Starling Travel

I usually don’t like watching cooking demonstrations. My idea of camp cooking is opening a can of beans or cooking meat over the fire. Matthew Cashmore is absolutely adorable, so watching him for twelve minutes cooking at a camp kitchen was so entertaining.

Here are the ingredients for the Bacon Curry. All of them are approximate based on what I saw in the video:

• 1/8 cup Olive Oil
• 2 large onions cut up roughly
• 2 garlic cloves chopped or crushed
• 2 stalks of celery sliced
• 3 large tomatoes chopped
• 3 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 6 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 1/2 tsp. chili powder (more recommended)
• 2 vegetable broth cubes
• 1 small zucchini chopped
• 1/2 pound bacon sliced

If I were going to do this while camping, I would chop up the items BEFORE leaving and put the ingredients in a ziploc bag in the cooler before leaving. I’d have the onions and garlic in one bag, and the tomatoes, celery and zucchini in another. I might even replace the tomatoes with a can of tomatoes.

The thought of putting bacon into a curry is unique and it appears that Matthew is really just experimenting. After watching this video I wanted to run to the store to buy a bag of fresh produce and a packet of bacon to try to make this curry. For us Americans, courgettes are zucchini. Not quite as exotic as he made them sound, but YUM!

If you don’t really want to watch this video, just fast forward to the 9:12 minute mark to see how gracefully he handles Pink Helen’s interruption. It just made me smile to see him look at the camera!

If you want to see him taste his creation for the first time, fast forward to the 11:30 minute mark. He deems it not spicy enough because the salt in the bacon toned down the kick of the chili powder, but despite that he likes it. “That’s really good!”

Mike and I made this recipe with beef and it was absolutely delicious. If we ever find ourselves in a pinch and need to use bacon, I’m sure it will be just as good as long as I remember to add more chili powder.

Next time you’re planning your camping menu, skip the cans of chili and try cooking up this bacon curry. It sounds delightful!