On Cooking Outside

Cast Iron Pizza with Mushrooms, Arugula, and Speck

The first crack of the match and my heart starts pounding. I light the paper which ignites the kindling and soon flames crack and dance in the buttery late summer light. I love everything about this process; the methodical build of the fire, waiting for the flames to create coals, tending to the fire while the nearby river and light breeze provides the soundtrack. Finally the food hits the hot coals and I’m deep in the process with nothing else on my mind. The coals become both stove and oven and I wield my tongs to move the gently burning wood around to control the heat as best I can while at the same time recognizing that being a bit out of control is part of the process. 

Cooking over the fire began for me as a playful experiment. On our yearly summer camping trips with my brothers, sister-in-laws, parents and our children (seventeen of us in total) I started to play around with elevating our camp meals using the campfire as my kitchen. Growing up, camping as a kid I loved the typical camp fare, always eager for the night we’d pack potatoes, onions, carrots, and sausage into aluminum foil then roast that right over the coals. I’d pour ketchup all over the top and eat with a giddy smile plastered on my face. As an adult camping, and deep into my love affair with food, I wanted to bring the experience I was creating for people around a table, outside. Could I use the untamed heat of the fire to create the same sort of food I was serving inside? The answer I found was yes, and actually it’s much better. 

Sure there are often charred bits of crust on my fire baked loaves of sourdough and the bottoms of the pans are often crusted in food that got too hot from the coals but there’s a layer of smoke, a primal light ignited and the smell of pine under a table lit by the stars somehow makes the food taste that much better. In fact it’s the embracing of the imperfections that gives me a great release in the process. To allow the natural elements to become part of it, taking fire, wind, and the earth into consideration while I roast, back, and sear. There is something primal about it, an instinctual connection to my ancestors who lived off of the land and evolved dramatically once fire became a part of their lives. 

I’ve spent decades in the food world, always being told that I need this gadget to make my meals better, that this is the precise temperature for baking, to measure, re-measure and then do it again. Precision and perfection are the goal when you’re working in high end restaurants feeding hundreds of people every night. Accuracy and consistency is what is needed when crafting recipes that become a part of the kitchens and lives of people I’ll likely never meet. But around the fire it’s you, nature, and your senses that guide you in the process. As I began serving meals on rickety camp tables that felt like they belonged sitting next to crystal and white linens I learned how to trust myself in partnership with the earth. To trust that instinctual voice that knows how to tame fire, to adjust, readjust and to adapt to what surrounds, to embrace imperfection, a little char and ash on your food and to be present to the process. 

Cooking over a fire doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, I’m certain that you too will find that as you begin the process you’ve known this way of preparing food all along. Some little voice lurking deep within your DNA shrieks, “YES!” at the first spark. First thing you must know about cooking over the fire is that it’s not actually the flames you are after. We should call it cooking over coals and to be more precise we might say, cooking over hardwood coals. Hardwood coals retain their heat for a long time. They are easy to control and give your food color, flavor and a good bit of heat without the blackening smoke that happens when you cook, say a hearty steak, with flames. You can set up a grill grate in the fire and use the flames just as you would your gas stove. Set a cast iron skillet over the dancing fire to sauté, sear, or steam but when you want long, reliably and sustaining heat it’s the coals you’re after. 

Most campsites ask that you use the wood they provide to prevent bringing along with the wood you brought, new pests and creatures that could wreak havoc on the ecosystem where you are camping. Before you bring your own wood to burn check in with the campground where you plan to camp and I also recommend bringing along a large bag of hardwood charcoal. It’s my little cheat for building up a quick, cookable fire. If you don’t have hardwood charcoal on hand you simply will have to wait for your hardwood to burn down enough to provide you with a hefty bed of coals. 

If the pit in which you are building your fire to cook is big enough, give yourself some stations. Leave part of the fire pit as a coal building section so that as some of the coals start to become spent you can quickly move in freshly lit coals without too much drop in temperature. This is particularly important when baking over the fire as you’ll need long, sustained heat. 

Cooking over the fire is a practice and I’d like for you right now to say to yourself that a little char is fine. In fact, I find it quite delicious. If this is new to you know that there will be burnt bits and most likely dinner will take about twice as long as you thought it would and that for me is all part of it. We all love to gather around the fire when we’re outside anyway, might as well create something delicious while we’re there.

Here’s a great recipe for practice elevating your outdoor cooking experience. 

Pizza is a great meal to cook over the fire. I make my pizza dough ahead and then bring it to the campsite. You want the coals to be hot but you may need to move the pan around the fire to make sure the dough cooks all the way through. Make sure the dough isn’t too thick so you can get a blistered crust while the interior cooks through.

With cooking outside you’ll need to trust your instincts over the timing I mention in the recipe. It’s more about looking for the cooking clues than going by the clock - which is part of what I love about it. You have to pay attention and grow in your trust of your own instincts.

Long tongs and heatproof gloves are an essential part of your cooking outside kit. These will especially come in handy when it comes time to flip the dough.

I may be jumping the seasons a bit with the inclusion of mushrooms here but I’m just so excited for the chill in the air and to fill my baskets once again. Pesto would also be lovely here in place of mushrooms as would sausage. Or you could use a cultivated mushroom like shiitake.

Cast Iron Pizza with Mushrooms, Arugula, and Speck

Serves 4

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

8 ounces mixed mushrooms, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced, divided

Sea salt

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 recipe pizza dough (below), rolled out to a rough 10-inch circle

1/3 cup ricotta

3 ounces fresh mozzarella

2 ounces speck

2 cups arugula

1/4 cup roughly chopped basil

Flake salt

 

Set a large cast iron skillet on a grill grate set over coals or low flame. In the cast iron, melt the butter and add the mushrooms. Sauté until deeply caramelized, about 5 to 7 minutes, depending on the heat of your pan, it could take quite a bit longer. Add one of the thinly sliced garlic cloves and a hefty pinch of salt then remove the mushrooms to a platter.

Return the cast iron skillet to the fire and add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan. Get the pan very hot.

Carefully lay in the pizza dough and let sit undisturbed for a couple of minutes until bubbling and a good bit of color forms on the bottom. Use tongs or heat-safe gloves to flip the pizza dough. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the top then add the ricotta by the spoonful all over the surface of the pizza. Continue with the mozzarella, scattering tablespoon size pizza all over. Once the cheese starts to melt add the mushrooms and the speck.

Once that pizza dough is completely cooked through, about 10 minutes, remove to a plate and top with the arugula, basil and flake salt. Feel free to finish with a bit more olive oil.