I’m a little late to the game, but here goes:
I both backpack and kayak camp, and my approach is very different to both. Obviously when backpacking weight and space are premium. My stove of choice is the Jetboil Mighty Mo. It has incredible simmer control. For pots I use Sea to Summit’s collapsible pots. As even the best freeze-dried food is pretty awful I purchased a dehydrator and a vacuum sealer and make my own backpacking meals. Thanks to “Koreatown, A Cookbook” I have discovered the world of gourmet dried ramen and have been bringing some of that lately.
Kayak camping is akin to car camping in that weight is not an issue although space is. Almost every year my friends and I do two Utah trips, one to the Green River, and one to Lake Powell. First night is steak, then moving on to stews and soups I have made ahead of time. The end of the trip, when the cooler is no longer cold I do a pasta - either tuna pasta with capers, or J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s stovetop mac and cheese, The Food Lab's Ultra-Gooey Stovetop Mac and Cheese Recipe. Besides the Jetboil when kayak camping I have a collapsible grill and a firepan (required in Utah) for grilling. One of my favorite things to make is grilled pizza. I use an inexpensive vegetable grilling pan for that. The following pictures are from a Lake Powell trip.
Mise en place
First side browning
Loading the dough
I use a frying pan to cover the dough and melt the cheese. The next pie is in the green plate. Keeping sand out of food at Lake Powell requires great care.
The finished product.
It got cold the next morning. Visible in this shot is the Jetboil stove, the collapsible pots, folding tables and chairs, and, very important, Platypus wine carriers (from the night before).
I hope this helps!
Added a few atmosphere pics to illustrate why I love kayaking so much. First is on the Green River. We use open boats on it as it is much easier to land on a swift river than a traditional kayak. You can see the ice chest in front of me. Second is Lake Powell.
Just returned from an eight day Catalina kayaking and camping trip. As might be suspected Catalina is incredibly beautiful right now. One can be forgiven for mistaking it for Ireland - except for the cacti and the bison. The first night out I made this, https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/warm-steak-and-potato-salad-recipe-1922069, with some modifications for the circumstances. Cooked potatoes ahead of time and warmed them on the stove while grilling the steak (NY strip from Whole Foods - providentially on sale). Augmented the lettuce with Miner’s lettuce foraged from the site. It is going crazy right now. As the Harbor Reef has, unhappily, gone downhill somewhat I am pretty sure this was the best meal on Catalina that night!
Some landscape porn…
When I saw this post, I thought ‘ooh, I’ve missed this.’ No camping around Tahoe yet. 500 inches of snow!!!
Wow! That is impressive. The scenery as well as the food. Food always tastes so good after a day of hiking/kayaking/swimming/other outdoorsy stuff. But, I’m never a fan of the mornings after. Always too cold and early for me.
We didn’t have any agenda until the last day so lolled about in the tents until the sun came up and it got too hot in the tents. First night was the only dramatic one with wind, surf, and rain. Nothing quite like being warm and dry in a tent while the elements dance a wild reel!
Sounds glorious! Some 20 years ago, Bob had been traveling a whole lot and said we’d do whatever I wanted for my birthday. We camped…in our yard. Granted our “yard” was six acres 