The Joy of a Camping Stove + Shrimp Tacos

...you don't have to sleep outside to enjoy it!

Last year I bought a single burner camping stove to take on a camping trip with the Body Liberation Outdoor Club (which is now up to 17 chapters + counting —check here to see if there’s a chapter near you!!). I haven’t been camping since, but I’ve used the stove often. Summer is coming soon and while none of us need another thing, I wanted to take a moment to tell you why I think this is a useful piece of outdoor cooking equipment. This is also a way for me to tell you about delicious shrimp tacos I made last week.

Here’s my little stove!

If you’re interested, here’s the post I wrote with all of the info about what I brought camping! It includes a lot of helpful stuff + ideas.

What I brought on a camping trip!

Okay, back to the stove. The one I have is this Eureka one — not sponsored!!! — that I bought from REI. It uses canisters of butane fuel, which you can buy at most grocery stores / big box stores / gas stations /etc.

I like it because it’s compact, comes with its own little carrying case (I like to think of it as a briefcase), and the burner is surprisingly strong.

I often use it during my cooking classes and love being able to mount my phone above it so people can see what’s happening in my pots + pans in real time. But that probably isn’t a reason most people might want a camping stove for home use. I think it’s worth considering for when you want to cook a little something over high heat without heating up/smoking up your kitchen and don’t want to get your grill going.

First, let me be clear: I LOVE GRILLING!! I use my gas grill all of the time. But sometimes it just feels too big and too much. Sometimes I just want to cook some shrimp for shrimp tacos, or make a piece of fish crispy, or get a hard sear on a single steak. These are the times that I set up my camping stove outside and let it rip. I put a skillet, often cast-iron, on top and I’m good to go. When I do this, I feel more comfortable to let my pan get really hot and I’m not worried if what I’m cooking gets a little smoky or gives off a strong aroma. It all just drifts away into my backyard.

I used to swear by putting a skillet directly on my grill, but I find this makes the outside of the skillet pretty gunked up over time. It’s an option, though, especially if you dedicate one cast-iron skillet as your “grill pan'“ (not to be confused with a pan with ridges, a.k.a. a grill pan, which I think is a totally unnecessary thing to own because IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO CLEAN).

Having a pan or a pot on the camping stove is also handy for when you are grilling and want to cook something in a pan alongside (maybe corn kernels or something else that might fall through the grates, or perhaps you want to melt some butter in a little pot to brush on whatever you’re grilling….you get the point).

I hope this is helpful if you (a) own a camping stove and feel like you barely use it and now you might be encouraged to use it more or (b) are interested in having some portability for your cooking or (c) you like hanging out outside but don’t own a grill or don’t want to use a grill all of the time.

Whether or not you cook with a camping stove, I hope you make shrimp tacos soon! Here are the ones I made for me and Grace last week:

I don’t have a formal recipe, but I’ll excited to tell you how I made them:

1. I defrosted some wild frozen shrimp under cold running water, patted them dry, and put them in a bowl. I coated them with olive oil and seasoned them with salt and some of Illyanna Maisonet’s Sazón from Burlap & Barrel (see here — it’s SO GOOD). Then I put a nonstick skillet (a friend recently gifted us this one and I really like it!) on my camping stove and cooked the shrimp in it. You could use cast-iron, too. I turned the shrimp just once so I could make sure they got a nice crispy surface. When they were done (just like 2 minutes a side at the most), I squeezed half a lime over them.

2. I made a quick slaw with shredded red cabbage , shredded green cabbage, and thinly sliced carrot. I added a pinch of salt to the vegetables and scrunched them together with my hands. Then I added the juice from the other half of the lime and a spoonful of sour cream and mixed it all up. So good.

3. I charred some small flour tortillas (obviously you could do corn, but sometimes a flour tortilla is just the thing) over the open flame of the stove and wrapped them in a kitchen towel to steam themselves warm.

4. I piled the slaw and shrimp on the tortillas and topped them with some pickled red onions I had in the refrigerator and I added cilantro leaves and hot sauce to mine. See below for my a recipe for Pickled Red Onions (from Small Victories).

Pickled Red Onions  / Makes 1 pint

• 1 red onion, thinly sliced

• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced 

• 1⁄2 cup [120 ml] white vinegar

• 1/2 cup [120 ml] water

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a pint jar and screw the lid on tightly. Shake until the salt and sugar dissolve. Eat straight away, or store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

This Sunday’s class is going to be a wonderful meal prep class to get us ready for the week ahead. We’re going to make a white bean + fennel salad, a sheet pan full of chicken with roasted peaches + tomatoes, a pot of spinach rice, and batch of baked oatmeal + apple squares. Everything can sit happily in your fridge and serve you for the next few days. I will include ideas for how to mix-and-match the dishes, plus give you some ideas for other simple things you can make or buy to extend the recipes. »» ALL INFO + SIGNUP RIGHT HERE!!! ««

And then next week, I am SO EXCITED!!! about this FREE class with Rahanna Bisseret Martinez. She will be teaching all of us (me included!) a recipe from her brand new book Flavor+Us. »» ALL INFO + SIGNUP HERE!!! ««

I also just posted all of my June classes on my website!!! Such a FUN line-up!

Note that after the final June class (Sunday 6/25), I will be taking a summer break from teaching…so come join us soon!!! Classes will resume in September.

All June class info can be found right here, along with FAQs about classes.

• Sunday June 4th at 2pm EST: Kids Cooking!

• Sunday June 11th at 2p EST: Breakfasts to Freeze

• Friday June 16th at 4p EST: No Judgment with Food Heaven’s Wendy + Jess!

• Sunday June 25th at 2p EST: Summer Picnic Salads

Okay, that’s it for today. Take care ya’ll! xo, Julia