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Easy Gourmet Cooking in Foil

June 2002

 

With temperatures soaring into the nineties already, the last thing you want is to heat up the galley or spend time down below washing up pots and pans after dinner. Cooking in foil on your grill (or even over a campfire on shore) is a great solution. Foil packs provide an easy and versatile way to fix individual meals. Various cuts of meat can be combined with vegetables to provide a nutritious no-pot meal cooked over the coals. I hadn’t given foil cooking a thought since my days as a Campfire Girl – until one evening Sandy and Steve invited us over to their sailboat, “Amicitia” for a classic ground beef, potato, and carrot foil dinner cooked on their grill. Many recipes can even be assembled at home before going to your boat. Simply wrap food in a piece of heavy-duty foil. Join the edges and fold them over so that steam cannot escape. This turns the packet into a mini-pressure cooker. Allow room for expansion. Place the foil package on a bed of hot coals and turn it several times during the cooking.  If you want food to brown, leave the package open at the top.

  

Bahamian Snapper - Preheat grill to medium-high. Spray 4 pieces of foil with nonstick cooking spray. Center one fish fillet on each sheet of foil. Combine remaining ingredients and spoon over fish. Salt and Pepper to taste. Seal foil into packets and grill 8 to 10 minutes.

 4      red snapper fillets (4 to 6 oz. each)

1/2   fresh mango, diced

1/2   fresh papaya, diced

1/2   small onion, chopped

2      tablespoons fresh lime juice

2      tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1/2   jalapeno pepper, finely chopped

1/2   teaspoon of Thyme, parsley, cloves

 

Hobo Dinners - Season ground round with Onion Soup Mix and form into thick patties. Place one patty of meat on each square of foil. Add thinly sliced potatoes and carrots, fresh mushrooms, and sliced green, red and yellow peppers and season with salt and pepper. Make little packets with the foil and seal shut. Grill until done.

 

Corn on the Cob - Husk corn and place on a sheet of foil. Butter and sprinkle with seasoned salt and pepper. Place one ice cube on top. Grill 15 to 20 minutes, turning once

 

Banana Boats - Peel back on section of banana peel – Make a slit from end to end in the banana. Insert miniature marshmallows and broken chocolate bar pieces into slit. Replace section of peel. Wrap banana in foil and place on grill for about 15 minutes until chocolate is melted. Yummy!

 

Grilled Bananas Foster - These are fun to make and everyone goes crazy over them. Fold foil square in half. On the bottom half, place 2 T. brown sugar, 1 T. Rum, 2 T. Kahlua, 2 T. butter, and one banana (sliced in rounds). Sprinkle with a pinch of cinnamon. Fold the foil over to form a packet, crimping the open edges to seal. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. The packets can be prepared up to 1 hour ahead and kept at room temperature. Grill for 5 to 7 minutes. Open packets and pour over bowls of ice cream.

 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup rum

1/2 cup Kahlua

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 ripe bananas

Cinnamon

 

How to make Foil Packs for Grilling:

                           

1. To make a foil pack, tear off a piece of heavy-duty foil about three times as long as you want the completed food package to be. Place the food near the center of the foil sheet.  (If the food being used is dry and not apt to furnish its own moisture, you may one to add a tablespoon of water to generate steam.)

 

 2. Bring up foil sides. Double fold top and ends to seal packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. This should now seal all edges of the food package and make it ready to place on the cooking fire.

 

 3. Bake foil packets on a cookie sheet in preheated 450°F oven, or
grill on medium-high in covered grill. For camp fires, the foil pack can either be placed directly on the coals or on grill over the fire. Be careful to make sure the foil is not punctured in handling or cooking. Any leakage in the package will allow the moisture to escape and the food will be burned by heat of the fire.

                      

  4.  After cooking, open end of foil packet first to allow steam to escape. Then open top of foil packet.