Campfire Goulash

It's fall and that means it's time for comfort food.  There is little more comforting when the weather cools down than hearty soups and stews.  Goulash or Beef Tomato Macaroni Soup is a classic.  Most everyone may have their own recipe, but we hope you will give ours a try.  Our recipe has evolved over the years and ended up with this version being the "keeper"  Especially on our Pappy's Campfire Cooker.  Wood-fired Goulash is on a whole other level!!  This recipe makes a very large pot, but even that didn't last long around here, it was devoured! 

Seriously, do you not want to dive in head first into that bowl of awesome?  I'm writing this post after we've eaten it all, so I'm a bit sad right now, sniff.  Well let's get to it!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 lbs. ground beef
• 1/2 cup fresh diced onions or 2 TB dried minced onions
• 3 tsp minced garlic
• 2 - 32 oz cartons beef broth
• 2- 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• ½ cup ketchup
• 4 TB Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp Oregano or Italian seasoning
• 2 cups dry macaroni
• 1 TB whole grain garlic mustard (we use the Private Selection brand from Kroger)
• 2 TB Paprika 
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Cheese for topping, Parsley for garnish if desired.

DIRECTIONS:

1.  If you have followed this blog and own a Pappy's Campfire Cooker... you know the drill.  Light your fire and attach the Kettle Hook.
2. In large Dutch Oven or Cast Iron Stock Pot, brown the ground beef, and garlic until beef is cooked through, drain grease.
3. Add all other ingredients, except for dry macaroni. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes
4. Add the dry macaroni and let cook for 12-15 minutes until al dente. Top with cheese & parsley, if desired.

This is SO simple and even more delicious, give it a try on your Pappy's Campfire Cooker today!  Don't own one?  Get yours here:  http://pappyscampfirecooker.com/

Pesto Steak Kabobs

It was absolutely gorgeous outside yesterday!  Mid 70's, sunshine, and a beautiful light breeze.  So it was a perfect kabob day!  Boy do I have lots of kabob variations, but this one I'm sharing with you today is one of our favorites... Pesto Steak Kabobs.

These babies are full of flavor, with simple ingredients, and with the incredible wood fire taste from the Pappy's Campfire Cooker, pair it with Parmesan Garlic Orzo, how can you go wrong? 

INGREDIENTS:

Pesto Steak Kabobs

1 1/4 lbs. of Top Sirloin

1 Large Vidalia Onions

1/2 cup refrigerated Pesto

PREP:  

 

Cut steak into large chunks and place into a ziploc bag, and pour in Pesto.  Remove all of the air, zip up, and let marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour..  If you are taking this camping, prepare the night before and just throw the bag into your cooler.  

Chop the onion into large chunks, set aside.

Start your Pappy's Campfire Cooker if you haven't already!

Allow the cooker to heat up to where a drop of water will skip across the Cooker when dropped on it.

After marinating, take the steak and onion and push them onto skewers by alternating them.

 

Place Skewers onto the large grill plate and cook for approximately 2 minutes per side (4 sides, app. 8 min for medium well).  Remove from the Cooker, place on a bed of the Parmesan Garlic Orzo and serve.

Parmesan Garlic Orzo

(recipe from All Recipes modified for the cooker)

1 cup Orzo pasta 

1/4 cup butter

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/4 Parmesan Cheese

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

salt & pepper to taste

PREP:

Attach the kettle hook and hang a small dutch oven
Fill 2/3 full of lightly salted water and bring to a boil. Cook orzo in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, about 11 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Melt butter in dutch oven; cook and stir garlic in melted butter until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir orzo into garlic mixture and mix in Parmesan cheese, milk, parsley, salt, and black pepper.

We hope you will try this recipe and tag us on Facebook!

Do you have a recipe you have created on your Pappy's Campfire Cooker and you would like to share?  Email it to us at sales@pappyscampfirecooker.com and we will write about it.

Have a great day, enjoy the weather, and Get Smokin'!

Pulled Pork Three Ways

Hey ya'll!  I don't know about you, but it seems like Summer just started and it's already coming to a close!  We had SO much rain up here in the Midwest, it really put a damper (haha!) on our Summer cooking this year.  As much as I love Summer, I am hoping for a much drier fall so we can eat wood-fired dishes 'til the snow falls!  Truth be told, we still woodfire cook when there's snow too!

It was GORGEOUS the last 2 weekends, especially today.  I almost didn't want to have to come in a make this blog post!  Weather like this, or any weather at all, calls for some tender Pulled Pork.  Everytime we make pulled pork, we make something different.  So, let's explore some things you can do with a big batch of scrumptious meat!

Just like with our Pork Carnitas recipe, we start with slow roasting a pork shoulder or pork butt.  You can learn how to do that by clicking HERE.  Just leave out the orange, cumin, and oregano, and do not make the Carnita sauce.  After you have roasted your pork according to the recipe, pull it apart with 2 forks or tongs and drench in your favorite bottled or homemade BBQ sauce.  Now we have BBQ Pulled Pork

The men and boys in this house love to just take the BBQ Pulled Pork, throw it on a big ol' bun with some provolone or swiss cheese and a pickle and call it a day

Sometimes, they enjoy making BBQ nachos by topping tortillas chips with the BBQ Pulled Pork, shredded cheese, and diced green onions.

We also have a family member that has a gluten allergy and this creation we found at SkinnyMom is a perfect sub for a BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich by stuffing a Sweet Potato with the carnivorous creation and slathering in (gluten free) sauce

Well, that's all for today.  We hope you have enjoyed seeing some new takes on creating unique dishes out of good ol' wood fire cooked Pulled Pork.

Do you have a recipe you have created on your Pappy's Campfire Cooker and you would like to share?  Email it to us at sales@pappyscampfirecooker.com

Have a great day, enjoy the weather, and Get Smokin'!

Savory Pork Carnitas

This weekend was BEAUTIFUL!  It was a unanimous vote to have Pork Carnitas for Sunday dinner.  This recipe can see a bit laborious, but the extra steps are totally worth it!  There are 2 ways or scenarios to prepare Pork Carnitas.  I prefer the slow cooker then the final braise on the Pappy's Campfire Cooker.  When we are eating these right here at home, it's simple.  We slow cook the pork, shred it, then take the steps to finish the meal on the Cooker.  If we are going camping and want to take these with us.  We slow cook the pork, shred it, bag it in ziploc bags and throw it in the fridge the night before.  Once you are at the campsite you can easily toss your Carnita mixture into a dutch oven and onto the Cooker it goes.  Let's get started with my process for how I made this incredible pot of meat fit for the carnivore at heart!

Look at that juicy, smoky shredded pork!

Here's how it's done.

INGREDIENTS

5 lb pork shoulder, bone in, skin cut off.  (app 4 lbs. boneless)

1 onion cut into quarters

1 TB sea salt

1 tsp black pepper

4 cloves of garlic

Juice of 1 orange

1 TB dried Cumin

1 TB dried Oregano

1 TB dried Onion Powder

plus - 3 tsp each Cumin and Chili Powder for the reduction sauce.

1.Rinse and dry the pork shoulder, rub in salt and pepper

2.  Combine 1 TB of the Cumin, Onion Powder, and Oregan and rub into pork

3.  Place the pork in a slow cooker (fat up), top with the onion, minced garlic and squeeze over the juice of the orange.

4.  Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 6 hours

5.  The meat should be tender and falling off the bone. Remove from the slow cooker and let cool slightly. Then shred the pork using two forks.

6.  Skim off the fat from the juices remaining in the slow cooker and discard the fat.

7.  Pour all of the remaining juices into a pot, add in the other 1 TB of dried Cumin and 1 TB of Chili Powder and reduce down slightly.

8.  Place shredded pork in Cast Iron Dutch Oven and pour juice over meat mixture.  Stir and place over the fire on the Pappy's Campfire Cooker.

9.  Allow the juices to simmer, continuing to turn the meat as it browns and crisps.  Approximately 30-45 min depending on flame and temperature.

Serve in tortillas or over rice, squeeze with fresh lime, top tomatoes, onions, & guacamole or toppings of your choice!  And enjoy!

Creamy Chicken & Rice Soup

As the weather continues to cool off here, we are warming up by making LOTS and lots of soups and stews.  This is just the first of many to share with you over the coming weeks.  Our Creamy Chicken & Rice soup is just the ultimate in comfort food.  The flavor profile is simple, yet incredibly appealing.  We hope that you will try this on your cooker and share your photos & experience.

 

Hopefully by now, you know the drill... get the Pappy's Campfire Cooker fired up and ready for action.   Our recipe serves an Army :)

 

Here is what you will need:

• Either 3 cooked chicken breasts or 3-4 cups of shredded chicken (from a rotisserie or baked chicken)  We roasted 2 chickens in the dutch oven over the cooker, we ate one and then the next day tore apart the 2nd chicken for this soup.
• 6 cups of chicken broth (enough to cover all of your ingredients for simmering)
• 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 medium onion
• (OPTIONAL) 3 medium potatoes diced - we added these because we had them leftover from when we roasted our chickens with the potatoes.
• 1 package Long Grain & Wild Rice with seasoning packet OR to make this recipe Gluten Free, any brand of unseasoned Long Grain & Wild Rice and add the following seasonings:  1 tsp Garlic Powder, 1 tsp Onion Powder, 1/4 teaspoon marjoram, 1/4 teaspoon thyme.
• 4 TB butter
• 2 cups of Heavy Cream or Half & Half 
• 1/4 cup cornstarch or other thickener of your choice.

Instructions:

We made this at home but if you were camping, you could easily place Chicken, Carrots, Onion, Optional Potatoes, and Chicken broth in a zip bag or tight fitting container.  The other items would also pack well and you could toss this all together on your campsite. 

• Put your dutch over the flame of your cooker.  
• Add butter and let it melt.  
• Once butter has melted, place chicken, carrots, onion, potatoes if you have them down into the dutch over and cover with chicken broth.  
• Allow the soup to simmer until the carrots are soft and the rice is cooked through.  This can take as little or as long of a time as you would like depending upon the flame you have going.  We chose a slow roast and left ours simmer for about 4 overs of low to medium flame.  
• In the last 30 minutes of cooking, mix cornstarch into COLD Heavy Cream or Half and Half until dissolved and pour into the dutch oven.  The soup will start to thicken and become very creamy.  Serve with warm bread of your choice or none at all in our Gluten Free case, trust me it's good enough to eat all by itself!

Autumn Apple Crisp

Today was cloudy and very blustery but that doesn't mean you can't have a hot & delicious tin foil dessert right over the fire AND if you want to go inside and stay warm while your dessert cooks up, you can!  How do we make this delicious, amazing Autumn delight?

Hopefully by now, you know the drill... get the Pappy's Campfire Cooker fired up and ready for action.   Our recipe serves 4.

Here is what you will need...

• 4 medium chopped apples- we prefer Granny Smith, but any is fine
• ⅓ cup oats
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ⅓ cup softened butter
• ½ cup flour, we used a Gluten Free blend for ours
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp sugar
• aluminum foil

 Instructions:

• In a medium bowl, add brown sugar, flour, oats, and softened butter.  Mix with fork until the mixture starts to form small clumps.
• Add chopped apples, cinnamon, and sugar to the mixture
• Take 4 pieces of aluminum foil about 12" in width and spoon 1/4 of the mixture into the center each of the 4 pieces of foil.  Fold sides over, then fold the ends up and pinch.
• Place each packet right on the grill plate and cook for 10-15 minutes on each side.
• When finished, open up and enjoy right out of the foil, or plate it up and add some ice cream for a la mode and Enjoy!!

Strawberry Shrimp Salad

This is a recipe we could have made over and over again this past Summer.  We are slipping it on here since the weather has been so beautiful and there are still strawberries on the shelves at the market.  We think you will enjoy one last taste of summer either as a main dish or as a delicious side!

Strawberry Shrimp Salad

serves 4

Ingredients:

4 cups Mixed Baby Greens (can include spinach)

2 cups fresh Strawberries

2 ounces feta cheese

4 TB pecans

1/4 - 1/3 sliced red onion

1 lb of fresh shrimp

1 TB Old Bay Seasoning

Dressing:

2 TB Balsamic Vinegar (we used a delicious Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar)

1 TB Honey Dijon

1 TB quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil

pinch of salt and pepper

PREP:

Start your Pappy's Campfire Cooker if you haven't already!

Allow the cooker to heat up to where a drop of water will skip across the Cooker when dropped on it.

Prepare your salad by layering chopped strawberries, feta, red onion slices, and pecans atop the baby greens, mix and divide onto 4 salad plates.

Make dressing by whisking together all of the ingredients

Season fresh shrimp with Old Bay Seasoning and put onto skewers.  Grill shrimp right on the Grill Plate until it is no longer gray in color.  Make sure to remove the shrimp the second it is done so that it does not become rubbery in texture.

Place piping hot shrimp on top of your prepared salad and drizzle with dressing.

Eat it up!!  It's so good!