot
your fire is, and how far away your grate is from the fire. You want them, of course, roasting, not
burning.
To top off my frittata, while it was roasting over the coals, I reduced some balsamic vinaigrette—that means gently cook it down until
it thickens and sweetens. This I
drizzled over the finished frittata.
This I had to accompany with
a mimosa. Cranberry juice and champagne. I brought along champagne splits—small
bottles of champagne such as Korbel sells.
And then to taste.
The verdict? The frittata was
very good. A little smoky flavored added to the whole palate. And the roasted
rosemary potatoes? Fantastic. Or foodgasmic, as I would say.
Now time for a bike ride, need to work off that delicious brunch!
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