I am a keen collector of cookbooks. My collection runs into the
hundreds, and dates back nearly a century. However, I can say with some
degree of confidence that I have never read in any of them that the use
of a camper van is recommended by way of a cooking utensil. Never.
I used to own a camper van just like Alice, so I am on her wave length
(or band width for the younger reader). When she refers to it as “the
ultimate in mobile kitchens” she scores a culinary hole in one with me.
As a camper van girl hers is not the kitchen scattered with a dozen
dirty bowls, a sink full of washing up and four burners and the oven
firing flat out. A camper van kitchen is compact, utilitarian and
compels the chef to cook in a minimalist way. If you saw the size of the
sink inside them, you would understand – it is barely big enough to set
a jelly in.
It stands to reason then that camper tucker is going to have a pretty
easy ride to the table. Like picnics and play away barbecues, she
prepares things in advance to cut out unnecessary fussing when out and
about. Indeed she bravely attempts damper bread cooked on a stick over
an open fire, and suggests dry mixing the ingredients into a plastic bag
at home. Also cakes to be baked at home to bring along too. All such
sensible advice.
Exotica such as grilled corn and sweet potato with lime dressing,
rosemary farinata and Saigon salad rolls are effortlessly put together
like ham and pickle sandwiches and a flask of tea. No prizes for working
out which tastes better.
Alice does operate from inside her house and domestic kitchen too. She
extols the delights of a traditional family Sunday lunch, offering
pleasant twists on the usual fare and arranges the recipes here as
elsewhere into orderly menus to provide a complete and complimentary
meal.
Breakfast , lunch and parties all have their own chapters, and
throughout the book she constantly offers sensible short cuts to avoid
the last minute crush before the food arrives at table, leaving the cook
to enjoy the meal along with others , be it family or friends, few or
many.
So, if you want to make lamb cigars, boozy lollies or learn how to cover
your tracks after a camp fire, Alice’s Cook Book is the one to buy.