[cjsheps]

Warning - pretentious post from someone who cares way too much about food.

Hi UKB,

As part of my ERASMUS year in Spain, I'm going out climbing all weekend pretty much every weekend (yeah, sucks to be me). One of my hobbies outside of climbing, if that's not too blasphemous, is cooking, and I'm running low on ideas for low-effort cooking / pre-cooking. Would anybody care to throw some ideas out there?

I would suggest the following criteria for cooking out of a van / camping stove etc:
- Ingredients need to keep at least a day
- Should be fairly quick and economical with gas
- Minimal with pans etc
- Good post-climb nutrition.

And for pre-cooking (which is what I do most)
- Needs to keep
- Good post-climb nutrition
- Easy to reheat

To get the ball rolling, I've found some good recipes to be:

Crag cooking
- Menemen / huevos rancheros, with chickpeas thrown in: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1263668/turkish-onepan-eggs-and-peppers-menemen
- The classic red pasta with chorizo, tuna, garlic, onion, veg
- Spaghetti carbonara if I'm feeling fancy

Pre-cooking
- Sweet potato and lentil curry (my no.1): http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lentil-sweet-potato-curry
- Cashew chicken stir fry: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cashew-chicken (with egg noodles, and onions/garlic/soy sauce/broccoli/whatever the hell else I feel like thrown in)
- Any kind of stir fry with mangetout peas, red pepper, seafood/pork and vermicelli noodles

[cheque]

One of my hobbies outside of climbing, if that's not too blasphemous, is cooking

Any time you're up for a climbing trip, let me know.

[abarro81]

Omelettes and wraps with various fillings are both good van food

[JohnM]

Chorizo.

[Fultonius]

We tried to keep a list of minimal cooking/frying van recipes that worked well, unfortunately it's in the van, not here....

Being meat-free is always a god option for longevity - for added protein cans of mackerel/sardines etc. are a good post climb snack (with oatcakes or something).

Quasadillas with black beans, cheese, peppers etc. works well.

Risotto works well - it takes some cooking but only 1 pan.

I always like a hearty chorizo/chickpea stew (pre-cook probably best) with bread/pasta.

I should be in the van tomorrow, so will try to grab the book and see what we wrote.

[rich d]

Basic trangia food, boil in the bag rice with chile, smash and those sealed fridge sausages things.  Mussels (however you like them) always good if you've got access to fresh bread - buy the frozen ones and they'll defrost over the day/next day - depending on the weather. Then the one pan breakfast - bacon , sausages, blackpudding, beans, mushrooms and eggs all done in a pan. You could always go all Ray Mears and make some bannock.

[bigtuboflard]

In no particular order;

Couscous with what ever you can get your hands on (herbs, chopped onion or salad onions, chilli flakes, and squeeze of lemon juice and feta if you can keep it from going off)
Pasta with pesto plus chorizo, or same but with capers, lemon and a tin of salmon
Risotto as said before but with dried wild mushrooms

and on the theme of not being too blasphemous, get your hands on a pocket foraging guide so you can get some wild herbs like oregano, wild garlic rosemary etc. without risking poisoning yourself.

[cjsheps]

Cheers for the tips, all!

and on the theme of not being too blasphemous, get your hands on a pocket foraging guide so you can get some wild herbs like oregano, wild garlic rosemary etc. without risking poisoning yourself.

That's not a bad idea. The amount of good stuff that grows in Spanish climbing sectors is unreal. I was woken up the other day when ripe pomegrantes fell on my tent. Fuck yeah...

[JohnM]

Careful with the stuff that's fertilizing a lot of the good stuff growing in Spanish climbing areas! 

[hamsforlegs]

If you're doing a lot of camping, it's worth getting a small coolbox. With careful packing meat will keep safely for a day, which opens up the option of local steak, sausages etc as well as meatballs/patties/burgers with whatever seasoning and bread is available.

For similar reasons it's worth having a heavyish frying pan if car-camping - takes a while to heat up on a camp stove, but quick to cook your steak/burgers.

Soft fried eggs and crispy bacon/pancetta/chorizo stuff chucked on top of a green salad with lots of sheep or goats cheese, fresh tomatoes etc is delicious as well and also very easy. Even better if you can buy salad in big plastic boxes - don't even need a plate.