Three Square

Dirty Gourmet: uncomplicated, outdoor-friendly recipes from three friends

By Mai-Yan Kwan, Emily Nielson & Aimee Trudeau

Issue 33

Dirty Gourmet

Photos by Dirty Gourmet

Dirty Gourmet is a camp recipe partnership of three friends, Mai-Yan Kwan, Emily Nielson, and Aimee Trudeau. Their dishes are uncomplicated, outdoor-friendly versions of their favorite recipes from home. Their cookbook, Plant Power, features all plant-based camp recipes. We’re featuring recipes from Plant Power and profiling a different member of the Dirty Gourmet team in each of the next three issues. First up: Mai-Yan Kwan

Mai-Yan Kwan

Mai-Yan Kwan grew up in Quebec, Canada, the daughter of French-Canadian and Chinese parents. Her father was a professional chef, so great food has always been part of her life. Camping, however, not so much. “My parents were working class, camping wasn’t really on the radar growing up,” she says. It wasn’t until she moved to Southern California for college that she started heading for the hills, sleeping bag in tow. Once she did, Kwan was hooked.

Years later, Kwan and her friend Aimee Trudeau quit their day jobs to bike tour from their Los Angeles homes to Vancouver, then clear across Canada to Quebec. The seeds of Dirty Gourmet were planted one campsite meal at a time. “After months of camping, you start craving Mom’s homemade food,” Kwan says. So Kwan and Trudeau started figuring out how to translate their favorite dishes into camp-friendly meals that wouldn’t consume their daily budgets. They picked up fresh ingredients on the road and would often share their creations with fellow campers.

In 2009, Kwan, Trudeau, and longtime friend Emily Nielson started the Dirty Gourmet website. At the time, it wasn’t as easy to find great camp recipes online. “We were O.G. in the online camp recipe space,” says Kwan. Their first cookbook, also called Dirty Gourmet, was published by Mountaineers Books in 2018. Today, if she’s not in her home kitchen, you can find Kwan hiking, camping, and cooking in the open spaces of Southern California.

Bitters Sangria Fizz

We followed the pandemic trend of cutting back on our drinking—after we had followed the pandemic trend of drinking more than usual. All of us got into experimenting with nonalcoholic versions of our favorite drinks, which were fun but never quite satisfying. Then Emily shared a New York Times article about mindful drinking and how adding a bitter component to your mocktail makes it more of a slow sipper, which is a lot of what people are looking for in a “drink.” Bitters is an easy-to-find ingredient that will do the trick while also bringing out the flavor of the fresh fruit. —Aimee

Serves 4 to 6 | Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups mixed berries, such as strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries
1 grapefruit or large orange
1 tablespoon bitters
1 tablespoon sugar or agave sweetener
36 to 48 ounces sparkling water

Directions

To section the grapefruit: Thinly slice the top and bottom to form a flat base. Set one base on a flat surface and pare all the skin from top to bottom, attempting to remove as much pith as possible without cutting into the fruit. Then, holding the grapefruit in one hand, slice into each segment along its edges toward the core and remove the flesh without the membrane around it. Repeat the process around the whole fruit. Put the grapefruit slices into the jar.
Squeeze any remaining juice from the fruit into the jar with the grapefruit. Cut any large berries so they’re all about the same size. Add the berries, bitters, and sugar, seal the jar, and gently rotate it to coat all the fruit. Let sit for 30 minutes or up to overnight, allowing the flavors to meld.
When ready to drink, scoop about ½ cup of fruit into a small jar or glass. Add ice and top with 6 to 12 ounces of sparkling water.

Tofu Florentine

Most recipes we develop start with practicality as the first ingredient, but here’s one where fanciness takes priority. Don’t worry—practicality is still the second ingredient, because we’re camping. This is our take on replacing eggs and cheese for breakfast, and it’s a fun fancy one you can pull off even if you have a full day of activities planned and need to get out quick. —Emily

Serves 4 | Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 (16-ounce) block extra-firm tofu, cut into 8 half-inch-thick slabs
6 ounces (about 6 cups) fresh baby spinach
4 English muffins
8 tomato slices
¼ cup plant butter
½ cup plant-based mayo
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
Pinch cayenne
Juice of half a lemon

Directions

At home (or at camp): To make the hollandaise: Pack the butter by itself in a leakproof container. In another leakproof container, mix the mayo, nutritional yeast, Dijon, salt, pepper, and cayenne.
At camp: Melt the butter in a pot set over medium-low heat. Stir in the mayo mixture and heat just until warmed. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside.
Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, fry the tofu until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Season with salt and pepper, place on a plate or work surface, and set aside.
To the same skillet, add a drizzle of oil and then the spinach. Season with salt and pepper, and cook just until wilted, turning with tongs to ensure it all cooks down. If your skillet isn’t big enough to add all the spinach all at once, work in batches. Transfer the spinach to a plate. Add the remaining oil to the skillet and then the English muffin halves, cut side down, and grill until toasted. Set aside.
Assemble the open-faced sandwiches by placing the English muffins cut side up on serving plates. Top each with a slice of tomato and then a slice of tofu. Divide the spinach among the muffins and drizzle with the hollandaise sauce. Serve immediately.

Tofu Florentine closeup — Tofu Florentine

Almost Instant Noodles

This recipe is inspired by Indomie brand mi goreng—instant noodles coated with a super flavorful sticky sauce. These are more like a stir-fried noodle dish than a soupy bowl of ramen. The dish is designed to be a one-pot meal made with almost any quick-cooking vegetables that can be blanched directly in the noodle water. While many different types of noodles would work, our favorite is medium-thin mein or wheat noodles. —Mai-Yan

Tip: Kecap manis is a delicious sweet soy sauce, typical in Indonesian cooking. You can often find it at Indonesian markets or online. If you can’t, one part soy sauce and one part molasses can substitute in a pinch.

Serves 4 | Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 10 to 15 minutes

Ingredients

8 ounces Chinese wheat noodles
1 cup dried sliced shiitake mushrooms
2 heads baby bok choy, washed and quartered lengthwise
1 head broccoli, chopped into bite-size pieces
4 tablespoons neutral oil
6 teaspoon-sized plant-based bouillon cubes
4 teaspoons kecap manis (or 2 teaspoons soy sauce and 2 teaspoons molasses)
4 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
3 stalks green onions, chopped
4 tablespoons fried onions or shallots

Directions

At home (or at camp): Stir together the oil, bouillon, kecap manis (or soy sauce and molasses), chili-garlic sauce, ginger, nutmeg, garlic, and cumin in a leakproof container.
At camp: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and dried mushrooms and cook according to the package instructions. When 2 minutes of cooking time remains on the noodles, add the fresh vegetables to the boiling water and blanch until bright green and tender.
Drain the noodles and vegetables and return them to the pot. Pour the sauce into the pot and mix well so all of the ingredients are coated. Serve garnished with green onions and fried onions or shallots.