Little Avryl Tan, six, stirring up some spaghetti bolognese with minced meat and parmesan cheese on a camp stove’s griddle by the sea under the guidance of the writer.
When you really think about it, cooking setups at camp are really low, usually just knee high.
This presents a special chance for young children, because when you are cooking at camp, you will do it at their level.
Foldable camp chairs and tables are low to keep them compact when folded for easy storage and transport.
Home kitchens, conversely, are waist-high for adults and are therefore out of reach of children.
So when you are cooking at camp, involve the kids.
Little Avryl Tan, six, stirring up some spaghetti bolognese with minced meat and parmesan cheese on a camp stove’s griddle by the sea under the guidance of the writer.
Knowing how to cook is not just a neat skill but it is also a money-saving habit, since we spend less when we whip up our own meals.
At their age, young children quickly internalise what they learn, and when they take part in camp-cooking, the experience and basic skills they acquire will lodge into their minds deeply.
Guide children even as young as five to take part in the stirring, mixing or adding of ingredients and so on to give them a share of critical tasks at camp.
Cooking with kids? Cut up all the condiments and ready them in containers for your junior chef to use.
To involve young children, think baby steps and reduce the risk of bloopers and blunders that will give the kids a negative experience.
For example, take the frying of eggs.
While you might have cracked open thousands of eggs in your lifetime, this actually takes fine motor skills with a measured application of finger strength plus an appreciation of the fragility of egg shells.
A young kid, doing it for the first time, might crush the eggshell into tens of pieces and then feel the agony of defeat when you have to help fish out the little shell bits.
What you can do is crack the egg into a bowl for the kid with he or she sitting beside you and watching the process, and then direct the kid to gingerly pour the egg into the griddle or non-stick frying pan.
Avryl adding a swirl of water and tomato puree into a pot of minestrone soup.
The objective is for the kid to see the marvel of a raw egg transforming in the heat into a delicious white-and-yellow sunny side-up (almost every kid in the world loves fried eggs).
Remember the saying: “I hear and I know. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
The other thing to be mindful of is the all-important knife.
Would you arm a five-year-old with a knife at camp? No, don’t answer that.
Just cut the vegetables, meats, sausages and what-have-you, then neatly array the condiments in containers and only involve your junior chef in pouring and stirring the food. No need to let young children wield knives at camp, which are usually far away from clinics and hospitals.
Recipe-wise, hardly anybody prepares complex meals at camp anyway, and this is yet another wonderful scenario for kids.
Angel hair spaghetti in ready-made carbonara sauce with a quarter of a cabbage finely chopped and some minced meat.
Pick a large camp stove with a stable pot stand that will resist being knocked over when cooking with kids at camp.
Fettuccine served with canned tomato puree enhanced with a cube of chicken stock plus diced potatoes and beaten eggs slowly dribbled into the pot at the end over low heat.
A minestrone soup full of chopped vegetables and nice, fat boiled macaroni.
Cute meals like these are what young kids love.
For those who have difficulty bringing frozen meats to camp, just used diced, canned meat and the kids will love it even more.
If your children detest eating vegetables, you might be surprised to see them dutifully eating the greens they took part in cooking, since they will develop a sense of responsibility and ownership of the meal.
Cooking at camp with your young kids will cement a bond among all of you more deeply than whatever you do at home with them.
They will understand the importance of the hour, since you are all in the woods with nary a shop nearby.
When the meal is ready for their hungry tummies, it is a veritable achievement for them, on top of the prideful glow of having teamed up with their parents to get the job done.
Remember not to scold or grumble or criticise; go down to their level, even giving them the chance to colour the final outcome with their own creative inputs. (It will be cooked and edible, even if it might look a little messy.)
