Robinsonkitchen

Goal

• Cooking without usual kitchen utensils
• Learning to value a meal

Information

• Age: 6+
• Number: Randomly
• Terrain: Open. Watch out: burning risk!
• Leaders: 1 (evt. more depending on the number of participants)
• Time: 2-3 hours

Complete menu

In groups a complete and balanced meal will be prepared. The groups could use the necessary ingredients and some tools, but they don't have the usual cooking equipment at their disposal.

Some menu combinations (they are all already been tried once and they really work :-)):

• Carbohydrates: Spaghetti in a paper bag
  Fill a new paper bag with some water and heat above the (camp) fire. When the water is warm enough, you add the spaghetti and cook it. Finally, ad some tomatosauce (ready bought sauce) and curl it thourg the spaghetti.
• Food rich of protein: Egg on a stick
  Carefully insert a shin stick through a raw egg. Hold the egg over the fire. Occassionally you take the egg away from the heat to let it cool down a little bit, otherwise the egg might explode.
• Vegetables: Tomatosauce
  Plus e.g. some canned vegetables or raw carrots
• Dessert: Baked apple
  Hollow out an apple and fill it with raisins, ground hazelnuts and a little bit of cinnamon. Wrap the apple in aluminium foil, place it in the hot ahses and let the apple bake. After about 3 minutes the apple is ready. 

Variants

The spaghetti can be replaced by:

• Egg in a bread
  Make a hole in a (uncutted) bread and pour the raw egg in. Wrap the bread in aluminium foil and place this in the hot ashes until the egg is hard boiled (about 9-10 minutes)
• Egg in a potato
  Pour a raw egg in a hollowed potato, wrap it in alumium foil and place this in the hot ashes.
• Snakebread
  Prepare some breaddough. Wrap the dough around a stick and bake it above the fire. After you remove the baked bread from the stick, you could put a sausage in it.

Other ideas for a meal

Puffed potatoes:
Material:

• Potatoes
• Aluminium foil
• Salt

Take a potato and carve a little cross in the skin of the potato. This will help you to peel the (hot) potato later on. Wrap the potato in aluminium foil and lay it in the hot ashes, not in the flames! After 5 tot 10 minutes the potato will be puffed. You can check this by using a knife. If you can put the knife to the middle of the potato, it is ready. Peel the puffed potato and add a little bit of salt.
Nice and simple.

Variation: Hollow the potato a little bit and fill it with creamchease.

Vegatables with cheasespread:
Material:

• Cheasespread (Monchou you can use the best)
• Potatoes
• Paprika
• Carrots
• Onion
• Tomato
• Unsalted nuts (cashewnuts, walnuts...)
• Aluminium foil
• Coocking pot or bowls

Cut the vegetables. Take a cooking pot (for joint preparation) of a bowl (for individual preparation) and put the cutted vegetables in it. Mix the vegetables with cheasespread and wrap it in aluminium foil. Put it in the hot ashes. After 10 minutes it will be ready. The potatoes will be ready at last.
You can just eat from the foil, this saves you from doing the dishes :-)

Hikebomb:
Material:

• Half a cup of quickly cooking rice (or two potatoes)
• 1 Onion
• Carrots
• Porksteak
• Butter
• Salt and pepper
• Half a cup of water
• Aluminium foil

Chop all ingredients as small as possible (except the water ;-)). Lay it all on a piece of aluminium foil and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Add the water and butter to it and close the foil. Wrap it, for extra security, in a second piece of foil. Lay it in the hot ashes and it will be ready in about half an hour.

Steamingpot:
Material:

• A can without coating
• Potatoes
• Wet vegetables (peas, carrots, beans, etc.)
• Minced meat
• Dry vegetables (paprika, onion, etc.)
• 2 Slices of chease
• Aluminium foil

Chop the vegetables in small pieces. Put the potatoes in the can and add some water to it, the potatoes must be bellow the water. Add the wet vegetables and cover it with the minced meat.  Put the dry vegetables on top of the minced meat. Lay the slices of chease over it. Cover the can with aluminium foil and make two holes in the foil.

How does it work? The water (at the bottom) will start boiling and will cook the potatoes and wet vegetables. The steam from the cooking potatoes and wet vegetables will steam the minced meat and dry vegetables. When the chease is hot enough it will melt and drop down, between all vegetables, meat and potatoes in the can.
The holes in the foil are really necessary, otherwise the steam will blow the foil from the can and ashes can come into your meal.

After about 15 minutes to half an hour diner will be ready.
If it is not possible that you, as a leader, can control all cans to see if it is really ready cooked, you can bake the minced meat in advance. Than you know for sure that the meat isn't raw at the end.

Idea for dessert

Chocobananas:
Material:

• Chocolate (pure)
• Bananas
• Knife
• Spoon
• (Aluminium foil)

Take a banana and make a long carve (through the skin). Break the chocolate in smaller pieces and put these in the opening you just made. Close the banana (as good as possible), you also can wrap it in aluminiumfoil (less ash on your banana). Lay it in the hot ashes, not in the flames! After a while you can put it out of the ashes and you can enjoy a wonderfull chocobanana.

Trappers breakfast

Material:

• Egg
• Orange

This might be the weardest meal you can prepare on a campfire.
Take an orange and cut the top from it. Put the pulp out of the skinn and eat it. Now you take an egg, break it and pour it in the hollow orange. Put the top on it, like a lid, and put two thin twigs through it to hold it. Put the whole in the hot ashes and wait till it is ready. When ready you can eat the egg with help of a spoon. 

Danger

Watch out: A Robinsonkitchen means cooking on an open fire!
Take care that everybody can cook safely and keep extinguishers close.

Pictures and text

• Coverpicture: Mathijs
• Text: with thanks to Peter Boer