Dishes to delight campers: The time to cook, dine outdoors approaches

When it finally gets warm enough to hang out in the backyard or pack up and go camping, it's time to maximize the outdoor experience by cooking and dining al fresco.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Although there are backyard barbecues for this kind of thing, cooking over an open fire is more exciting.

If you have a fire going in the firepit anyway, it makes sense to use it to cook your dinner.

Cooking over open flame can be intimidating. The trick, of course, is getting a feel for it.

Anyone who has roasted a marshmallow knows that the best fire for cooking is not a fire at all, but a well established bed of coals, with perhaps a smouldering log or two pushed to one side.

You can pick up heavy-duty foldable grates from outdoor and sporting goods stores to prop up your pans over the flame, or create a buffer between the food and the intense heat of the coals. Some arrange rocks to create a platform.

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Ideally, your firepit will be spacious enough to move things around. Making room on one side to accommodate coals and logs will allow for hotter and cooler sides to move food back and forth between.

Cast iron skillets and pots are sturdy enough to go over the fire or directly into, or on,the hot coals.

While we don't have the same control over the fire as we do in the kitchen, think of it as high-heat roasting.

If you have a cast iron skillet on a grill, it's very similar to cooking on the stovetop; you may not know the exact temperature underneath, but you can see how the food is cooking in your skillet. Move it closer to or further from the heat source accordingly.

Onions and eggplant

If you want to take advantage of a great bed of coals as your fire dwindles down, tuck whole vegetables, such as winter squash, sweet potatoes, onions and eggplant, as is or wrapped in foil. Roast themas the coals and ashes smoulder and cool.

I like to tuck whole onions into the bed of coals once the fire has died downand leave them there until the morning. When they're charred and soft, take them out of the ashes.

When they're cool enough to handle, peel away the blackened skin and use the soft, smoky flesh inside.

Caramelized onions are perfect for topping burgers or to add a smoky base to stews and soup.

Fire-roasted eggplant makes the tastiest start to baba ganoush. Mash it with tahini, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and salt with a fork at your campsiteor in the food processor in your kitchen.

Fire-roasted baba ganoush

Ingredients:

1-2 eggplants

cuptahini,approximately

cup olive oil,approximately

1-2 garlic cloves

Juice of half a lemon

Salt

Preparation:

When you have a nice bed of coals establishedor your fire is dying down, tuck the eggplants whole into the hot coals. Leave them for an hour or so, until blackened on the outside and very soft.

Remove them from the ashes with tongs. When they're cool enough to handle, peel away the blackened skin.

Put the soft flesh into a bowl, or the bowl of a food processor. Mash with a fork or pulseuntil well blended.

Adjusting the salt, tahini, lemon and oil as you like it.

Fire-roasted onion soup

Ingredients:

2-3 onions, roasted in the fire

Canola or olive oil

Butter

Salt and pepper to taste

3-4 cups stock of either beef, chicken, onion, mushroom or vegetable

A few springs of fresh thyme

Slices of crusty French bread or baguette

Grated Gruyre, Emmental, aged Gouda, white cheddar or Parmesan

Preparation:

When the onions are cool enough to handle, peel and slice or chop them. While doing so,heat a pot on the stove or over the firewith a drizzle of oil and a chunk of butter.

Add the onions and cook for a few more minutes. Thenadd some salt, the stock, thyme and pepper and bring to a simmer.

Cook for 10-20 minutesto allow the flavours to meld and the soup to reduce slightly.

When you're ready to serve, toast some bread. I like to butter it, too. Top with some grated cheese and melt over the fire.

Or try placing the bread and cheese on top of individual bowls of soup. Then put the bowlson a baking sheet and run under the broiler for a few minutes.

Serving:Fouror so.

Hear Julie Van Rosendaal'scolumn about camp cooking: