Camp kitchen for families: cooking outdoors safely

Dinner is the centre of a camping night, and also where small accidents happen: a hot grill near a running child, a lantern too close to the tent, chicken left in the sun. You don’t need expensive equipment to create a safe and practical camp kitchen. You need a layout, a few rules and a place for everything. This guide is for families cooking on a grill or small stove for one or two nights.

Where you are allowed to cook

Check the spot first. Managed campsites usually give you a place: at Hatta Wadi Hub every plot has a fire pit and a private barbecue area, and you bring your own cooking equipment. In open desert, Khaleej Times advises designated fire pits or sand-filled areas for barbecues. At Al Qudra Lake the rules have changed over the years; in 2018 the municipality told Gulf News that a barbecue in a stand is acceptable, while a fire made directly on the sand can be fined 500 AED or more. Read the signs wherever you are. For the rules by emirate, see Where can you camp in the UAE?

Lay out the kitchen in three zones

• Hot zone: the grill or stove, on flat sand or a stable surface, downwind of the tent and the chairs. Adults only.
• Work zone: a table for chopping, plates and serving. Children can help here.
• Cool zone: the cool box, in the shade, lid closed.

Keep the hot zone well away from the tent and downwind of it, so sparks and smoke blow away from where you sleep. Leave a few steps between it and where children play, marked with something visible in the dark, such as a line of stones.

Fire and heat: the rules that matter

Gulf News and Visit Ras Al Khaimah list the basic fire rules for UAE campers. Read them aloud to the whole family before the first trip:

• Never use a barbecue or coal burner inside a tent. Burning charcoal gives off carbon monoxide, a gas you cannot see or smell.
• No candles or lighters inside the tent.
• Keep lanterns at least 50 cm from the tent.
• Store firewood at least 4.5 metres from tents.
• Keep the campfire at least 9 metres from tents and anything flammable (Abu Dhabi Civil Defence).
• Keep a fire extinguisher nearby.
• Never leave a fire or grill unattended, and put it out fully before you sleep or leave.

Alongside the extinguisher, keep a fire blanket and a full water container within reach of the hot zone. Water or sand poured over the coals and stirred puts a fire out properly.

Keep food safe without a fridge

Heat is the main problem for food at camp, even in winter. A few plain habits cover most of it:

• Cook meat through, especially chicken, burgers, kofta and sausages. Check the middle with a head torch, not by the colour of the outside.
• Keep raw meat, dairy and salads in the cool box until you cook or serve them.
• Do not leave cooked food or salads standing out in the heat: put leftovers back in the cool box or throw them away.
• Put food in the cool box only when it is already cold, with plenty of ice blocks.
• Freeze water bottles at home and use them as ice; they become drinking water later.
• Pack raw meat in sealed boxes at the bottom of the cool box, away from fruit and bread.
• Marinate at home, so there is less handling of raw meat at camp.
• Use one chopping board for raw meat and another for everything else.
• Open the cool box as little as possible, and keep it out of the sun and the car boot.
• Wash hands before cooking, with a bottle of water and soap kept for this alone.

A place for every tool

Much camp-kitchen chaos is not cooking but searching: for the tongs, the salt, the knife, in the dark. The Camp Galley Deluxe is a structured hanging cupboard made for a family of four. It hangs from a roof rack or anything nearby, with zipped pockets for spices, tools and utensils, sleeves for chopping boards and plates, and a paper towel holder. The Chef Roll is smaller, with four zipped pockets for tongs, utensils and spices, and rolls up for the drive home. The Spill-Ender holds a roll of paper towels, covers it and clips to almost anything, so it does not roll into the sand.

A table makes the work zone. The Rad-Arondack Table is a sturdy side table for plates, drinks and anything that could spill. If you like to pack the car by category, the Car-Go-Box has three colour-coded storage pods in a folding case: food, kitchen, everything else.

Rubbish: everything goes home

There are usually no bins in the desert. Under Federal Law No. 12 of 2018, dumping, burning or burying waste outside designated places can cost an individual up to 30,000 AED, the maximum fine. Plan for rubbish before you leave. The Litter G’tter is a durable, spill-resistant carrier that keeps rubbish and recycling apart at camp. The Trash Pak mounts on the outside of most cars and holds a weekend’s rubbish and recycling, so leaks and smells stay out of the car.

A first-night family menu

• Dinner: chicken or kofta marinated at home, flatbread, a ready salad, hummus.
• For the fire: corn on the cob, marshmallows for the children.
• Breakfast: eggs or labneh, bread, fruit, tea or coffee from a flask.
• Snacks: nuts, dates, biscuits the children already like.
• Water: more than you think, for drinking, cooking and washing hands.