Camping isn’t something I’ve done much in my life. I’m more of a five star traveler.

That said I do enjoy cooking outside and have done ever since I was a child and spent the summers in my parents garden. Back in those days the fire was made with a few bricks and some wood to burn : sausages were the limit of my culinary skills.

Today I have a garden with a barbecue and a wood burning stove to cook on. I also have a camping stove which doesn’t get as much use as it should.

I’m trying this year to spend more time in the garden and that includes cooking so tonight, rather than spending my time smelling of wood smoke or charcoal, I’m burning bottled fossil fuel.

Paella means frying pan in Valencian (the language of the Alicante, Valencia and Castellón regions of Spain) and the small one I bought with the stove managed to produce a very good meal made with fresh prawns and ham.

Now I just need to add gas to my stock of fuels if I want to keep up this five star cooking…