Northern Michigan executive chef Alden Griffus creates a fireside dinner using whitefish. Griffus helped lead a Northern Now webinar on Wednesday featuring campfire cooking. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

MARQUETTE — Cooking by a campfire doesn’t come with all the amenities of a well-furnished indoor kitchen — but it wouldn’t be as fun if it did.

However, sometimes campfire treats beyond roasted marshmallows, s’mores and freeze-dried foods are desired. To help campers create alternative dishes, “Campfire Cooking” was the topic of the Wednesday segment of the Northern Now digital series for Northern Michigan University alumni.

Demonstrating the dishes in the NMU kitchen for the webinar were NMU executive chef Alden Griffus and hospitality management student Trixie Maguran Jacobson.

“This is one of my favorite things to do as a chef,” Griffus said.

Specifically, that means having people think about familiar dishes a little differently.

Take Griffus’ fireside dinner featuring whitefish from Thill’s Fish House in Marquette.

The only equipment needed was tin foil, although the dish calls for four fillets of whitefish or trout, 2 cups of thinly sliced Yukon Gold potatoes, 1 cup of thinly sliced parsnips, 1 large thinly sliced onion, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of a favorite fish seasoning, a half-teaspoon of garlic power, a teaspoon of paprika, a quarter-teaspoon of dried dill and a lemon cut into thin slices.

“This is also a really great recipe to use when you are out fishing and you want to do something really great with your fish,” said Griffus, who recommended that a fire should be going long enough to provide a good bed of coals.

She also recommended potatoes be thinly sliced.

“We want to be sure our potatoes cook in the same amount of time as the rest of our dish,” Griffus said. “Sometimes, if you’re not careful, your potatoes will take a lot longer.”

She also uses parsnips in the recipe.

“To me, they’re like carrot candy,” Griffus said. “They’re sweet, aromatic, and they go great with fish.”

Tin foil pieces, about 2 feet long each, are brushed with oil and then placed on a flat surface. The potatoes are layered, followed by the parsnips and the onion. The fish fillets then are placed on top of the vegetables. The fish is seasoned, with two or three lemon slices placed on top of each fillet, and then drizzled with olive oil.

The foil packs are sealed tightly by folding the long side up the middle and rolling the foil together to create a top seam. Each side is rolled side up to create side seams.

At a campfire, the packs are added to hot coals and cooked for 20 to 25 minutes, although that time can vary depending on the coals’ temperature, thickness of the vegetables, outside temperature, the number of foil packs on the coals and other variables.

Jacobson demonstrated stuffed bell peppers using lion’s mane mushrooms.

“Leaving no trace,” she stressed, is an important part of the recipes.

“As an avid hiker throughout the trails of Michigan, you always take out what you bring in, and this goes right into your meals as well,” Jacobson said.

She had another suggestion considering the pepper dish contains a wild element.

“Wild mushrooms — be warned,” Jacobson said. “Make sure you understand what you are looking for when you are trying to find a wild mushroom.

Make sure you have the understanding of the location, the properties, and you understand how to clean it and dress it when using it in your meal.”

For instance, when using lion’s mane and tight-clustered mushrooms, individuals should peel from the bottom up to look for worms and eggs, she said and mushrooms with those unwanted ingredients should not be used.

Her stuffed bell pepper recipe calls for wild mushrooms, wild rice, a carrot, celery, onion, beans and spices, but she noted that people can use meat, chicken, turkey and even rabbit if they so desire. The peppers can be cooked in a Dutch oven or wrapped in tin foil.

Jacobson also created baked apples while Griffus created pudgy pies and even a drink, a smoked old-fashioned, squeezing an orange into the concoction to release the oils.

Griffus had some parting words of advice for the would-be outdoor chefs.

“I hope that you go out and experiment and have fun with some of these flavors, and it’s always my hope to get you in kitchen and try something new and different,” she said.

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500 ext. 250. Her email is cbleck@miningjournal.net