If you possess an innate appreciation for the great outdoors, summer—when T-shirt weather extends far into the evening, and packing your cooler becomes the biggest concern of your whole weekend—is the time to camp like you mean it.And while camping typically means living off of beef jerky, Clif bars, and lukewarm beer—with maybe some overcooked eggs thrown in there if you're lucky—there's also the potential to really let your grilling freak flag fly. Just ask Lee Desrosiers of Brooklyn's Achilles Heel, who knows a thing or two about outdoor cooking. He doesn't just prepare delicious food over flames—he literally goes out of the frying pan, and into the fire.
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Behind Achilles Heel is a grill and fire pit that allows him to think outside the box when it comes to making simple, flavorful food that get its heat—literally and figuratively—from a mini inferno. "It's kind of a patio that belongs to our landlord, but we work it out so that we can use it. We just have to take care of his plants," Lee says. "I use it for prep; some days, I'll just grill out here. I don't really have a kitchen at all in the bar, so it always helps to have extra firepower. It's always great to get the flavors of the grill out in the bar."But Lee has had many other forays into cooking on an open fire. "I used to do a farm camp—LBDA Farm Camp, which I'm actually going to do again this summer—with a bunch of kids. It's an art school; the woman who runs it hires a camp chef who cooks meals over fire three times a day. I also lived on a farm for a year in Martha's Vineyard. We did a lot of farm dinners where we'd just light a fire and cook over it."
So when it comes to flames, embers, and limited equipment, he's a good go-to guy. Plus, he has experience in making food that tastes sophisticated enough for a chef's palate, but is so easy to prepare that it could be made by a camp full of hungry kids.For starters, he shows us far toast can go when topped with seasonal produce, fresh herbs, and a nice little pile of deliciously fatty meat.
"The green tomatoes are new," Lee says. "I just got them in a couple days ago. I had a lot of chicken skin, chicken fat, and I love those flavors with green tomato. And usually when you get green tomatoes, they're fried and battered, and I don't have a fryer—I'm not really into that food anyways. I took a very Japanese approach to these tomatoes; I just lightly salted them. It takes a bite out of them a little bit."
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Combine their refreshing tartness with fresh mint and basil, a swipe of garlic, and the fatty richness of schmaltz, and you've got a dish that's super umami and gloriously multifaceted, but one that you can whip up even when hungover and cooking on a campground.
Bonus: No utensils required to chow down.
For his second dish, Lee gets to the meat of things… literally. After all, lamb sausage is the way to any carnivore's heart. And this kind is made from scratch and is extra-juicy.
"I get whole lambs in at Achilles Heel, so I butcher them all from scratch. I have to use every single piece of the animal," Lee explains. "The day that I butcher the animal, I make stock from the bones, and while making stock I also braise the shanks. This is a way of preserving all of those things immediately. Once you cook the shanks, they're good for at least a week or two. They have a lot of flavor and a lot of gelatin.""So toward the end of the week, I have a lot of trim, and I just make sausage out of it—the shanks, the shoulder, and the ground meat. The slow-cooked shanks make it really juicy."
The second part of this equation is spring onions, which you can tie together and throw right in the fire. No, seriously—they cook in the embers, so you get a smoky, deep flavor with minimal effort.
The result: a char that opens their aromatic sweetness and makes them the perfect accompaniment to a spicy sausage. Plus, your camping buddies will think you're a total badass.
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"I've really been enjoying how elemental cooking over fire is, and how close it brings you to the food. It also makes you more creative, because there's less equipment. You simplify a lot of things," says Lee.
Make the braised lamb shanks a day ahead, and keep any extras in your fridge—they'll keep for about a week. Simply take your sausage with you on your outdoor excursion, whether it's to a neighbor's backyard or a clearing in a forest, and don't forget the skewers.
And there you have it: the perfect menu for your next seriously al fresco meal. Pack your coolers, and bring your inner pyro.This article originally appeared on MUNCHIES in June 2016.RECIPE: Lamb Shank Sausage Skewers with Ember-Roasted Spring Onions